How can anyone believe in god when there's so much evil in the world?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I hate when people use other people's tragedies as a doubter talking point. Talk to someone who has really seen some shit about how God shepherded them through something awful, like Larry Nassar victim Rachael Denhollander.

Why didn't god shepherd them to avoid it completely?

What would you do if you were god?

I bet you would do it differently. I know I would.

Wow. God created the world and all that is in it. And you're even wiser than He is. You must be really something. I wish I knew you.

You miss the point.

I would not create eye-burrowing worms, for one example:

https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/01/eye-burrowing-worms-national-t.html

I do not think I am wiser than a true god would be. Yet I would be wise enough to not create these, but they exist. Therefore, there is no god and so "he" did not create anything.

No, I fully get your point. You cannot conceive of a wisdom higher than your own; therefore, there cannot be a being wiser than you. Because you think something is unwise, that makes it categorically unwise. You are the arbiter of whether something you think is unwise is wise. And because you cannot conceive that something you think unwise might be wise to a higher being, you also are the arbiter of the faulty logic that there cannot be a higher being because you yourself cannot conceive of such a being. You made your point quite well.

PP lacks so much imagination that he/she can only think god is the answer to anything not yet understood even though science has answered so much of what we once attributed to god.

[Anonymous]

People believe in god because they want to, not because it makes sense.

[Anonymous]

I would not create eye-burrowing worms, for one example

You are missing a little detail after Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the earth making it harsh against Adam and Eve.

In the beginning, the eye-burrowing worms were useful creatures but after the earth was cursed, it probably mutated into the harmful creature it became. And no, it did not evolve from anything, because mutations do NOT cause one kind of creature, say, a mouse, to change into another, say, a bird. Macro-evolution is bunky-junky science made up from fibs and fabricated nonsense.

Eye-burrowing worms, like viruses and parasites, are part of the curse, but one day God will lift this curse and make things anew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I would not create eye-burrowing worms, for one example

You are missing a little detail after Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the earth making it harsh against Adam and Eve.

In the beginning, the eye-burrowing worms were useful creatures but after the earth was cursed, it probably mutated into the harmful creature it became. And no, it did not evolve from anything, because mutations do NOT cause one kind of creature, say, a mouse, to change into another, say, a bird. Macro-evolution is bunky-junky science made up from fibs and fabricated nonsense.

Eye-burrowing worms, like viruses and parasites, are part of the curse, but one day God will lift this curse and make things anew.

r

Adam and Eve is a story. It’s not factual and if it were, it describes a horrid god who punishes generations of people for the sins that he let the two orignal people he created commit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I would not create eye-burrowing worms, for one example

You are missing a little detail after Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the earth making it harsh against Adam and Eve.

In the beginning, the eye-burrowing worms were useful creatures but after the earth was cursed, it probably mutated into the harmful creature it became. And no, it did not evolve from anything, because mutations do NOT cause one kind of creature, say, a mouse, to change into another, say, a bird. Macro-evolution is bunky-junky science made up from fibs and fabricated nonsense.

Eye-burrowing worms, like viruses and parasites, are part of the curse, but one day God will lift this curse and make things anew.

I suspect pp is one of the atheists who frequents this board to try to make believers look dumb.

[Anonymous]

You can’t have evil without good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because you think something is unwise, that makes it categorically unwise.

Yes, correct. And if what you are saying is "we can't understand", then stop saying you understand.

Or you will have to describe a scenario where eye-burring worms are wise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I would not create eye-burrowing worms, for one example

You are missing a little detail after Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the earth making it harsh against Adam and Eve.

In the beginning, the eye-burrowing worms were useful creatures but after the earth was cursed, it probably mutated into the harmful creature it became. And no, it did not evolve from anything, because mutations do NOT cause one kind of creature, say, a mouse, to change into another, say, a bird. Macro-evolution is bunky-junky science made up from fibs and fabricated nonsense.

Eye-burrowing worms, like viruses and parasites, are part of the curse, but one day God will lift this curse and make things anew.

Ah, the loving god, who assigned curses to people for a sin committed by others millennia before they were born.

You would not do that, if you were god, I bet.

So you need to rethink that. Also, you need a basic biology course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I suspect pp is one of the atheists who frequents this board to try to make believers look dumb.

If sharing opinions, and exchanging with others is "trying to make believers look dumb", what does that say about the your position that simply disagreeing with it makes you look "dumb"?

Remember, that word, "dumb" is your, not mine.

[Anonymous]

Do you think Adam and Eve were the only ones who have sinned? Look at yourself. Bet there's plenty of sin there. The OP asked how could there be a God if there's evil in the world. Evil abounds everywhere, and we are guilty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I would not create eye-burrowing worms, for one example

You are missing a little detail after Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the earth making it harsh against Adam and Eve.

In the beginning, the eye-burrowing worms were useful creatures but after the earth was cursed, it probably mutated into the harmful creature it became. And no, it did not evolve from anything, because mutations do NOT cause one kind of creature, say, a mouse, to change into another, say, a bird. Macro-evolution is bunky-junky science made up from fibs and fabricated nonsense.

Eye-burrowing worms, like viruses and parasites, are part of the curse, but one day God will lift this curse and make things anew.

This PP has it right. If you reject the Biblical worldview, I guess this doesn't make sense. But if you want to answer the OP's question, here it is. The Bible says that the world was created good, and man very good, and God gave the world to man to take care of it. In return, Adam and Eve gave their dominion of it to Satan, who deceived them into believing that if they disobeyed God, they could be like God. So the world then became the province of Satan, because Adam and Eve gave to him what God had given to them. This is why God cursed the world, so that Satan would not inherit a perfect place, but a place of death that the LORD will eventually destroy and recreate. This is why there are eye-burrowing worms, for example. And anything else bad you want to name, because mankind was not satisfied with their relationship to the LORD and chose to do things their own way.

But the good news is that Christ has overcome the world. There will be pain and suffering until He comes again, but we are all accorded the opportunity to be victors through Him. If you reject it, you end up with a nihilistic despair such as the OP seems to have. But that evil is not the LORD's doing, it is ours.

There's a lot of hubris in the OP's question, as though the OP never does anything bad. We all sin. Look into your heart. I've looked into mine, and it's not pretty. We all lie at times. We all are angry at others without cause. All of us at times are unkind. We take things that aren't ours and rationalize it. We use people for selfish ends. You might not chop up babies in a civil war, but that doesn't mean you're always doing good things. You -- all of us -- are part of the evil in the world. Do you want God controlling all of YOUR actions? I bet you don't. Got your eye on someone you want to have sex with just because you think they're hot? I bet you don't want God getting in the way of that. Got some plan to make a little money on the side that might not be perfectly legit? I bet you'd like Him to stay out of that. Got a grudge against someone who made you mad? Yeah, let God stay out of that and let you do what you want to get even. We all do the same thing Adam and Eve did; we all in effect tell God that this is our life and we'll live it how we want.

If you're rejecting God because there's evil in the world, you haven't examined your life. Better to blame God and say He can't exist that admit you're not as great as you think you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Adam and Eve were the only ones who have sinned? Look at yourself. Bet there's plenty of sin there. The OP asked how could there be a God if there's evil in the world. Evil abounds everywhere, and we are guilty.

Speak for yourself please.

Anonymous wrote:This PP has it right. If you reject the Biblical worldview, I guess this doesn't make sense. But if you want to answer the OP's question, here it is. The Bible says that the world was created good.... (more typing, then some accusations and blaming which are untrue) ..... If you're rejecting God because there's evil in the world, you haven't examined your life. Better to blame God and say He can't exist that admit you're not as great as you think you are.

So god gets credit for all the good and we get all the blame for the bad? Like pediatric cancer? Sorry, not buying it. There is not one bit of evidence to believe that. And don't pin any of the blame for that stuff on me. It's not my fault and if I were god I'd get rid of it instantly.

[Anonymous]

^^^ Seeing as how you're perfect, I'm surprised you can't get rid of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I struggle with this too OP. I have had odd experiences in my life. Definitely feel like there are larger forces at work sometimes. "Everything happens for a reason" they say. But how do you explain on the one hand, the people who had say, odd occurrences that kept them home on a day like 9/11, vs. the people who didn't get that divine intervention? To say that God reached down and saved one person, and yet *didn't* intervene to save someone else who died horribly? It's very difficult to come to terms with.

Not sure what I believe.

Yes, this make it seem as if it's merely the randomness of the universe.
I have questions about prayer too - whose get answered?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^ Seeing as how you're perfect, I'm surprised you can't get rid of it.

Never said I was perfect. Just said I would get rid of it if I could, as would virtually every person on the planet.