Reply to Vent—I hate it when people give God credit for modern medicine

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm a Christian and it bothers me, too. Christians do recognize that "every good and perfect gift comes from God" (Epistle of James).  But Jesus also said that God sends the sun to shine and the rain to fall on both the righteous and the unrighteous.

Recently, I was visiting my sister and went to church with her. A friend of hers said something complimentary about my family, and I responded that I was "very lucky". She corrected me, saying that I was "blessed" to which I said nothing.

Christ himself uses the language of "chance" in the parable of the Good Samaritan: "Now by chance a priest was going down that road...", with "chance" having its ordinary meaning; that is, "for no reason apparent to us".

I agree that singling oneself out as extraordinarily blessed is usually the worst kind of humblebrag.[/quote]

As an atheist I appreciate it when a religious believer reflects on things like this. I do have a question though. You said that “every gift comes from god”. Do you actually believe he’s up there making things go one way or another?  By the way I do know people that think that and it’s extraordinarily insane to me[/quote]

PP. Yes, I do. That doesn't mean I think there is some kind of slam-dunk explanation for the problem of evil. But the traditional Christian belief is that God is sovereign over all things that come to pass.

When I was an atheist, it seemed insane to me, too. Now it seems insane that it wouldn't be true. Such is the nature of the thing.[/quote]

Thanks for answering . But wow. So you think, for example, a 5 year old girl getting raped is “God’s sovereignty”?  Just curious how you square that circle.  [/quote]

We agree that it is evil. And I do not think it is the action of God. For instance, in Job we see all kind of evil things done by Satan to Job. Those things were not acts of God; they were acts of Satan. But they were indeed all performed under the sovereignty of God, with Satan having to seek God's permission to afflict Job. God could have stopped Satan.

As I said, I don't have an answer or explanation for the problem of evil.  Some Christians try to use "free will" as the scapegoat or reason that evil "must" exist.  But I don't think God's hands are so tied that he is beholden to some concept of "free will" that exists outside and above Himself.

So, as Job said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."[/quote]

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