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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]However, that still doesn't answer my question about horrible violence or why God doesn't intervene in one instance but not another.   [/quote]

I don't think it's a matter of God intervening for some but not others.  No one deserves bad things.  Just because God did not prevent bad from happening to your loved one doesn't mean someone else should have had it instead - they are someone else's loved one!

Sometimes I like to think about what lessons I take away from loss.  A very dear family member died a few years ago - someone much too young and much to dear to many.  No, it wasn't fair and I certainly still feel "robbed" to have lost her.  That said, we have all stepped up to fill the void she left in ways we never would have if she were still here.  We've all grown and changed from it.  Sometimes I wonder if it took losing her to help the rest of us find a strength we weren't looking for.  I don't know the answers.  [/quote]

So God sacrificed her life so several families member could become better people?  How gruesome.  And sorry, but twisted too -- as if you're trying very hard to understand God's plan -- to give God some credit.[/quote]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If God exists, then they have every disturbing personality disorder you can think of - borderline pd, bipolar, narcissistic pd, etc.

I don't believe that any kind of deity exists, and believe that life is a mix of human choices/responsibilities, environment, and a lot of chance. But God is one seriously mentally disturbed mofo, if they exist.[/quote]

So then when someone gets violently murdered, how do you deal with that?  Do you rationalize, [b]"well, there are bad people int he world, so it sure sucks to be the one in the wrong place at the wrong time to get raped and then stabbed 15 times." [/b] So far no one has answered this question. If you believe Jesus died for your sins, how do you explain this situation?  If you don't believe in a deity, how do you process this situation?  It is too disturbing for me to just be glad I was in a different place at a different time and wasn't the victim. [/quote]

Pretty much. A lot of it is chance. I've known people who never smoked, exercised nearly every day, ate healthily, never drank, got good sleep, minimized stress, and still died young from a heart attack. How does one rationalize that?

In life, we have some options. We can try and mitigate situations - be it health or violence. We can try and control our future. But nothing is ever 100%. Sometimes you have a crap genetic hand. Sometimes you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think the comfort of religion, is that it provides a (pseudo, perceived) level of control over the unpredictability of life. It tries to instill order, where there is disorder. It gives the perception of an overarching sense of order, but it's a mirage.

It sounds scary to abandon the perception of order and surrender to believing that a lot of life is like a roll of the dice, but I've found that for me, this actually gives me a sense of peace. It compels me to do and act better, to try and control what I can. It makes me realize that human beings are *incredibly* powerful, instead of saying you leave it to god ("jesus take the wheel, etc") - humans do have a pretty substantial measure of control. We may not be able to control other people, but still, we humans are a powerful beast. I don't believe in an afterlife, and I think that motivates me to appreciate the present a lot more - and the people in my life. I feel simultaneously powerful and at peace knowing my own responsibility to at least try.

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