Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, this is one thing that I struggle with myself.

The last church I went to, the pastor was talking about how the way we pray makes a difference, that there're correct and incorrect ways of praying. I broke down right then and there, thinking that I must not have prayed correctly b/c why else did my mom suffer so much from her cancer and die with such agony and indignity. Then I got really angry at the idea that if you pray incorrectly, God will refuse to listen.

I don't know the answer. And I suspect nobody really does.

Let me try.

God doesn't really exist in the way people think and cancer is a chain of events that happens inside the body. God does not give people cancer anymore than God heals people with cancer.

Does God dictate the laws of physics or does God follow then? If God dictates the laws of physics than surely we would see miracles that are exceptions. We don't

But God created cancer. If God wanted to create bodies in which cells didn't mutate, God could have done so - unless you don't believe that God actually has control over everything in the universe? There is no "good" God unless there is also an evil god, who also creates and dishes to humans all the traumas and pains in life.

Ultimately, the evidence is clear - there is no god. Not in any "creator" type sense. No afterlife, no being that actually starts and ends.

So where does pediatric cancer come from?

It comes from a genetic mutation gone awry, which all human bodies are susceptible to. Because that's how God chose to create human bodies (or god doesn't exist, which is more likely).

What a weird answer. The God the who definitely doesn’t exist created pediatric cancer.

OK now you are just being a petulant jerk. You’re embarrassing yourself. Every person can see that is not what PP wrote.

A bunch of people who don’t believe God exists are insisting the non-existent God created pediatric cancer. It doesn’t make any sense. Entities who do not exist do not create or destroy anything.

Many people have already answered this, you are just being purposefully obtuse.

1) Atheists don't believe in god, therefore don't believe god created cancer that kills children.
2) If you do believe in god, and god created everything, then he must have also created cancer that kills children.

Person 1 does not believe what person 2 believes. No atheist thinks a non-existent god created cancer that kills children. You just keep copy and pasting this all over every religious thread and it makes it seem like you can't read properly.

God didn't create pediatric cancer. It's the result of evolution.

Anonymous wrote:The atheists have still not come forth with their view of suffering and how it makes it feel better. Only one person said something about science and her conclusion was that she wasnt sure life is worth it. So, that pretty much supports what other PP said about thinking atheists being depressed.

I posted this on page 3:

This kind of question is why I eventually went from considering seminary in my mid 20s to becoming an atheist by 30.

There is so much comfort in recognizing that everything in life is to some extent just a random expression of biology and physics.

There is no allegedly all knowing, all powerful and loving entity which allows profound suffering on a heartbreaking scale in this world. There is just life while we have it, and love if we can embrace it.

I have been overall a much more grounded person since becoming an atheist. I have suffered depression on and off as a result of childhood trauma and biological processes in my body, but not because I don't believe in a god. I'm in the best mental health of my life and not at all depressed now, and I don't believe in a god.

Also I should add that across my 50+ years of existence I've known far more religious that non religious people, and many of them suffered depression despite their religious faith. Religious faith doesn't cure biologically based depression.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, this is one thing that I struggle with myself.

The last church I went to, the pastor was talking about how the way we pray makes a difference, that there're correct and incorrect ways of praying. I broke down right then and there, thinking that I must not have prayed correctly b/c why else did my mom suffer so much from her cancer and die with such agony and indignity. Then I got really angry at the idea that if you pray incorrectly, God will refuse to listen.

I don't know the answer. And I suspect nobody really does.

Let me try.

God doesn't really exist in the way people think and cancer is a chain of events that happens inside the body. God does not give people cancer anymore than God heals people with cancer.

Does God dictate the laws of physics or does God follow then? If God dictates the laws of physics than surely we would see miracles that are exceptions. We don't

But God created cancer. If God wanted to create bodies in which cells didn't mutate, God could have done so - unless you don't believe that God actually has control over everything in the universe? There is no "good" God unless there is also an evil god, who also creates and dishes to humans all the traumas and pains in life.

Ultimately, the evidence is clear - there is no god. Not in any "creator" type sense. No afterlife, no being that actually starts and ends.

So where does pediatric cancer come from?

It comes from a genetic mutation gone awry, which all human bodies are susceptible to. Because that's how God chose to create human bodies (or god doesn't exist, which is more likely).

What a weird answer. The God the who definitely doesn’t exist created pediatric cancer.

OK now you are just being a petulant jerk. You’re embarrassing yourself. Every person can see that is not what PP wrote.

A bunch of people who don’t believe God exists are insisting the non-existent God created pediatric cancer. It doesn’t make any sense. Entities who do not exist do not create or destroy anything.

Again: NO NO NO they are not saying that at all. They are saying YOUR belief requires that YOU believe that. And that nonsensical contradiction is evidence that there is likely no god.

Just to let you know, every time you state your dishonest straw man, I will be here to correct you.

This might be a huge shock to you, but you don’t tell anyone else what they believe.

You can believe anything you want; nobody tells you what you believe.

You have zero right to tell others what they are required to believe. Get over yourself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, this is one thing that I struggle with myself.

The last church I went to, the pastor was talking about how the way we pray makes a difference, that there're correct and incorrect ways of praying. I broke down right then and there, thinking that I must not have prayed correctly b/c why else did my mom suffer so much from her cancer and die with such agony and indignity. Then I got really angry at the idea that if you pray incorrectly, God will refuse to listen.

I don't know the answer. And I suspect nobody really does.

Let me try.

God doesn't really exist in the way people think and cancer is a chain of events that happens inside the body. God does not give people cancer anymore than God heals people with cancer.

Does God dictate the laws of physics or does God follow then? If God dictates the laws of physics than surely we would see miracles that are exceptions. We don't

But God created cancer. If God wanted to create bodies in which cells didn't mutate, God could have done so - unless you don't believe that God actually has control over everything in the universe? There is no "good" God unless there is also an evil god, who also creates and dishes to humans all the traumas and pains in life.

Ultimately, the evidence is clear - there is no god. Not in any "creator" type sense. No afterlife, no being that actually starts and ends.

So where does pediatric cancer come from?

It comes from a genetic mutation gone awry, which all human bodies are susceptible to. Because that's how God chose to create human bodies (or god doesn't exist, which is more likely).

What a weird answer. The God the who definitely doesn’t exist created pediatric cancer.

OK now you are just being a petulant jerk. You’re embarrassing yourself. Every person can see that is not what PP wrote.

A bunch of people who don’t believe God exists are insisting the non-existent God created pediatric cancer. It doesn’t make any sense. Entities who do not exist do not create or destroy anything.

Again: NO NO NO they are not saying that at all. They are saying YOUR belief requires that YOU believe that. And that nonsensical contradiction is evidence that there is likely no god.

Just to let you know, every time you state your dishonest straw man, I will be here to correct you.

Cold is the absence of heat. Darkness is the absence of light. Evil is the absence of good.

God gave His creatures freedom. When He created angels and humans, they had the capacity to freely choose to love God and all that is good. Instead, Lucifer and other angels abused their freedom and tried to take God’s place in order to lead the whole world astray.

Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they cooperated with Satan’s evil plan.

Instead of destroying all evil people, God set up a plan. God himself decided to enter history as a human being in Jesus Christ. He never did anything that was evil. But he lived a truly good life. Yet, as God, he decided to absorb all the world’s evil into Himself. He let evil crush him on the cross.

In Genesis 3, a serpent tempts the woman:
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
— Genesis 3:4–5, KJV

The serpent told Eve that eating the fruit from the tree would make her and Adam as gods. Adam and Eve didn’t want knowledge: they wanted to be gods.


Their physical condition changed as a result of their eating the forbidden fruit. As God had promised, they became mortal. Now Adam and Eve could get sick and die. They had to leave the garden of Eden. That’s where the physical illness and death that humans now experience originated. God’s plan was not for us to experience illness and death.

If you don’t believe in God, you don’t believe any of that happened. You must have an alternative theory to why people get sick and die, and why humans are not immortal and get diseases and can die from accidents and injuries. Something else makes humans mortal and age and die.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, this is one thing that I struggle with myself.

The last church I went to, the pastor was talking about how the way we pray makes a difference, that there're correct and incorrect ways of praying. I broke down right then and there, thinking that I must not have prayed correctly b/c why else did my mom suffer so much from her cancer and die with such agony and indignity. Then I got really angry at the idea that if you pray incorrectly, God will refuse to listen.

I don't know the answer. And I suspect nobody really does.

Let me try.

God doesn't really exist in the way people think and cancer is a chain of events that happens inside the body. God does not give people cancer anymore than God heals people with cancer.

Does God dictate the laws of physics or does God follow then? If God dictates the laws of physics than surely we would see miracles that are exceptions. We don't

But God created cancer. If God wanted to create bodies in which cells didn't mutate, God could have done so - unless you don't believe that God actually has control over everything in the universe? There is no "good" God unless there is also an evil god, who also creates and dishes to humans all the traumas and pains in life.

Ultimately, the evidence is clear - there is no god. Not in any "creator" type sense. No afterlife, no being that actually starts and ends.

So where does pediatric cancer come from?

It comes from a genetic mutation gone awry, which all human bodies are susceptible to. Because that's how God chose to create human bodies (or god doesn't exist, which is more likely).

What a weird answer. The God the who definitely doesn’t exist created pediatric cancer.

OK now you are just being a petulant jerk. You’re embarrassing yourself. Every person can see that is not what PP wrote.

A bunch of people who don’t believe God exists are insisting the non-existent God created pediatric cancer. It doesn’t make any sense. Entities who do not exist do not create or destroy anything.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, this is one thing that I struggle with myself.

The last church I went to, the pastor was talking about how the way we pray makes a difference, that there're correct and incorrect ways of praying. I broke down right then and there, thinking that I must not have prayed correctly b/c why else did my mom suffer so much from her cancer and die with such agony and indignity. Then I got really angry at the idea that if you pray incorrectly, God will refuse to listen.

I don't know the answer. And I suspect nobody really does.

Let me try.

God doesn't really exist in the way people think and cancer is a chain of events that happens inside the body. God does not give people cancer anymore than God heals people with cancer.

Does God dictate the laws of physics or does God follow then? If God dictates the laws of physics than surely we would see miracles that are exceptions. We don't

But God created cancer. If God wanted to create bodies in which cells didn't mutate, God could have done so - unless you don't believe that God actually has control over everything in the universe? There is no "good" God unless there is also an evil god, who also creates and dishes to humans all the traumas and pains in life.

Ultimately, the evidence is clear - there is no god. Not in any "creator" type sense. No afterlife, no being that actually starts and ends.

So where does pediatric cancer come from?

It comes from a genetic mutation gone awry, which all human bodies are susceptible to. Because that's how God chose to create human bodies (or god doesn't exist, which is more likely).

What a weird answer. The God the who definitely doesn’t exist created pediatric cancer.

OK now you are just being a petulant jerk. You’re embarrassing yourself. Every person can see that is not what PP wrote.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know a family who recently had a child die of cancer. The kid went from healthy and happy to dead at 16 in 11 months. It was vicious and horrible and involved all kinds of anguish and suffering. The child's mother created a Caring Bridge site and she detailed the abominable suffering her child had gone through the night before. Some fool commented on the description by saying "God doesn't give anyone more than they can handle". It was a prime example of how trite religious sayings spew forth from well intentioned people yet have awful consequences. I just can't imagine being a big enough jackass to dare say something like that. It was completely emotionally tone deaf to a frightening degree.
A merciful God wouldn't do that to a child. He also wouldn't let kids starve or anyone get ALS or whatever.

So, the alternative is to believe that the child's suffering was random and pointless. Is that better? But I agree the message was awful.

DP, but yes I think acknowledging the complete randomness and unfairness of it is more validating to a parents’ suffering than suggesting God is killing their child painfully because they can “handle it.” It’s okay for a parent to share that cancer treatment really sucks and to agree it is terrible and sucks. The only one who feels better after saying it is God’s will is the poster who wants some tidy answer about God being in charge.

No sane person would ever say that to grieving parents but this is about what the parents believe. Again if you think it being random is validating and all that, great for you. But don't be so shocked that it doesn't work for many people. And don't be shocked that those who have faith can weather more storms.

Nothing other people believe "shocks" me. I'm never shocked by how stupid some people are. All you have to do is listen to some of the interviews of random people at a Trump rally. I'm never shocked anymore.

Anonymous wrote:The atheists have still not come forth with their view of suffering and how it makes it feel better. Only one person said something about science and her conclusion was that she wasnt sure life is worth it. So, that pretty much supports what other PP said about thinking atheists being depressed.

It makes me "feel better" to think there is no knowledgeable being controlling life like we are bacteria in a petri dish. It helps to reconcile this question about cancer or how people can be so evil or why life can be so unfair. It's actually easier to think there is randomness and chance involved rather than "God's will".

Don't get me wrong - I'd LOVE to believe that a good God will come a straighten out the mess down here with a bit of karma. I just haven't seen any evidence whatsoever for that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know a family who recently had a child die of cancer. The kid went from healthy and happy to dead at 16 in 11 months. It was vicious and horrible and involved all kinds of anguish and suffering. The child's mother created a Caring Bridge site and she detailed the abominable suffering her child had gone through the night before. Some fool commented on the description by saying "God doesn't give anyone more than they can handle". It was a prime example of how trite religious sayings spew forth from well intentioned people yet have awful consequences. I just can't imagine being a big enough jackass to dare say something like that. It was completely emotionally tone deaf to a frightening degree.
A merciful God wouldn't do that to a child. He also wouldn't let kids starve or anyone get ALS or whatever.

So, the alternative is to believe that the child's suffering was random and pointless. Is that better? But I agree the message was awful.

I would prefer random over it's happening and someone has the ability to stop it and chooses not to. Or that this person (entity?) chose my child to suffer and die.

Yeah random all the way.

+1

Better random than live in fear.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, this is one thing that I struggle with myself.

The last church I went to, the pastor was talking about how the way we pray makes a difference, that there're correct and incorrect ways of praying. I broke down right then and there, thinking that I must not have prayed correctly b/c why else did my mom suffer so much from her cancer and die with such agony and indignity. Then I got really angry at the idea that if you pray incorrectly, God will refuse to listen.

I don't know the answer. And I suspect nobody really does.

Let me try.

God doesn't really exist in the way people think and cancer is a chain of events that happens inside the body. God does not give people cancer anymore than God heals people with cancer.

Does God dictate the laws of physics or does God follow then? If God dictates the laws of physics than surely we would see miracles that are exceptions. We don't

But God created cancer. If God wanted to create bodies in which cells didn't mutate, God could have done so - unless you don't believe that God actually has control over everything in the universe? There is no "good" God unless there is also an evil god, who also creates and dishes to humans all the traumas and pains in life.

Ultimately, the evidence is clear - there is no god. Not in any "creator" type sense. No afterlife, no being that actually starts and ends.

So where does pediatric cancer come from?

It comes from a genetic mutation gone awry, which all human bodies are susceptible to. Because that's how God chose to create human bodies (or god doesn't exist, which is more likely).

What a weird answer. The God the who definitely doesn’t exist created pediatric cancer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, this is one thing that I struggle with myself.

The last church I went to, the pastor was talking about how the way we pray makes a difference, that there're correct and incorrect ways of praying. I broke down right then and there, thinking that I must not have prayed correctly b/c why else did my mom suffer so much from her cancer and die with such agony and indignity. Then I got really angry at the idea that if you pray incorrectly, God will refuse to listen.

I don't know the answer. And I suspect nobody really does.

Let me try.

God doesn't really exist in the way people think and cancer is a chain of events that happens inside the body. God does not give people cancer anymore than God heals people with cancer.

Does God dictate the laws of physics or does God follow then? If God dictates the laws of physics than surely we would see miracles that are exceptions. We don't

But God created cancer. If God wanted to create bodies in which cells didn't mutate, God could have done so - unless you don't believe that God actually has control over everything in the universe? There is no "good" God unless there is also an evil god, who also creates and dishes to humans all the traumas and pains in life.

Ultimately, the evidence is clear - there is no god. Not in any "creator" type sense. No afterlife, no being that actually starts and ends.

So where does pediatric cancer come from?

It comes from a genetic mutation gone awry, which all human bodies are susceptible to. Because that's how God chose to create human bodies (or god doesn't exist, which is more likely).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, this is one thing that I struggle with myself.

The last church I went to, the pastor was talking about how the way we pray makes a difference, that there're correct and incorrect ways of praying. I broke down right then and there, thinking that I must not have prayed correctly b/c why else did my mom suffer so much from her cancer and die with such agony and indignity. Then I got really angry at the idea that if you pray incorrectly, God will refuse to listen.

I don't know the answer. And I suspect nobody really does.

Let me try.

God doesn't really exist in the way people think and cancer is a chain of events that happens inside the body. God does not give people cancer anymore than God heals people with cancer.

Does God dictate the laws of physics or does God follow then? If God dictates the laws of physics than surely we would see miracles that are exceptions. We don't

But God created cancer. If God wanted to create bodies in which cells didn't mutate, God could have done so - unless you don't believe that God actually has control over everything in the universe? There is no "good" God unless there is also an evil god, who also creates and dishes to humans all the traumas and pains in life.

Ultimately, the evidence is clear - there is no god. Not in any "creator" type sense. No afterlife, no being that actually starts and ends.

So where does pediatric cancer come from?

It's fine to say "we don't know". But it is a ridiculous question and we DO know. to a degree. Bodies are imperfect. You know this. You just are strawman-ing to avoid the main point which I will repeat:

If the god you believe in is real then he causes or allows unbelievable levels of suffering that every single one of us would alleviate if we had the power.

This is why it is most likely he does not exist.

Sorry.