Anonymous wrote:He allowed really bad things to happen to his son. And it saves everybodies souls.

Anonymous wrote:My dad have cancer and he is a good person and ask to god why? No answer.... My father was told that his cancer was stage 4 and have 8 months of live and i pray i pray that was almost 16 years ago....!!! Thanks God!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because bad things can happen to anyone; God is fair & doesn't play favorites.

What's fair about allowing horrible suffering to some and sparing others?

Random punishments keep folks on their toes and grateful when nothing bad happens. It's pretty much I do my parenting, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because bad things can happen to anyone; God is fair & doesn't play favorites.

What's fair about allowing horrible suffering to some and sparing others?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because bad things can happen to anyone; God is fair & doesn't play favorites.

What's fair about allowing horrible suffering to some and sparing others?

Anonymous wrote:Because bad things can happen to anyone; God is fair & doesn't play favorites.

Anonymous wrote:I heard it described this way.

We are here to learn. God wants us to learn. If your kid is learning to ride a skateboard, she is going to fall off. She probably will get hurt. But that is how she will learn.


We think of illness, pain and death as bad things because we are human. God sees pain and death as temporary and short lived. We all die. We all go to God, either at age five or 105 or in between. What did we learn in the time we had? What did we learn while tending our sick five year old with cancer? Or while doing chemo ourselves? What did we learn waiting to go into the gas chamber at Aushwitz? Or while guarding the doors there?

I don't pretend to really be capable of this perspective. Being philosophical about mass murder or little kids with cancer is almost impossible. But if to God, our time here is just a temporary visit on an eternal journey of the soul, then our sufferings don't seem so interminable and intolerable.

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/108398/jewish/Belief-After-the-Holocaust.htm

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"There IS no God" IS a personal attack on believers, end of story.

Sorry, you can't simplify like this. "There is no God" is fine. What's insulting is all the condescending/insulting/ridiculous snark you guys pile into your posts, to go along with that statement.

That's also relative -- what's seems insulting to one person might seem like a simple fact to another. Also, religious people often insult non-believers without realizing it -- or thinking it's ok -- for instance to tell a child that they're going to hell, because they don't believe in a certain religion. It's not seen as cruel -- it's seen as helpful to get the kid on a path to god.

or to tell an atheist that they might as well kill themselves right now if they don't believe in god. What a non-sequiter. We know this is the only life we have, so we want to live it as long and as well as we can. Plus, I don't see any believers putting their lives on the line for "worthy causes." People tend to want to stay alive, regardless of their beliefs.

We agree that lots of statements are subjective. And religious people often act badly. No disagreement there.

But there are absolutely atheist bullies on DCUM - you simply can't argue this is untrue. These atheist bullies are deliberately offensive. If I can cop to the religious bullies here, you need to cop to the atheist bullies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Karma. Good people were bad in a prior life, and karma is catching up.

The other possibility is, the good people are not as good as you think they are. I'm super friendly and helpful at work, I'm a GREAT friend, etc. But I waste a ton in the privacy of home. I throw out a lot of food, I use disposable bowls and flatware, etc.

+1 to both of these

So then you deserve to be raped and killed? This is where my confusion lies. True, it's not my place to judge who is good and who is bad, but horrible unnecessary violence is where I get tripped up in the "God controls everything" "it is all part of God's plan" discussion. This type of situation is where I really can't see the bigger picture. I do appreciate the options of everyone so far.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"There IS no God" IS a personal attack on believers, end of story.

Sorry, you can't simplify like this. "There is no God" is fine. What's insulting is all the condescending/insulting/ridiculous snark you guys pile into your posts, to go along with that statement.

That's also relative -- what's seems insulting to one person might seem like a simple fact to another. Also, religious people often insult non-believers without realizing it -- or thinking it's ok -- for instance to tell a child that they're going to hell, because they don't believe in a certain religion. It's not seen as cruel -- it's seen as helpful to get the kid on a path to god.

or to tell an atheist that they might as well kill themselves right now if they don't believe in god. What a non-sequiter. We know this is the only life we have, so we want to live it as long and as well as we can. Plus, I don't see any believers putting their lives on the line for "worthy causes." People tend to want to stay alive, regardless of their beliefs.

Anonymous wrote:Atheists have no soul.