Why does God sit idly by and allow x, y, z, and all of the other horrible things which occur in life to happen, when HE can certainly prevent them all?
Sure He can, but then his Creation would be reduced to being a simple erector set of automatons where HE has to constantly keep adjusting their paths, or that of a train set where HE has to constantly put the cars back on the track. In either case, it would be a waste to give them a mind of their own and the ability to think for themselves (unless they were to be no different than the creatures man was given dominion over), or the ability God gave his creation of "perpetual motion" through procreation with the opposite sex. It would be a shame if man became extinct because he chooses to marry the same sex, but, God can physically reach down if He so chooses to stop that in its tracks as well.
God can literally keep sticking his hands through the clouds and setting right things that are wrong. God can choose to stop all murderers in their tracks, whose free will causes them to take lives, even though God decrees that thou shalt not kill. God can stop the thieves who creep into people's houses to steal (and it often turns to murder) even though God decrees that thou shalt not steal. God can stop all of the rapists who choose to destroy marriages, lives and futures. God can even prevent cancer and other diseases.
"How can a living God sit idly by doing nothing when a sweet young child suffers every day from cancer and eventually dies. What's more, making the parents watch helplessly every day as they suffer until death."
But! Be careful what you wish or pray for. God may choose to prevent your cancer - or your child's from the much more dangerous second-hand smoke - by literally snatching the cigarettes out of your hand when you were 12-yrs-old. And your grandparents, and theirs, ad nauseum. Or perhaps God will prevent you from buying cigarettes by disabling your legs until you get the message. Or perhaps He should burn the factories that produce the cigarettes, or burn the tobacco in the fields.
Maybe God should prevent you from enjoying certain foods, even though they cause cancer. Maybe God should completely change your diet and destroy all of the unhealthy food in your refrigerator. Perhaps He should turn you into a vegetarian or a vegan. Or perhaps He should allow you to enjoy certain foods, but only in moderation. You just reached your limit of hamburgers and bacon, for the entire year! Maybe God should take away all of your snacks because they are a dangerous weakness to you. Perhaps He should pull your butt off of the sofa and drag you around the neighborhood to get exercise once a day. Or several times a day for those of us who choose to eat several family-size bags of greasy potato chips daily. God may have to reach down and destroy the pesticides man creates which cause cancer, but man continues to produce them even though studies point to them as being carcinogenic. Maybe God should destroy all of the technology that may cause cancer too, like the concentrated power lines that many communities live too close to. Or our smartphones which may cause brain cancer. Or our laptops that aren't really recommended for placement and use ON our laps. Or the automobiles and factories which dirties our atmosphere and eats a hole in the ozone layer which may cause skin cancer, and global warming, that causes severe tropical storms that in turn claims a countless number of lives. God could prevent a small percentage of the population from controlling most of the wealth of the world which contributes to poverty and death. God can take away the alcohol and the keys from all of the alcoholics who choose to drink and drive and kill people. Or should He simply destroy all of the bars? Or maybe God should simply limit your alcohol consumption? I am sure we will agree to that. On and on and on and on because man does not have a God's-eye-view looking down from his abode. Man does not have this higher perspective to make these calls. So man can not be mindful of what he asks or prays for.
Now—in this very different alternate Universe—man is STILL complaining, he is simply asking different questions. "When will God's meddling end? Is HE ever going to leave us alone? Why won't He just let us be? Why is He always interfering in our lives? Does HE simply want a bunch of mindless robots?"
God knows what is best, and He knows what He set out to create. God made man after his own image (whatever that means.) So, He commenced to do just that. God gave us free will because He didn't want a bunch of puppets and automatons. But, so that we wouldn't end up in the situation we now find ourselves in, He warned us of things that we should not do, and even warned us that we should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or we shall surely die.
Only God could see the life of man if he chose to disobey Him and eat of this tree. It would be worse than if our own kids choose to shove a screwdriver into an electrical outlet. (Although some of us raise our kids by letting them experience it for themselves after being warned? But God shouldn't do that?) So, God can indeed keep smacking the screwdrivers of life out of our hands before we place them into one of many of life's electrical outlets, or He can literally reach down through the clouds and smack us upside the head like we do our own kids. But, just like our kids, would you like it if God kept spanking you for your own good? Wouldn't there come a time when you will eventually rebel and fight back? When you eventually grow chest hairs and consider yourself grown? Well, mankind is way past 18-yrs-old and if God interferes by taking a more proactive presence in your life, it won't be long before you turn on Him and run away from your meddling parent anyway.
But perhaps we just want God to interfere in our lives just a little? Well, which one of us will draw the line that everyone else should skirt, since we don't like the lines God has drawn. You? Me? The guy next door? The woman down the street? We will all undoubtedly disagree and fight over it. As a matter of fact, man will never agree on what is right or wrong. We still argue over it today. At any rate, we were not alive when the decisions needed to be made, so God made the decisions and rules for his creation himself. His universe, His rules. His house, His rules. He gave you dominion over your own house to rule it as you please. He gave you dominion over your life as well. But you don't take responsibility for what happens to you when you are hardheaded and you blame Him, just like the average child. After all, God told us what to do and what not to do. He warned us of the pitfalls and stalls. And we even show no gratitude that He still allows us a way out when we choose to make a total mess of our lives.
Are you still asking why God allows so much evil to persist? Well, what would you have Him do? Would you have Him kill those of us who would do this evil before they actually do this evil? Then we would complain that we were not given the opportunity to change our mind before it was too late, and that we were punished for doing wrong before we did it. "That's not fair!"
But! If indeed you would choose that very severe punishment for your fellow man before he is given an opportunity to change, then of course you know you'll have to be willing to accept being judged in the same manner yourself. You would have God punish you equally for causing people strife because they are Jewish, or Islamic. Or because you are a racist and you cause people harm because of the color of their skin and thus you condemn an entire race of people to poverty and unknown atrocities and deaths.
There are none of us who are without sin. And sin causes us and other people harm. So, should God summon a great flood and kill us all? Or perhaps He should exterminate us all in a baptism by fire. Is that what you suggest for humanity?
Or would we want a chance to prove ourselves? To get it right on our own. Thus, pleasing our Creator and ourselves. That would be a much more meaningful life. Creating a planet of robots that are obedient would not please a Creator of the Heavens and Earth, and frankly, I can't see why such a Creator would even bother making a bunch of toys.
Is man the only lifeform on Earth that kills itself and does it for reasons other than for food? When he has the ability and knowhow to grow his own food. But again, why does God allow such and such to happen when He can stop it? Why does God not simply end all life on Earth because so many people get it wrong.
Answer all of the above questions for yourself. Then ask yourself if God's prejudgements would be fair to all of the other people who will get it right. Not the so-called Christians or other religious people who simply claim to be believers, but the truly faithful people who will choose to follow God and his commandments as best as they can.
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I have been accused of claiming to attempt to prove the existence of God with mathematical equations. Let me set the record straight. I have set out to prove that there must be a God through inference, that Creation could not have been random.
The scientific community seems to agree that there was a Big Bang. And that all of Creation emanated from one very dense point in space. It seems intuitive to my limited brain that that would mathematically infer a beginning from a single point or singularity. A "singularity." Inferring "one thing" or one God. Or god-process, as in the very first process which is responsible for all of Creation. Is that so far fetched? Einstein attempted a theory of everything (TOE), a Unified Field Theory that explains everything. Do I think I am as smart as Einstein? No way! I seek help from God.
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I made a claim that if God exists then the Bible must be true. But, as usual, people missed the forest for the trees. I was not specifically referencing ANY particular Bible, but, rather, if God exists, then the belief that God used man to write A Bible must be true. Therefore, there must be a Bible in which we can place our faith.
There are religions which have many Gods. But, by the very definition of God, there can only be one Numero Uno. If Creation is a function of the Big Bang, and the Big Bang began with a singularity, then the object which is responsible for Creation is a Single Arity. Not many.