Benevolent and loving?

I used to be a Christian, but I'm not anymore. I was always told that God is omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent, loving, et cetera, He wants you to be happy, you are His child, blah, blah, blah and so on.

If "God" truly wanted us to be happy, would He put His almighty feet up and let half the shit in this world continue to happen? Would a benevolent and loving Creator allow someone's beloved pet to suffer and die in horrible agony, leaving the person behind to feel as though a piece of their soul has been ripped away?

If God exists, it seems to me that he either doesn't give a flying fuck about his creation, or the entire world was created for entertainment purposes only by a sadistic, allegedly omnipotent being who likes to watch his "children" suffer.

That's a pretty narrow minded view of things.

Who said god just wanted us to be happy here on this earth anyways?

I don't think that was the point.

Further, most of the suffering that goes on in this world is caused by the corrupt heart of man. Who are you to blame god for the problems of mankind?

[Zman]

Yeah, His goal was for our eternal happiness. Constant intervening in our lives would not make us truly happy. Only in hardship do we truly know what we are made of.

[---Beany---]

Our suffering comes from our own choices and our own perspective of our experiences.



One woman may get a thrill out of being whipped. One may hate it. It's all down to how you see things. The same applies on a larger scale. Take death. If death is not an end, but merely a transition, is that a bad thing?



[This message has been edited by ---Beany--- (edited 05-01-2005).]

[Rust]

drBOX

quote:Further, most of the suffering that goes on in this world is caused by the corrupt heart of man. Who are you to blame god for the problems of mankind?

If god knew this would happen before hand, created humans while knowing this would happen, and has the power to stop them, then yes, god cannot be called benevolent.



Zman

quote:Yeah, His goal was for our eternal happiness. Constant intervening in our lives would not make us truly happy. Only in hardship do we truly know what we are made of.

First of all that's your opinion. Second of all, it is irrelevant, since if he is omnipotent then he has the power to intervene with our lives and make us happy at the same time.



---Beany---

quote:One woman may get a thrill out of being whipped. One may hate it. It's all down to how you see things. The same applies on a larger scale. Take death. If death is not an end, but merely a transition, is that a bad thing?

Same thing as above. The subjectivity of what we define as good and bad is irrelevant since he must have the power to make us happy regardless of this subjectivity.

Not to mention that he is speaking of the Christian god and the Christian doctrine, which means that what is "good" and "bad" cannot be subjective.

[Zman]

its not true happiness if it was forced on us

[Rust]

If he is omnipotent then he must be able to make it true happiness. If he cannot then he is not omnipotent.

[LostCause]

I'm closing this on account of it's too way over done and it's annoying me.

Cheers,

Lost