I still don’t see how anyone can dismiss or diminish the terrible suffering that some of us go through here, right here, right now, while alive. You can’t realistically expect a person who is suffering horrifically to think of how much better things will be in the afterlife. That’s the furthest thing from their minds. The sex slave that Wee Bairn mentioned earlier is a good example. How can she possibly think beyond her immediate misery, fear and despair? How could anyone expect her to do so?
An afterlife does not change the experience of mortal life. It is not an excuse to do evil or an opiate to forget current suffering. All I am saying is that in due time, when we reach an afterlife, our mortal suffering will be put in perspective and we will be able to understand it and free to accept it.
This is the perspective I have a hard time with. The anonymous classmates. As if being shot by the nutjob was an act of free will. And therefore confirmation of God’s goodness.
I guarantee you one thing, whether you believe in God or not. Getting shot was not an act of free will. Or a bike riding lesson. Or a jar full of cookies. Or a life lesson. It was a horrible end to a young life. An end that was not freely chosen, no matter how one twists the logic of belief.
Sez who?
Sez me, of course. That’s pretty much all we got in this god debates. My position as a person who believes in God but rejects religions is simply trying to present a possible theology/cosmology where the issue at hand is adequately covered.
In this present discussion, I am trying to make some sense of suffering in mortal life and how it does not cripple life eternal. How it is possible to be a fulfilled eternal soul having had a messed up mortal life.
I am also active in a different thread about the possibility of an omnimax god and free will. Same thing. My views are not that of any mainstream religion I am aware of (although I do believe that most non-fundamentalist christians would have no reason to burn me at the stake). My position is always my own, imperfect and evolving (in good part, thanks to the input I get in this kind of threads)
Oh yeah, there is no arguing that. A tragedy is a tragedy no matter how you slice it. I am not saying that being a victim is an act of free will. Heck, not even the shooter is making an act of free will, as normally interpreted
I do believe, though, that it does not kill the ability for free will of the victim. As a believer in God and in a life eternal, I believe that our one real act of Free Will that is choosing Salvation (a very christian name for what is really communion with God) is in no way limited (even if it is still influenced) by our mortal life and suffering.
That position, of course, makes no sense to a person who does not believe in God or in a life eternal, and I am in no way trying to sell it to non-believers. All I am saying is that acts like this don’t make my set of beliefs crumble in the face of an inexplicable act. That they don’t crush my faith in an all powerful benevolent God who has made a perfect creation. That acts like this are perfectly compatible with my world view. That’s all