Positive outcomes are the same, what is good for us is good for God. We are all connected.
So the duty to work to reduce suffering, within the limits of one’s power, applies to man and God both? And God’s unlimited power means that he should reduce suffering to none?
What is the topic of this thread?
if you want God to correct the problems of this world then you must give up your free will to make your own choices because God will make them for you.
How do you know all this? Are you the exception to the “No man can know the mind of God” rule?
Not all the problems of the world are the result of human choices (disease, for one); God could solve those without removing free will.
What about negative outcomes? Are you just going to ignore those for the sake of convenience?
Yes, the internet is a wonderful thing.
In my opinion God should be thus:
Loving and compassionate
Does not interfere with our choices
If we wish to harm ourselves or others it is permitted
Helps or guides us to learn how to make the right choices
Does not judge us or harm us in anyway
No devils or hell or evil
Provides a safe place for us to learn the right choices (earth)
When our earth time is over provide a safe place for us to critique our earth lives
Then learn from our mistakes and try again if necessary
Like a good Father teaching us to be more like Him
A perfect role model
The making of wrong choices or mistakes causes suffering to those who do so
This is the consequences of mistakes and one learns from those consequences
eventually
Do you believe that this god you would prefer to exist does exist?
Disease, weather, earthquakes are all part of the learning process. Science has done a very good job of curing diseases and working on the rest.
What lesson is learned when a child is raped and dies of AIDS?
Positive or negative they effect us all, some more than others
So people who die in natural disasters or those who fall victim to wars not of their own doing are guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time? What about those struck with horrible diseases - what wrong choices did they make?
Where’s the love and compassion?
Is this the kind of god you believe in and follow?
I think he is talking about your connection of postive outcomes for us and your god. Does your god also share any trauma from negative outcomes?
I just heard last week children can be cured of AIDS
The more horrendous the events the more good people flock to correct it,
It is a learning process.
Ask yourself if you helped
There is no such thing as death, only the loss of the body.
I’ve yet to hear about anyone cured of rape.
It is not a learning process. It is an act of human compassion. Because godly compassion is in such short supply.
Cite, please…unless this was just another voice in your head.
Basically, theists can’t have their cake and eat it.
On the one hand they freely make statements about god: that he exists, that he’s loving, that he created the universe etc. They also believe we can logically conclude certain things e.g. that we should obey his commands because (among other reasons), it will lead to a better afterlife.
Then, on the other hand, when someone points out that the properties they are ascribing to their god are inconsistent, or incoherent, or by inference suggest god doesn’t exist…suddenly god is beyond logic.
Suddenly it’s a mark of our hubris that we should try to constrain god to “our” logic. Who says god can’t be P and ~P?
But either we can use logic here or we cannot. We can’t just apply it when we like the answers, and ignore it when we don’t.
I would hate to have to live in a world with this God. What you’re describing is being trapped in an artificial world designed to teach you some lesson that a supernatural being thinks you need to learn. The only way out is death, except you get tossed right back in in a new body, with no memories, to try it again. Each life has no meaning beyond attempts to grasp this grand lesson being dangled before us, which boils down to “BE LIKE I AM, FOR I CREATED YOU!”