I am assuming this because the major world religions say he is benevolent, don't they?

So this god then, since our existence doesn't even matter, took his time out to create us and those diseases that cause harm to us? I suppose you are going to answer "idk why he did it". There is no rational answer as to why he would even create those things if they don't even matter.

Your problem is you cannot separate religion from God. If you're going to assume God exists, then you also assume he is omniscient and beyond comprehension of our human minds for the most part.
Religion = man-made, NOT God-made.

And again, how am I supposed to know why God created us? How is anyone to know? You seek answers that, if God exists, only it knows. So live your life and don't bother. Also, humans do shit that doesn't matter ALL the time, why couldn't God?

This post was edited by ChurchGirl69 on May 5 2013 09:11pm

Why do we even have religion? Why does a god have to be beyond comprehension of our human minds? Why can we not prove his existence?

All of it is made up then, and religions vary on certain things that are apparently the "word of god". How could the "word of god" be different for each religion?

Why couldn't god do shit that doesn't matter? Very good question. Let me think about it. I guess he could just say "fuck it" and do whatever he wants. He is god after all. But once again, if he is a benevolent god, and can do whatever he wants, there would be no suffering in this world.

This post was edited by OnlyD3 on May 5 2013 09:19pm

Is there a difference between a tragic life and a non-tragic life? Look a little further and ask, “Does one learn more in times that are troubling, or times that are easy?”

There are people that endure a great deal in life. Some of those people make phenomenal role models in our communities, and believe it or not, these people often have a great deal to offer people.

That is not to suggest that people with great lives, that are incredibly blessed, do not have anything to offer. But just think about it for a moment. There are people that have not experienced extreme hurt, disappointed, or humiliation. There are people on the extreme opposite, and those people are provided a certain gift, and well, that gift is being able to relate to others.

What is the purpose of life? I do not know, and I do not know if there even is a purpose outside of what we construct for ourselves.

But it might be reasonable to suggest, from a spiritual point of view, that the reason is to learn and grow. Some of the most amazing people I have met in life were people that experienced a lot, and had shoveled a lot of crap. These are the people I respect a great deal, and the people I have come to trust the most.

I'm talking about unpreventable occurrences such as cancer. The events you cite are social, and yes, I suppose humanity needs these to build character. But cancer; humanity does not need that kind of suffering.

We cannot prove the existence of life on other planets but lots of people consider it common sense that it exists. It's a bit different, but still. The reason a god is inherently beyond our comprehension is because even if we accept that it exists, it is still supernatural and completely unlike anything we can observe.

And again.. WHY can't you separate religion from God? You've been so conditioned into thinking they go hand in hand, but they really don't. Obviously religion is bullshit, but why does that negate the existence of God to you? It is impossible to disprove God.

Alright, I understand what you're saying about separating religion from god. Now, is there a way to prove god? Also, please see the edit on the previous post.

And I understand what you're trying to say with the life on other planets thing, and I'd rather not get into semantics about the science.
We can observe life on other planets lol. It's simple astrobiology. Ok, so i got into the semantics, but now onto the notion about "common sense".

We must be very careful with "common sense". It was commonly believed that the earth is flat due to the way a person perceived it back then, but we know this to be false since we were able to figure out the world is round. Common sense is un-trustable as it is based off of the perception of the observer.

This post was edited by OnlyD3 on May 5 2013 09:24pm

Nah, there isn't. But that does not mean that it doesn't exist. I think you and I can agree that religion is false and most people that follow it are fairly mindless. But there are reasons outside of religion to believe in the existence of God. Once you let go of the idea that God HAS to be benevolent just because a few warm fuzzy excerpts from the Bible says so, you'll be able to think more freely. Why does he have to care about us? Maybe we're some experiment and he put us here just to see how much we could fuck up? Maybe we truly are given free will or maybe even choose before we are born to go through pain. There are so many possibilities behind our existence. There are a lot of reasons why God might not intervene.

We could also just be the result of evolution and just be dead in the dirt in 100 years. Who the fuck knows?

The world may never know. Oh reality, how you frustrate me.

Ikr