The Issue is Not that God WANTS Us to Suffer...

by AGuest 404 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  tec

  It would have been more JUST for God to have created nothing, to have remained alone, rather than have even a single child suffer, IMHO.

  Shelby answered, but I would just like to add one thing. If that is the case... then we should not have children either. Because they are going to experience pain and suffering at times during their lives. Perhaps awful pain - by the choices they make or the choices someone else has made. And yet, we continue to have them - some for our own reasons, so we have someone to love and love us. Others just to give someone new they love the chance at life - and all its joys and pains.

  I wouldn't want to not have been born. Sometimes, when in deep pain, I might wish I had never been born. But when I come out on the other side, when I am rational again... I would always choose life, despite the pain.

  Tammy
• 

  notverylikely

  Oh my god, three different Christians with three completely different "truths"! What ever should I believe?
• 

  snowbird

  Even though I've experienced much heartache and misery (who hasn't), I, too, am glad to be alive.

  Yes, the blame should be placed squarely on that drunken husband.

  He should be thrown into a vat of scalding water, removed therefrom, salted, and thrown back in again.

  That's one of the reasons I have such abiding respect for the Law as given to the nation of Israel.

  "An eye for an eye ... "

  And, to think, some of us on this here board call God cruel!

  Syl
• 

  peacedog

  snowbird,

  What would you call someone who was at the scene of that atrocity, who had the power to prevent that baby from being thrown into that pot of scalding water, but instead he stood idly by and watched it take place... And then he goes on to do the same thing again, and again, and again, and again...
• 

  SixofNine

  If there is a loving God, then imagine His sadness and horror that He has told us and tried to teach us over and over again how to be with one another showing love and mercy and doing good to one another rather than harm... and yet so few people listen to the one he sent.

  There was recently a woman here in Texas who listened and got the message to cut her babies arms off. So she did. Another got the message to drown her five children, so she did. Another was told to bash her three children's heads in with a large rock. She listened. I could go on.

  As for god's supposed "sadness and horror that He has told us and tried to teach us over and over again how to be with one another showing love and mercy and doing good to one another rather than harm", well, I don't see any evidence of said "sadness or horror" on god's part, nor do I see any evidence that he has he done any "trying to teach us over and over again how to be with one another showing love and mercy". That all comports I'm sure with the personal narrative you tell yourself about god. Nothing you said comports with reality here on planet earth.
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  OUTLAW

  Good Morning Shelby!..

  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..

  So God is letting his children run amuck..To make a Point..

  God needs some parenting lessons..

  Satan gets a Spanking and the rest of the family can live in peace..

  .................. ...OUTLAW
• 

  SixofNine

  And, to think, some of us on this here board call God cruel!

  If he existed, he'd be the most cruel being ever; creating monsters and then standing idly by while they torture other humans (often babies).
• 

  leavingwt

  AGuest & Tammy -- ONLY when God is in the equation does suffering seem absurd, IMHO. To me, suffering is simply reality, it's how things are. With or without suffering, I consider myself very lucky to have been born in the first place. Most human eggs never get fertilized. I'm going to suffer and die, and I'm one of the LUCKY ones.
• 

  tec

  There was recently a woman here in Texas who listened and got the message to cut her babies arms off. So she did. Another got the message to drown her five children, so she did. Another was told to bash her three children's heads in with a large rock. She listened. I could go on.

  Six - God never told those women to do that. You don't believe it any more than I do. But what about the people who knew that something was wrong with her, or that she was having trouble... or whatever... who did nothing but turn away every time they should have done something or called someone or helped?

  nor do I see any evidence that he has he done any "trying to teach us over and over again how to be with one another showing love and mercy". That all comports I'm sure with the personal narrative you tell yourself about god.

  He sent Christ. Before Christ, he sent prophets. In other lands there are people teaching the same messages of peace and non-violence and mercy, to no avail. We don't listen. Actually, that isn't really true. Some of us listen. Some of us don't. Most of us are trying, I think. But as long as there are people who are not listening at all, then we're going to have these atrocities.

  Tammy
• 

  notverylikely

  That's one of the reasons I have such abiding respect for the Law as given to the nation of Israel.

  "An eye for an eye ... "

  I know. Owning slaves and beating them to death is ok as long as they suffer a day or so, raping a girl is ok, but you have to pay her dad and then marry her, selling your daughter a slave for six years is perfectly fine, a man with any deformity was barred from the priesthood.... yeah, that law was awesome.

  He sent Christ. Before Christ, he sent prophets. In other lands there are people teaching the same messages of peace and non-violence and mercy, to no avail.

  To be fair, though, other religions and people were teaching the exact same things Jesus was teaching thousands of years before he showed up, so it's not like he was teaching anything new, and there's just as much murder, death, rape and war in the world as there always was, so it's not like he made a particular difference.