Religion

I think to understand the problem with religion you have to look a little deeper. Its not the acts, its that the acts are possible. Think about this:
1. God is good and created everything.
2.Evil exists.
:. God created evil.

That's the problem of evil, first penned by I think Epicurus(?).

I'm not sure who wrote that exact version, i have come across a lot of different ones in my philosophy of religion studies.

Ah. Fair enough.

Jesus never molested anybody



WHAT/????

Jesus came to save the world - "For God so loved the world..." and the Bible makes clear that God does not take pleasure in the punishment of the wicked, but longs to see them repent, and Isaiah 55: 7-9 promises -

"Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."

The Lord will freely pardon all those who repent, and that is the beauty of true grace. It is completely, utterly, indisputably undeserved. Perhaps this is incomprehensible to us, why or how God could forgive a paedophile, but such are the ways of God. It is higher, vaster, purer, nobler, and it is not for us to understand but simply accept. And let us be grateful, rather than hold God in contempt for His grace, for if He was not so gracious, He would not have granted you or I salvation either. Sure, some sins are greater than others, but small or big, they're sin all the same, and we deserve no less than any other sinner should receive - the very thing that Christ Himself bore on His flesh on the cross.

As a beautiful song once said, "Jesus paid much too high a price for us to pick and choose who should come, but we are the body of Christ!" Do not reject the broken, and do not reject the sinner, lest God rejects you too.

I feel somewhat unwelcome with this blog, and have no other immediate reaction to it other than 'I'm an atheist'.

I have no idea how the Christian god acts, but to me I just couldn't accept simple repentance as punishment. These priests have committed terrible crimes and need to be brought to justice, secular justice. There also needs to be an investigation of it by if not the police then the church organizations. It's not a few 'bad' priests but a widespread problem.

But why would god create a world which has such evil to begin with?

Why would god put fruit on the tree of knowledge if it was going to be forbidden anyways?

wrong,
God created free will.
Free will agents then chose evil.
Only way evil could not exist is if there was no option to choose evil. But then there would be no free will.

In short free moral agents chose evil, not God

Also wrong
he had to allow man the option to disobey, it's called free will. If man had no ability, no option to disobey it would be forced will.

God will always give us the option to obey or to not obey.

It is certainly possible that there is a world with free will and no evil. God could only actuate those who would not do evil. So god could create those who freely choose to only do good. So everyone has free will, and no evil exists. Also, how would you explain evils that are natural and not related to man?

Seriously, these responses rock my brain

In answer to your last question, regarding natural disasters, the only answer I have is this - we live in a fallen world, a world that has fallen under sin and a curse because we humans chose to disobey the true God and follow our own gods. Suffering has become part and parcel to a broken world, that is the only reason. God does not want us to suffer.

As bad as suffering is, however, I can say that we learn to be the more grateful, and therefore joyful, the greater our suffering is - sometimes. Like a cancer patient who's been cured of cancer, the joy at recovery is greater than the joy of one who has always been healthy. That's not to say cancer or other kinds of sufferings are in and of themselves good things, but it is possible for suffering to lead to something good. I have seen how Jesus has healed people I know, and recently I also watched a documentary about trafficked women traded into the sex industry, and those who have been in some of the deepest pain - these women who've been sold and raped - have come to proclaim that Jesus is Lord and Gracious. I have seen my friend who lost her father praise God with all her heart. I have seen the healing of my own husband from a rather messy family. It is our own individual choice whether to believe in these wonderful testimonies. Both their suffering and their joy and healing are all equally real - it is our choice what we choose to focus on, whether we dwell on the suffering happening at all or the fruits that come at the end of intense pain.

I do not want to "convince" you of anything. We are all entitled to follow what convicts us, and Jesus Christ is my conviction and for me, I see a God who brings healing, who has not left this world abandoned but comes to all of us to meet our individual needs if we choose to call upon Him with all our heart in humility, recognising our need for Him.

think about it. If god never created any evil people, then couldn't one say god is cruel for punishing people before there even born? That would be no better than forcing everyone to be good. Besides, everyone sins, every one has done evil. By your logic no one would be born.

In reality there is no such thing as evil people, no one is born evil. people grow up and make both good and evil choices. Hitler did tons of evil, but he also did good, he did after all help Germany out of it's debt, a debt they may still have if it were not for him.

Whats more, not creating people for sins they will commit is like arresting children for drugs they will do in the future. You can't punish someone for something they havn't done yet.

If you have free will, true free will. Then your going to have evil it's unavoidable.

Actually that version was written by St. Augustine. The version that is largely attributed to Epicurus, the one I'm talking about, is '1) If an all-powerful and perfectly good god exists, then evil does not. 2) There is evil in the world. 3) Therefore, an all-powerful and perfectly good god does not exist'.

There are many different versions of the Problem of Evil.