I did thanks Momma!
Four weeks off with lovely wife and delightful 3 year old.
Good to see you back too...thought some of those horrible infidels had frightened you away for good
I might be an infidel but I am not horrid.
eorl,
Not much scares me. I am so glad you and the family had a wonderful holiday. Very happy to see you again!
Still no one has explained why God is blamed for eveything good.
1. If he doesn't exist then the people who blame both bad and good on him are extremely misguided and should quit blaming things on a nonexistent being.
2. If he does exist, he is a God, the God, all-powerful, God and everything, bad or good, that happens is entirely his responsibility.
_____________________________________________________________
For example:
If someone takes a bullet for you, would you say "Thank God! You've watched over me today." ? I certainly imagine most of you Christians would.
Now if, instead, you are struck by the bullet, would you yell "Damn you God! You've killed me!" ? Probably not, this is part of my point: why blame only the good on him and not the bad?
Here's the solution. God doesn't exist. Don't blame him for anything; shape your own future and look on the past with pride or sorrow, not with praise or scorn for God. What you should really do is thank the guy who took the bullet for you, not God.
CrazyDiamond,
I completely understand your point. This is what I go by, "All things work to the good for those that love the Lord."
Now, that may sound crazy to some and I can understand that.
But, let me give you an example. Katrina was devastating. The National Animal Rescue set up here. When they got all the animals back home or to new homes and got ready to leave, they had tons, and I do mean tons of cat food and dog food they could not take with them.
They called all the shelters in the area, of which I am one, and distributed all this food. Well, I got enough cat food to run my shelter for a year. I got two tons (literally) of dog food to pass out to dog rescuers in the area. So, from a devastating thing like Katrina, good things happened.
Sure, I know. Sounds crazy. I understand. But, that's the way it is for those that have faith in the Lord. The bad things in this world, of course, could be totally stopped by God. But, we are not mere puppets here on this planet. We make a choice. Even Christ (I'm pretty sure it was Christ, might have been a disciple) said in the Bible He could not do some miracles due to some other's unbelief.
God allows Satan to rule this world for now. It's up to us who to follow. I choose God. Yes, bad things happen in my life, to me, to my family, etc. But, I don't blame God.
People have to die. If they didn't we'd soon be overpopulated and then what? There is a reason and a season for everything.
Blaming God is not the answer. We must first and foremost look to ourselves.
momma angel....you're right...the world could not accamodate everyone at once. Could be the reason why the new Heaven and Earth will contain no sea, since most of the world is ocean.
uh oh..... more real estate in heaven?
...if word gets out, will it effect our house prices and land valuations down here?
LOL, hopefully it won't come down to that.
eorl,
No worries, my friend. I sincerely doubt it will effect the price of land.
CrazyDiamond,
Thanx! :wink:
Yes, the problem of god being responsible for everything good but nothing bad is easily solved through scapegoating.
MA nailed it that time
Doktor S wrote:If there was a god, with omniscient knowledge, and perfect understanding of everything, past present and future, and further caused all this to be...that would make god responsible for EVERYTHING, would it not?
Not if there is free will.
Ah... But alas, there is NOT!
You say that with some degree of certainty echi...
I respectfully disagree.
If I say it with certainty, it's probably because of my participation in a recent thread on just this topic. Needless to say, my position has since been firmly established.
We could cruise on over there if ya'll would like to get it on.
I would be happy to do that... tomorrow... I really need to get some sleep. Am I the only one who has a hard time leaving once I get here? Post me a link and I'll join the discussion asap.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I am woman... hear me ROOOOOAAAARRRR!!!!!!!
LOL
Kidding...
Only Kidding...
Re: MA's example on the previous page...
If Satan is in control, then God is not.
If God cannot do some miracles due to unbelief, then the people that died in Katrina were all non-believers?
If not for Katrina, and all of the people that lost everything, in many cases their lives, then you wouldn't have food for your cat shelter?
MAYBE Katrina happened. Weather tends to do that. MAYBE, many people died because they did not prepare, evacuate, understand the seriousness, expect the levies to break, etc. MAYBE, some died because of illness, old age, inability to escape on their own.
MAYBE some lived because they did listen, evacuate, take the threat seriously and had prepared themselves to be in a position to leave or at least knew how to leave by calling a friend / cab/ or just plain walking out.
MAYBE you ended up with a lot of cat food because you put up fliers, advertise in the yellow pages, have put an effort into spreading the word that you provide for abandoned cats. Through your network in this field, you also know about dog shelters and are in a position to let dog shelters know about the food so they can share in the bounty.
Now, the above, to me, shows free will. We can sit on our duffs, that's our free will. Or, we can do things that may eventually lead to bigger and better things, perhaps including saving our own lives and helping those not able to do so.
So, did God create a hurricane and aim it at NO so He could provide you with cat food? Or, did it happen and you ended up benefiting due to your own previous works?
That seems to be what the original poster is getting at. Either God gets the blame and the glory, or he gets neither.
I blame George Bush for all things that befall man.
