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Philosophy/religion

If God exists, why all the suffering and evil in the world?

103 replies

MexicanMarissa · 27/06/2005 10:52

Hello :-)

I believe in God and am thinking about returning to church, but if God really exists why all the suffering and svil in the world such as the tsunami, poverty, murder and rape?

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aloha · 27/06/2005 10:54

Because he isn't very nice?

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outofmydeppth · 27/06/2005 10:55

Read THE GIFT by Mia Dolan!

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Lizzylou · 27/06/2005 10:57

Your thoughts are why I originally moved away from religion and my catholic upbringing...so hard to reconcile a supposingly all loving God with the state of the world today...
That said, Motherhood has made me want to explore my spirituality more now and DH and I discuss whether or not to atttend church/which faith all the time...still not sure, still very agnostic!

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Nightynight · 27/06/2005 11:16

because its earth, not heaven?

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SoupDragon · 27/06/2005 11:17

Because if you believe in God, surely you have to believe in the existence of the devil?

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dinosaur · 27/06/2005 11:20

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

MexicanMarissa · 27/06/2005 11:20

but why do they happen if he exists? Surely he has the power to sort earth out so everyone is not suffering. But with somethings I know people cause themselves and should be made consequently to suffer.

I just wonder why we have to worry about things that sometimes we havent caused ourselves. Like how some children are born with disibilities, why? Surely the mum and dad didnt deserve to have a disabled child, so why didnt he make it right?

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MexicanMarissa · 27/06/2005 11:21

so the devil makes us do bad things?

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sparklymieow · 27/06/2005 11:32

to believe in God you have to believe in the devil, and because of the war between God and The devil, we have the bun deal because God gave the earth to the Devil and said basically 'you run the earth and we will see what happens'

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QueenOfQuotes · 27/06/2005 11:34

No people choose to do bad things as God gives us a choice. Adam was tempted in the Garden of Eden by the serpent (the devil) and 'chose' to disobey God.

God gives us the strength to 'get through' the bad things if we trust(don't know if you know the "Footprints in the Sand" poem).

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starlover · 27/06/2005 11:36

but people don't CHOOSE to get killed, or have children that die, or any number of terrible things that happen

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QueenOfQuotes · 27/06/2005 11:37

no they don't choose to have those things happen to them - but God gives the strength to get through those situations

"Footprints in the Sand"

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed
he was walking along the beach with the LORD.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand: one belonging
to him, and the other to the LORD.


When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.


He noticed that many times along the path of
his life there was only one set of footprints.


He also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.


This really bothered him and he
questioned the LORD about it:


"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me."

The LORD replied:

"My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."

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essbee · 27/06/2005 11:49

Message withdrawn

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Ameriscot2005 · 27/06/2005 11:58

We live in a fallen world and have free will.

It's what you do with the suffering that is important.

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MexicanMarissa · 27/06/2005 12:00

I went to Manchester Cathedral on Saturday and I just cried and cried! I felt like a right fool. It's never happened to me before.

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staceym11 · 27/06/2005 12:09

This is a quick answer which may help some people, 'God created a perfect world, god placed people into the perfect world and people destroyed it, now god has no control over the minds and doings of those people' i myself have suffered one of these evils and yet i can still believe in god knowing that it is not he but us who changed this perfect world around!

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essbee · 27/06/2005 12:11

Message withdrawn

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horseshoe · 27/06/2005 16:00

We all have free will and it's us doing this to the world...The bible says God tried to fix it once before as with the story of Noah....after that he promised he would never do it again.....

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dinosaur · 27/06/2005 16:03

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

Tortington · 27/06/2005 19:36

god creates us always happy - then -if all there was was happiness - would we know we were happy? what would we have to measure it by ?
if then that happiness is relative, one persons happiness would be anothers sadness and there would indeed be sadness according to some people so then what? god could make some people more happy than others - then surely this would be inequality of happiness and god would be favouring some more than others as he would be bestowing on them more happiness - even though their needs dictate it - would this be fair to those who didn't get an equal amount?

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ks · 27/06/2005 20:01

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Duranfan · 27/06/2005 20:11

Hi Everyone

I'm relatively new to this site, so will add my 2 penneth.. (got to start somewhere).

I believe that to experience joy, we need to experience pain. Although we embrace and love happy events in our lives, we don't actually learn an awful lot from them. Sadness, pain and adversity is what we need to learn from in this life. How many times have we heard "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger"..!!

Everything in our lives that happens is meant to make us think, learn, develop and grow... as someone had already said, you can't measure happiness against happiness!!

I didn't say it was all fair though...

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mumfor1sttime · 27/06/2005 20:41

I do not believe in God or the Devil. To me religion causes war, I do respect other peoples beliefs - unfortunately not everyone else can respect other peoples beliefs - this is what I dont like. I take a back step from religion.

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sparklymieow · 27/06/2005 21:13

KS I meant bum deal!!!

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QueenOfQuotes · 27/06/2005 21:26

religion doesn't cause wars - people cause wars.

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