How can you possibly believe in a benevolent God

[partialderivative]

Once more, acts of 'god' have left communities blown apart.

Does any one really feel these vilages deserved it?

God's a bit of a cunt at times.

How can you possibly believe in any god of the abrahamic religions?

Out of a desperate need for comfort in the face of a 'pointless' life and certain death.

That thought doesn't quite do enough to help me tolerate the insistently religious, though.

Tectonic plate movements innit, not your actuall omnipresent being in the sky, course you could say it was the work of good ol Lucifer, funny how the Devil never gets blamed for anything!

It's the Problem of Evil innit.

Can't be arsed to put it into words so cut and pasted from wikipedia

"The originator of the logical problem of evil has been cited as the Greek philosopher Epicurus,[11] and this argument may be schematized as follows:

If an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent god exists, then evil does not.
There is evil in the world.
Therefore, an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God does not exist."

If you believe that God created the world then he is responsible for plate tectonics and it's plate tectonics that cause earthquakes, therefore it's god's design that led to the tragedy in Nepal.

So how can anyone who believes in an omnipotent God let him off the hook?

at consecutive use of innit. I've never done that before.

"If he doesn't watch you all the time how does he know whether to let you into heaven?

He asks Father Christmas. Of course.

Is the easter bunny in on it to?

OMG MRSGRINCH TAKE COVER THEY'RE GOING TO BE COMING FOR YOU ANY MINUTE

I think heaven would be a bit dull. A bit like an endless spa day.

Gah, sorry, ms grinch not Mrs. What a mistaka to make-a...

It's ok, it wasn't your mistake, it was an act of God.

Innit see i'm perverting grammar mardy but don't it feel good my bad!

Epicurus had it right:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

Pretty much what Mardy and catgirl said. Surely an omniscient god should be watching over all of us, all the time. An omnibenevolent god wouldn't want anything bad to happen to any of us, and an omnipotent god wouldn't let it happen.

I tried really hard to believe in god, after my Granda died. I couldn't let him go, so it suited me to think of him, floating around on a fluffy cloud, with his Son who died at 18, almost 4 decades ago, shooting pool and sipping whiskey. I actually tried to convince myself that there was a scientific basis for this. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, right? So Granda's energy must have gone somewhere, right? Perhaps to that lovely fluffy cloud. That's not what happened though. He died, and then was gone.

Or as my Leaving Cert biology teacher so succinctly put it 'your Granny dies, so you bury her. Then your Granny decomposes into the soil, the soil grows into grass, the cows eat the grass, and we eat the cows. So when you have a steak you're eating your Granny'. Or, for me, my Granda's gorgeous energy went in to the soil, and emerged as the beautiful flowers that grow by his grave. I actually find that much more comforting than the idea of Granda floating around on a cloud for all eternity.

A lot of offensive talk on here. What on earth has God to do with natural disasters. Pathetic to blame Him really. It also must actually mean you believe in him to be blaming him.

I don't believe in God as an individual but if I did here is an idea:

He did this terrible thing in Nepal, to the nicest people I have met, to show the rest of us how to care, feel loss and love and realise that we are not as important as we think we are. To teach us humility and love for our fellow man?

How is it pathetic, though? Surely if god is responsible for everything good that happens, he's also responsible for everything bad? Or does he get to take credit for all of the good stuff, but none of the bad?

Athrawes But by that logic, God doesn't see all human beings as having equally intrinsic worth - some can be not only tortured and murdered, but they can be (cosmically, in God terms) viewed as being value-less in their own right and only obtain value as objects turned into a 'lesson/teaching tool' solely for the benefit of the...'better' humans, who can be loved and taught lessons

If you would like to know the answers to your questions, read and study the bible, go to church and have a personal relationship with God and all will be revealed. Don't expect answers immediately it happens over time:)

A lot of offensive talk on here. Offensive to whom? People who are too wrapped up in the irony of their religions?

It's bloody Hitchens' fault. Since god Is Not Great god has felt a bit put out and feels he/she/it has to prove him/her/itself to be omnipotent and therefore kill innocent people in creative ways, like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or boats capsizing in the Med.

I suppose thearguement is that it is all about the afteflife not what halpens here on earth.god has called his children home perhaps?

What on earth has God to do with natural disasters. Pathetic to blame Him really. It also must actually mean you believe in him to be blaming him.

What has he got to do with natural disasters...? Well, if he created the world, then he's responsible for it. Why wouldn't you blame the 'creator'?

I don't believe in God, so I don't think he is responsible. I think it is purely tectonic plates shifting; nothing more, nothing less.

But I don't see how you can't solve him, if you do believe in him.

...I don't see how you can absolve him.

How can you possibly believe in god at all? There's just so many massive gaps in logic, I just don't understand how people can get past them.