World Suffering... Why?

[Burgoo]

I wanted people's thoughts on this as I have wrestled with it recently.

I went with a family member to a church she wanted to attend. I am atheistic though went to church from 10-15 years of age and wanted to be supportive and find out whether it'd feel different as an adult.

The minister started by mentioning Ukraine and then moved on to how God has a master plan, that he is good, he is almighty and he is merciful. He went on saying that children of Christ will be with him and the rest of us will perish.

I sat there thinking "God is merciful? Tell that to my Aunt who died horrifically of cancer, or the kids being bombed in Yemen and Ukraine".

So! Firstly, what do people think? Is it a reasonable response to have or am I missing something? For those who are church goers please do feel free to explain because I feel that either 1) god isn't real 2) god is real and can't intervene (in which case what use is he) or 3) god can intervene but opts not to or actively harms children.

Thanks in advance!

But if we are all part of a simulated universe, who created it, and who created them?

I'm not a believer, but if you do believe then God gave us "free will". That means we make choices - we choose to start a war, use chemicals that give us cancer, etc. You can lead a Christian life but your life also depends on other people's decisions, who may not believe in a God.

I believe there is something else, something bigger than us and beyond us. I believe all religions are trying in their own way to connect with that force, that otherness. I believe that how I live on earth and how I treat others will affect my understanding of that world beyond this one, when my time comes. Believing in something more is a comfort. I do not understand or have a clear belief in what it is or how it impacts the good or bad things that happen on earth. No-one does. Praying for me is a moment of quietness, organising thoughts, sending “good intentions” out into the universe. Feeling a small connection to the person I am praying for. It’s personal. I don’t expect others to see it the same way. I don’t need them to. I was raised a Catholic but I do not believe in many of the specifics of the Church. I attend Mass sometimes because I get a lot out of the stillness, the contemplation, the oneness, the hope and intention for good over evil.

I have no expectations of “God” therefore I don’t accept or reject “God” because of the things I see on earth.

I’m an ex-pagan @WeCouldBeSpearows. I’m kind of transitioning from pantheist (god is everywhere) to panentheist/panpsychist (god is immanent and transcendent; consciousness is an emergent property of matter). I also really agree with @tryingtoexplain ‘s post, but I’m more of a McGilchristian than a Christian.

channelmcgilchrist.com/the-matter-with-things/

I had a full mystical experience of God recently, which was profoundly healing, and also allowed me to see the full experience of human suffering, and God loving that into full remission... hence the Dostoevsky quote I posted on page one of the thread, which was uncanny to discover not long after my experience. I’m currently reading about Eastern Orthodoxy, but I think I’m too pagan to be Christian and too Christian to be pagan 😁

Another quote from Brothers Karamazov which sums up my philosophy and why I'm straddling paganism and Christianity:

“Love all God’s creation, both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love each separate thing. If thou love each thing thou wilt perceive the mystery of God in all; and when once thou perceive this, thou wilt thenceforward grow every day to a fuller understanding of it: until thou come at last to love the whole world with a love that will then be all-embracing and universal.”

***

"I think that using the word love is just too sappy, they don’t want to use the word love because that’s it, that’s the key, that love is the key to everything you know, and that’s the christian answer. That the world exists through love, and God is love, and god and love is that possibility for things to be in communion and one and multiple at the same time. And that goes all the way up into the trinity as the transcendent example of that existence in love"

Jonathan Pageau (sorry it reads a bit clunky, I transcribed it from youtube from the "Panpsychism and Logos" video)

"God is a kid with an ant farm" - Constantine.

'If triangles had a god, it would have three sides'

Montesquieu

@WeCouldBeSpearows

But if we are all part of a simulated universe, who created it, and who created them?

Other advanced beings that knew genetic engineering

Other advanced beings that knew genetic engineering

You missed the second question - who created them?