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Original poster

5yo dd blaming God for everything. 'Why can't God just make it Friday so i can have Golden time today?'

89 replies

EweHaveGoatToBeSkiddinInSnow · 03/12/2013 10:27

It's really irritating me. We're both Catholics (me not a practicing one, though) and dd attends a Catholic school.

These past few weeks, she's been going on about God and bombarding me with questions such as "Who made God?" "What was there before God?" "How can God be everywhere at the same time?"

I've answered as well as i could.

But now she's blaming God for every little thing. And it's these ones I'm struggling with.

"Why can't God just make it my birthday today?"

"Why can't God make me turn into a kitten instead of being a human?"

"Why can't God make me fly?"

"Why can't God make someone else have my cough?"

Etc etc etc. God is being blamed for such things 3-5 times a day in my house.

I've explained to her this morning about the Golden Time/Friday thing that it was humans who invented the idea of days and time etc, so it's nothing to do with God. But then she spun it around that God was the one who made humans and gave them their brains to think about naming the days in the first place.

Any ideas?

OP posts:
headinhands · 26/12/2013 14:53

Why doesn't he give it to everyone? Why did we need to wait thousands of years to get to the stage we're at if it's innate? How come our reasoning abilities depend largely on education?

headinhands · 26/12/2013 14:57

Seems cruel to give us the desire to find solutions but set it up so that millions suffer until we learn enough? It's a bit like sticking a load of people on a desert island and hiding a trunk of food and medical supplies but not telling them where it was, forcing them to waste valuable energy digging up the whole island and watching most if them die in the meantime. That's just nasty. Expect god didn't hie a trunk of anything anywhere. We made the stuff we needed ourselves after years of research and trial and error.

HoneyandRum · 26/12/2013 15:10

I should've corrected my grammar to say gives us creativity rather than gave as it is continual.

Catholics believe in freewill so we are not puppets we can cooperate with God's grace or not.

There is no mention of love in any of your postings. It's a wonder there is anything good in the world considering how depraved, selfish and ignorant we all are apparently. I believe we are created good, and so does the church.

I already stated that Catholics believe in the use of reason and we understand that the nature of human beings means that we respond to education. Why are we not allowed to change and grow? Isn't that the very nature of life? It seems you can only accept a God who gives you your idea of perfection instantly.

Would I be a loving parent if I gave my young child everything they wanted immediately?

colditz · 26/12/2013 15:11

My reason tells me that a kind and loving omnipotent creator would not leave his creations to die screaming of aids before they leave infancy.

colditz · 26/12/2013 15:13

Food, health and shelter aren't wants, they are needs. WOuld you be a good and loving parent if you refused to provide these for 1 of your children?

HoneyandRum · 26/12/2013 15:27

We have already covered this point. We have the resources and the abilities to alleviate suffering (not completely and not in all cases). Suffering is a mystery and something we cannot completely avoid.

As Catholics we believe that God came to live with us as one of us. A human person who lived among us, born of a human mother and who did not avoid suffering but was executed.

technodad · 26/12/2013 16:24
colditz · 26/12/2013 17:29

Suffering isn't a mystery at all. It's a lack of basic resources. I don't think many things are less of a mystery than suffering.

headinhands · 26/12/2013 17:38

Honey, you're telling us god is loving but have provided no evidence for him being loving. If I told you that actually the god Shrambalambakka created the world and loves all of us wouldn't you point out that there was zero evidence?

HoneyandRum · 26/12/2013 17:55

I do not feel any need or responsibility to convince you of God's existence. I have plenty of evidence that is convincing to me. To me you are still my brother or sister in Christ and precious in God's sight. You are a reasonable person and you have the freedom to accept or reject God as we all can.

To Catholics it would make no difference to be surrounded by unbelievers, we still should love and serve each other as our sisters and brothers as much as we are able. For the bed bound that might mean through prayer.

technodad · 26/12/2013 18:03

Honey

And why would god answer the prayer for the bed bound, and not that of an African toddler that is about to die of aids?

HoneyandRum · 26/12/2013 18:04

One of our children had chemotherapy from a baby, I don't think that was a lack of basic resources. We were also aware if this child had lived in a different era or was born in another less developed nation then this child would have died as a baby.

This still involved suffering for everyone. I don't believe God was evil or unloving because our child and family suffered through this experience. I was very grateful for all the love and care we all experienced.

Many people in the UK and US do not lack basic resources but are miserable more from a lack of love.

headinhands · 26/12/2013 18:05

What do you mean by a lack of love?

HoneyandRum · 26/12/2013 18:06

I think you are mistaking me for Christ, I do not have all the answers you seem to be seeking. Suffering is the mystery that all religions confront and I don't see a lack of faith solving any of the problems of suffering,

headinhands · 26/12/2013 18:11

Evidence is not a subjective thing though. It means something that we can all observe and test. The same way that you think your car runs on petrol/diesel. You put it in the tank and the car works, I can watch and observe that regardless of any other opinions or beliefs I have. I could come along and say that no, it runs on chocolate milkshake but I can't expect anyone to even entertain the notion without showing how chocolate milkshake makes the engine work.

headinhands · 26/12/2013 18:15

The thing is, you can't have it both ways. Half the time you're explaining how suffering is necessary and part of the plan and then the other half of the time retreating behind a facade titled mystery.

technodad · 26/12/2013 18:17

Excellent point Head

Honey claims she had lots of evidence, but she is completely confusing the definition of the word "evidence"

My definition of evidence would be something like "the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid."

Unfortunately, Honey is using confirmation bias.

HoneyandRum · 26/12/2013 18:27

The natural world and the universe to me is evidence of God and to you it is not, it is true I have a bias, I am not trying to convince you of anything. I am stating the Catholic position that is all.

TeamHank · 26/12/2013 18:30

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?

Your DD sounds very bright - a future as a happy atheist awaits her Smile.

technodad · 26/12/2013 18:32

Honey

So if the natural world is evidence of god, I presume you believe this because the natural world is so amazing, that it had to be made by a creator?

If so, then surely God himself (itself / herself?) is even more amazing than the natural world, and so by the same definition, god must also have had a creator (because he is too amazing to have greater himself)!

If so, who is god's creator and why do you not worship him?

TheNumberfaker · 26/12/2013 18:37

Read her 'The God Delusion' as her bedtime story.

headinhands · 26/12/2013 18:56

How does one decide that the catholic god was responsible for creation as opposed to the other 3'999 gods that humanity did or does currently believe in? How do you decide it was your god and not a different one?

technodad · 26/12/2013 19:07

It depends who got to you first and managed to brain wash you I suppose (or which fictional website you found first and were naively convinced by).

HoneyandRum · 26/12/2013 19:52

I converted as an adult from atheism. I grew up with no faith background. I converted because of my encounters with God's love and because I was convinced by Catholic doctrine and teaching - which I studied. The beauty and holiness of Catholic life and culture also attracted me. By the grace of God I will remain in God's love and would die if necessary for my faith like the Christians in Syria and Egypt. I was baptized and received into the church in 1988.

headinhands · 26/12/2013 19:58

How are you able to trust the validity of your encounters while rejecting the encounters people have with other gods? A desire to die for ones faith is by no means particular to Catholicism. Strength of conviction is no indicator of the reality of the beliefs otherwise all manner of contradictory beliefs are true, which is impossible/nonsense.