A question for people that believe in God...

[waltzingparrot]

If God could take you back to the very beginning and ask you If he should create our world or not, knowing what you know now, would you say create it or not.

Yes create it.

I was listening to a debate on Darwinism and this question was posed. One contributor said he'd tell God not to create this world that has ended up with so much suffering.

We do seem to be making a pig's ear of living in peace and harmony and looking after our neighbour.

I think it's all one big test. I question life everyday, I pray everyday. I am interested in space. I want to read the Bible and truly understand it. I think the world was made by God I also am a big believer in science and the big bang, but also I believe in God. I think about him a lot. But I also see real suffering in this world and I can't understand why. I also am surprised with the lack of response to your thread. My family are all religious and they say that covid was written in the Bible. They believe in the 3 days of darkness. I believe that we will be wiped out some day. Then other times I think no it will never happen. I don't have children as I think this world is too cruel I have a fabulous life but I don't see the point if we are going to die. And also I don't want to see my children mourning me as i will my own parents. I look at hunger, drugs, homelessness, car accidents, young children and parents with cancer and think why will god not stop and help. I think of Ian Huntley in prison with no cancer then I see my dad's ex employee David a year older than me dying from cancer and think why? Why? Why?. I think of women who can't have their own babies and a girl in my neighborhood can spew one out every 10 months and they end up in care. I think of men and women working hard all their lives to lose everything because of an accident. I think of people born in poor poor countries who never get an education or clean water or food and I think of myself not using my full potential in this life due to sickness. I think of a loving dedicated husband getting up in the morning going to work at 6.30am and dying in a car accident on a motorway and on the opposite side of the same motorway another husband racing home from a hotel after spending the night with his mistress arriving safely. I don't really understand life sometime but I will pray that my family remain safe, never hungry, healthy and kind to each other. Sorry for the long rant

I’m somewhat sympathetic to the notion that suffering often seems undeserved.
But when we forget that we are animals, albeit rational animals, we can forget the biggest mystery- which is complexification.
That is, as humans we are negentropic entities, something that doesn’t quite fit with the laws of nature, as we commonly understand them.
In essence, it’s a miracle that we exist.
I don’t know if God comes into it or not (I like to think so).
But people being unkind to each other and accidents etc... why would a creative force care about that stuff? It would just say here is life... in abundance. It wouldn’t judge or determine who was deserving of being around or not.

I’ll start by answering your question with who God is: The creator of the universe and my Heavenly Father. He is sovereign and has power and authority over everything. He is a God of love and justice. God was in community within himself before He created us- The trinity. His love is abundant and endless. He created us out of His love. He never intended for us to suffer, mankind chose to disobey Him continually. Therefore, we invite the enemy to reek havoc on earth and in our lives.

When we put our faith in Jesus and establish our identity in and through Him, we conquer death. This life is temporary and out forever is with Him. The suffering on earth will fade away because enteral life awaits those that believe in Jesus.

There is so much beauty to be seen, if only we look at the world with God’s eyes.

@waltzingparrot

I was listening to a debate on Darwinism and this question was posed. One contributor said he'd tell God not to create this world that has ended up with so much suffering.

We do seem to be making a pig's ear of living in peace and harmony and looking after our neighbour.

There is an awful lot that is good about the world and the people in it. We are unrealistic to expect everything to go smoothly but must give thanks for what we have.

Yes I would ask Him to create the world. It is a wonderful world and it's only we humans who cause strife -we can strive not to.

Hell yeah!

Our world is the most fascinating place - all that beautiful nature - rivers, mountains, coral reefs, living things, night, day, seasons.

People have understandably got an anthropocentric view of their own impact - and they have made an awful pigs ear of it in many ways, but look at all the good stuff - our capacity to love, spiritually, families, different races and the fact that men and women exist at all with all that emotion and sexual behaviour. God could have had us breeding like plants if he had a warped sense of humour. Maybe he has..

People may cease to exist one day, and it’ll still be a beautiful place - hopefully.

Not religious but I think it's a bad question. It's like saying "we'll never get it right anyway so let's not even try".

For instance I chose to become a parent knowing that I'll probably mess up, and maybe my child will suffer and/or cause suffering, but I did it because I still think it's worth it. Not unlike god in a way.

I'd never suggest that we shouldn't exist, it's the coward's way out.

Yes, we make the most of what we have and try to make things better for the next generation. I like the world, being alive, being here but am well aware human beings make dreadful errors.

Woodworks
Outofthewoodworks

Yes, because we aren't at the end of the world yet. Who knows what the Creator has in store? And who is to say all suffering is always bad? Sometimes we learn valuable lessons from it.

Suffering is part of this world, lets use it to our advantage.

My short answer, would be yes.

Behind that though, I would say that the very nature of God is that of a creator through His love. He IS love and hence needs to create to express that love. I'm not sure if I've explained that very well but it is how I would respond to your question.

Definitely create it! The world is beautiful and full of joy and love and hope and happiness and wonderful things,There are bad things too, but the bad doesn't outweigh the good.

I would actually say, No, do not create it. Or, do not create humans. Or, only create humans if aggression/hate towards self and others is erased. I personally don't think the good outweighs the bad. I don't think it's a fair trade off to have a bunch of horrible stuff for maybe a bit of good. Obviously I'm not God and don't know the purpose and meaning for everything. I still think we are in purgatory or actual hell, or that Evil has hijacked earth and/or humans.

I still vote no. I think there are better planets and species out there, more loving, that haven't fallen to the dark side or were hijacked.

Maybe only create certain things about it. Or start it over again see if it does better.

Sorry, kinda pessimistic. Too much horror, pain, etc. I don't think this violent unloving planet should be remade. However, maybe God is trying to change it to good. So, a more loving version of it, yes. As it is, no, obliterate it, but not so people or living things suffer.

Well, as I see it, “God” is shorthand for an omnipotent, omniessent supreme power of the universe. Not necessarily a Abrahamic God, a pagan god or goddess, Osiris, Gaia or any other god or goddess or indeed scientific explanation who has existed It contains what we have categorised as good and evil, happy sad and every other state of contraries (by the very definition of being everything) we are Gods vessels to experience interaction on a physical plane.

I once saw God presented as an acronym of Generate Order and Destroy and really that is what the Bible )and many other religious stories) is based around and therefore is the purpose of God.

God is within us and we are in God, or as William Blake once said Jesus Christ is the Only God and so am I and so are you. We were created in Gods image according to Genesis , not in our physical make up as God does not have one not being part of the physical realm, but in our capacity to experience contraries and try and achieve balance. To create and to destroy.

We are not separate from this Supraconsciousness we are part of it, to suggest this world was not created through thought, word, birth etc and man never existed it would be to deny an element of that power. If we didn’t exist, would God, in whatever form, exist?