Dear Pellius,
It's nice to hear from you again.
Oh, I don't claim to have copyright to misfortune and I, like so many others, have trouble reconciling how a God could permit
such massive tragedy.
Your question as to whether or not God is good is interesting given your aforementioned opinion that the universe is not random.
Might I offer this: If, as you believe the universe is NOT random AND God DOES exist, then God, by virtue of his omnipotence, is NOT
and does NOT permit "randomness." Therefore, God not only permits such inexplicable maladies and suffering, but
it is also his design and intent.
We are now left with the question as to whether or not God is good.
With the ability to create any utterly completely Utopian universe God desires, he chose to create one in which most suffer and all suffer on a frequent
basis.
Now, how does one conclude that God is good?
This is just a thought of mine and certainly can not be proved (or disproved) in any way.
I think it was Christopher Hitchens who said, "That which can be asserted without evidence , can be dismissed without evidence."
Harley
Oh no, I believe that things are very random. So much of life happens purely by chance. Being born in the U.S. and being born in Dafur will make much more a difference in your life than how intelligent or physically gifted you are -- which in itself happens purely by chance. A boy about a week ago got hit by a car dead on killing him on the spot. It was a road that is usually deserted and rarely has any traffic. When I think about the chances, all the events that had to have taken place, for that boy to be at that exact spot at the exact time that one car was passing... I mean, you couldn't plan it even it you wanted to. We're talking about maybe a three second window.
On the other hand, if while exploring the planet Mars we had come across a calculator or a time piece or a sharp tool of some sort, nobody would believe that it had happened by chance. There's a difference between random chance events that happen within the hodge podge and interaction of existing matter and other existing events; and creation. Hell, I just stepped on a damn piece of gum yesterday walking from my truck to the grocery store. I mean, the parking lot is so damn huge that I thought about what the chances are for my foot to step on the exact same spot as that stinking piece of gum. And it's not like the parking lot is littered with gum. Yet when the ear bud came off and dropped to the ground while I was taking off my head phones in the gym I couldn't find the damn thing. I kept saying to myself, "How far could that little fucker be from where I am?" I never found it but I'm sure someone will randomly step on it.
But who created that gum or ear bud -- who created the matter and events that continue to torment me? That's another question.
To permit something, i.e., to allow someone to make their own decisions, does not mean it was your design and intent. Even if you created that something. I mean, I don't think my father should be held accountable for my behavior though I believe he played a great role on the type of person I've become.
But in the case of God, though man can choose evil through the exercise of his free will and be held accountable for it, I'm not sure if it relieves God of the responsibility. After all, if God created everything, and he is omniscience, he already knew what you would choose anyway. It's sort of like watching a movies. The characters being portrayed don't know how things will turn out but their lives and fate has already been played out. It's just a matter of going through the motions.
So though God had warned Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of conscious and gave them the free will to make that decision. He already knew what they would do and all that would follow.
I believe I will have my day of judgment and have to account for things I did and should not have done. For things that I didn't do that I should have done.
But I won't be the only one.
“Then, having thus made the Creator responsible for all those pains and diseases and miseries above enumerated, and which he could have prevented, the gifted Christian blandly calls him Our Father!" ― Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings
