Loaded question

Dave-W

Welcoming grandchild #7, Arturus Waggoner!
Site Supporter
Jun 18, 2014
30,521
16,866
Maryland - just north of D.C.
Visit site
✟771,800.00
Country
United States
Faith
Messianic
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Others
Didn't someone write a book on that one? (maybe a LOT of someones?)

9781599797823_p0_v1_s260x420.jpg
419GM2PAPPL.jpg
51bwPuP6hmL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cearbhall
Upvote 0

Davinci1804

Active Member
May 25, 2015
30
5
USA
✟7,687.00
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Single
You do realize you posted this in an area with plenty of non-believe.

For me there is no reason to expect good people to have protection from bad things.
That's exactly why I ask this question here. Because this question is actually based upon a wrong premise.
You're in the right path with your answer but you still answer it on the wrong premise
 
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums

The Cadet

SO COOL
Apr 29, 2010
6,290
4,743
Munich
✟45,617.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
In Relationship
Politics
US-Democrat
Why do bad things happen to good people?

Be careful when answering this question. It's a minefield by the way.

I would like to hear your reasoning.
The load in this question is the word "good". Because "good people" describes exactly none of us.

Here's a slightly less loaded question: "Why would a god who purportedly loves us create a universe and a set of rules which none of us could possibly hope to live up to?"
 
Upvote 0

Smidlee

Veteran
May 21, 2004
7,076
749
NC, USA
✟21,162.00
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
The load in this question is the word "good". Because "good people" describes exactly none of us.

Here's a slightly less loaded question: "Why would a god who purportedly loves us create a universe and a set of rules which none of us could possibly hope to live up to?"
Man loves rules and laws.
 
Upvote 0

SharonL

Senior Veteran
Oct 15, 2005
9,957
1,099
Texas
Visit site
✟23,316.00
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Married
My brother died at age 40 - his life was very hard - illness, blind, many problems, he had a wife and a small child. For years I ask God why did he have to die so early. The Lord put on my heart that He did not 'take' him but he 'received' him because he no longer wanted to live.

I read a story in the Bible, cannot remember where but it told of a death of someone young and God's answer was that the devil had set traps for this person down the road that would have been awful for all - so He accepted her into Heaven.

We never know why things happen, but it reminds me of the song 'Thank God for unanswered prayers' - what we pray for is not always best for us.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pdudgeon
Upvote 0

Davinci1804

Active Member
May 25, 2015
30
5
USA
✟7,687.00
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Single
The load in this question is the word "good". Because "good people" describes exactly none of us.

Here's a slightly less loaded question: "Why would a god who purportedly loves us create a universe and a set of rules which none of us could possibly hope to live up to?"

You get it right.

Now to your question: it insinuates that we were created to fail. We weren't. We failed by our own choice or the choice of the first created couple. We are just living the consequences. Not God's fault but ours. God is good and just. We are fallen and corrupted.

He didn't create a set of rules that we can't live up to. He create them to show the abundance of grace and love, not to challenge.

Remember Christ lived on the earth exactly to show us that.
 
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums

Paradoxum

Liberty, Equality, Solidarity!
Sep 16, 2011
10,712
654
✟28,188.00
Faith
Humanist
Marital Status
Private
Politics
UK-Liberal-Democrats
Because physics is heartless, humans are fallible, and there's no good God.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Be careful when answering this question. It's a minefield by the way.

I would like to hear your reasoning.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TerranceL
Upvote 0

The Cadet

SO COOL
Apr 29, 2010
6,290
4,743
Munich
✟45,617.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
In Relationship
Politics
US-Democrat
You get it right.

Now to your question: it insinuates that we were created to fail. We weren't. We failed by our own choice or the choice of the first created couple. We are just living the consequences. Not God's fault but ours. God is good and just. We are fallen and corrupted.

That's a phenomenally convenient excuse. The fact remains that God could have created a system where the son does not pay for the sins of the father. That in particular is a bit of a sticking point for me - that the decision made by a couple that I will never know and that I have no influence over somehow sticks to me seems like the epitome of a flawed moral system. Why make a system in which a large portion of the beings you love end up in hell, when you could just as easily, you know, not send them there.

Let me make an analogy. If I put a baby on the edge of a cliff and stop paying attention to it for a while, I do not get to be mad when the baby crawls off and accidentally falls off and dies. I put a baby on a cliff, what did you think was going to happen? But to make this analogous to the genesis account, there would also have to be a sociopath there who gets off on babies falling off cliffs trying to convince the little bugger to jump. One who I also put there. And then I punish that baby's family.

None of this adds up to a supreme being who is all-powerful and loves us. It adds up to a demented sociopath with a hankering for some toasted human. If we weren't created to fail, then God is horribly incompetent. I never failed in the garden, and those who did fail in the garden had no understanding of good and evil so they had no way to know that what they were doing was wrong! That's a system where we never really had a chance to begin with.

He didn't create a set of rules that we can't live up to.

If I posted a picture of Scarlett Johansson topless, rest assured you'd see how futile your task is. After all, merely looking at a woman with lust is a sin. Hell, we are born in sin. Isn't the entire point of Jesus that the rules God made are impossible for any normal human to follow?

He create them to show the abundance of grace and love

You know what would show more grace and love? Not creating a system which requires a by-proxy atonement for one's sins. Not creating a system where anyone needs to be tortured forever. Here, let me show you a system with more grace and love:

Humans come onto this earth. They live simple, mostly happy lives, because their needs are taken care of and they don't have a psychological urge to downgrade their own status and constantly yearn for more (we still have free will, we just don't have this one obnoxious psychological quirk) and then they die and get to start over. Also, God acts an awful lot like, say, Luna from Friendship is Magic, showing up in nightmares to ensure that the people he is in charge of know he's around and looking out for their wellbeing.

See, notice anything about that system? It involves humans being happy, actually having a personal relationship with god, and no eternal torment. Humans still have free will (and in fact, we would still have free will even if we weren't able to choose to do evil!). I came up with that system in like 5 minutes after a My Little Pony binge. I'm sure an omnipotent, omnibenevolent ruler of the universe could do better.
 
Upvote 0

Smidlee

Veteran
May 21, 2004
7,076
749
NC, USA
✟21,162.00
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
If I posted a picture of Scarlett Johansson topless, rest assured you'd see how futile your task is. After all, merely looking at a woman with lust is a sin. Hell, we are born in sin. Isn't the entire point of Jesus that the rules God made are impossible for any normal human to follow?
My parents didn't set rules that was impossible for me to follow but I broke them anyways. Not only someone fail at living by God's standard but God can take a person own words and judge them.
 
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums