Religion
In reply to the discussion: Religious Question #1 [View all]spin
(17,493 posts)The OP was "If god is suppose to create everything, where does evil come from??" which does not question the existence of God but asks about his motivations. The argument if God is reality or imagination would be a subject for a different discussion. Quoting from my post, "If there is a God or creator (which I believe)" would indicate that that is my belief and not necessary the truth. (I believe that I can effectively argue for or against the existence of a God.)
You ask "Which, according to believers, exists and is real. So why not just create heaven and be done?" addresses the subject of the original OP and asks about God's reasoning. My point is that we lack to intelligence to question the motivations or reasoning of a Supreme Being if he, she, it does indeed exist.
Let's consider the developers of a computer game. They often incorporate violence into their program in order to make the game more interesting. Often when an excessively violent computer game is made, the developers do face criticism. That is fair as we can understand and comprehend the motivations of computer game developers and have the ability to argue for or against their product.
You ask:
How much of a "test" has life been for the infant who dies shortly after death? How much of a test has it been for Dick Cheney, who has lived a comfortable life with no sacrifices?
Once again speculating on God's motivations seems to me to be somewhat foolish. For all we know God might have simply created the Universe and basically leaves it running on its own. Or perhaps he occasionally intervenes and offers help and guidance to a few chosen individuals. Maybe he is deeply involved in every individual's daily life but allows us the freedom to make our own choices. Perhaps our lives are predestined from birth. We can speculate all day and never know the truth. If may be great fun but nothing will be accomplished.
Your last comment was:
One last thing - you said atheists "refuse to believe in a God". I find your use of the word "refuse" to be disturbing. It implies that atheists recognize valid evidence for gods but actively reject it. It carries negative connotations, that there must be ulterior motives atheists have for simply believing in one less god than you do.
What is the dentition of atheism?
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.[1][2] In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.[3][4][5] Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist.[4][5][6][7] Atheism is contrasted with theism,[8][9] which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism
I was not critical of atheists as I said:
...I personally believe that our life is a test and that good people despite their religion will see a better future after death. Of course I could be totally wrong. I try my best to be a "good" person and to follow the Golden Rule which is common to many if not all religions. I also personally know atheists who, while they refuse to believe in a God, try to do the same as I do.
In fact I have known many atheists whose behavior could be a model for most religious people.