Half of God's creation survives only because of the deaths of the other half?

[oldcelt]

At least you see this part, you are not an accident. Look into your ancestry and see what lengths God went to to get YOU! If just one of your ancestors took a different path or a different spouse–YOU would not be. There was only one path able to get YOU. Don’t you feel special? Well, you should and so should every person born for a chance at Eternal Life…

In my view I an the result of a series of human interactions that happened with no outside intervention. This same process has occurred billions of times in human history…it is happening as we speak. That there was only one way to get the exact me makes me like I am part of the human race. Not special, not miraculous…just part of a species that has managed to survive long enough to produce all of us.
If something had happened differently, I would not be here, but it is very likely that someone else would be. Not a world-shattering event in either case, IMHO.

John

 

[oldcelt]

That’s true. And…one word: Zika. Nature itself can be quite ingenious too in handling problems like these…

We are actually overdue for a pandemic, the last true one having been in 1918.

John

 

[laocmo]

… If just one of your ancestors took a different path or a different spouse–YOU would not be. There was only one path able to get YOU. Don’t you feel special? Well, you should and so should every person …

That’s like looking at a rock at the bottom of a steep mountain gorge and being in awe that after a torturous, many bounce and turn, tumble from the top, it landed in just that one of a million other places. Nothing special here, and nothing special in you being here after centuries of your ancestors figuratively tumbling down the gorge of life. We spend way too much time thinking we are something special. Then when tragic strikes we can’t believe it is happening to us.

 

[petra22]

Nor do I…unless this creator is like a child with a set of legos…destroying its creation because it had a better idea that might be more entertaining. I no longer believe in a personal God, because to rationalize the destruction of life is futile to me.

John

But John, you are not God.
God did this…
54 Behold, the Lord knoweth all the works of men, their imaginations, their thoughts, and their hearts:

55 Which spake but the word, Let the earth be made; and it was made: Let the heaven be made; and it was created.

56 In his word were the stars made, and he knoweth the number of them.

57 He searcheth the deep, and the treasures thereof; he hath measured the sea, and what it containeth.

58 He hath shut the sea in the midst of the waters, and with his word hath he hanged the earth upon the waters.

59 He spreadeth out the heavens like a vault; upon the waters hath he founded it.

60 In the desert hath he made springs of water, and pools upon the tops of the mountains, that the floods might pour down from the high rocks to water the earth.

61 He made man, and put his heart in the midst of the body, and gave him breath, life, and understanding.

62 Yea and the Spirit of Almighty God, which made all things, and searcheth out all hidden things in the secrets of the earth,

All these things he did and more and you want to tell him he should not let living creatures die in order that others may live? To you it seems such a waste and if you were God you would not have done it this way. Is this pride that you can think better and plan better than God?
Newsflash!!!God doesn’t see things like we see them in a limited fashion. God sees the bigger picture. Trust in the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever…!

 

[tonyrey]

Perhaps God is the initiator of creation, not the micro-manager. Life her on earth evolved according to the available resources, IMHO, leaving us with a quite brutal reality. I do not believe that the creator had or has anything to do with the specifics of life here, or even the planet’s development.

John

Life is only brutal from the artificial viewpoint of a person sitting in comfort sheltered from the elements without having to hunt for food. If you can explain how **all **life on earth could live in similar conditions it would be interesting to know how that miracle could be achieved!

 

[tonyrey]

That’s like looking at a rock at the bottom of a steep mountain gorge and being in awe that after a torturous, many bounce and turn, tumble from the top, it landed in just that one of a million other places. Nothing special here, and nothing special in you being here after centuries of your ancestors figuratively tumbling down the gorge of life. We spend way too much time thinking we are something special. Then when tragic strikes we can’t believe it is happening to us.

If we’re not special how do you explain the fact that we’re aware we’re not special? By chance?

 

[tonyrey]

In my view I an the result of a series of human interactions that happened with no outside intervention. This same process has occurred billions of times in human history…it is happening as we speak. That there was only one way to get the exact me makes me like I am part of the human race. Not special, not miraculous…just part of a species that has managed to survive long enough to produce all of us.
If something had happened differently, I would not be here, but it is very likely that someone else would be. Not a world-shattering event in either case, IMHO.

John

Do you really believe nothing is significant and everything is absurd? If so In the midst of such absurdity how have you succeeded in becoming aware everything is valueless, pointless and meaningless?

 

[tonyrey]

Seriously? Every species of animals will become extinct if we go on this way. We’ll destroy nature and consequently everything that it holds alive. Did you even read my post or just decided to give no arguments and hold on to your ideas?

Nature will die. It won’t resolve anything. And we’ll probably blow up the planet with atomic bombs. Man is not that ingenious as you think.

The ability to blow up a planet is not something one comes across very often… How did it originate? By accident? It seems a hopelessly inadequate explanation. Do you rely on chance to solve your problems - or use your intelligence?

 

[tonyrey]

Something more powerful…I agree…in charge, I do not. My life is a consequence of my parent’s love for each other. So, no, I am not an accident.

John

Is the power of your parents’ love for each other an accident?

 

[tonyrey]

I think G-d wants us to use our intellect to ponder these questions, arrive at (tentative) conclusions, seek more understanding, arrive at other conclusions, and continue to seek and find. So don’t give up “seeking and contemplating.” If we are honest with ourselves, we all do so.

Irrefutable. Welcome back!

 

[tonyrey]

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
and the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall feed;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.”

What a lot of wishful thinking! Actually what a lot of nonsense. If you think this will ever happen you are living in a dream world. You need help facing reality. Such a radical change in the instinctive makeup of those animals and their physiology would be impossible by any stretch of the imagination. How could any educated human ever conceive these animals all suddenly changing into animals with the temperament of a bunch of cows? Wishful thinking, wishful thinking, pie in the sky…

Is heaven pie in the sky?

 

[tonyrey]

Is it proper and acceptable, in any conceivable way, that this is the case? Consider the ocean depths. There we have countless, some yet undiscovered, creatures that only survive by killing and eating countless others. We as a human race would probably starve if we were forced to be vegetarians. We eat meat. We kill to do so. Some would blame this on the devil and the introduction of evil into the world by Adam and Eve. I think that is nonsense. I know fundamentalists that insist lions once ate grass. Again, nonsense. I think the answer lies in bad design of the creatures inhabiting this earth. Probably no design would be a better term. Design implies an intelligent qualified designer. No qualified designer would create a killing field like this earth appears to be. Did something go wrong? Or is the awful truth, that there is no awful truth, it’s just the way things are.

Can you suggest **how **a better world could be created?

 

[Aloysium]

Life moulds matter into greater complexities, forming new organic creations, existing in themselves as themselves, and sacrificing all that they are that other creatures may live. It is a reflection of our taking our specialness above all else that we shudder at life feeding on life. What we lose in death is that which is most precious, ourselves in this world. Death reveals the paradox of our human nature, rooted in God’s love, without which we are nothing.

 

[laocmo]

Can you suggest **how **a better world could be created?

A simple example of a better world. First create the planet with fresh water everywhere. Oceans full of salt water with none for Earth’s inhabitants to drink is a poor design. With plenty of water everywhere, the planet might be a lush green paradise. People would have developed to eat vegetables. Do away with all the useless non-human animals. We don’t need cute little Koala bears, or ferocious African lions, poison snakes, sewer rats, viruses, etc. The list is endless. Probably create beasts of burden to help with the planting, transportation, etc. Explain to the people the things that happen around them so they do not think every lightening bolt is a message of disapproval from some invisible thing in the sky. As its creator, visit it once in awhile to see how things are going, give them a list of proper things to do to remain healthy and happy. And another list of things that are not logical to do such as stealing, lying, etc. This plan although naively simple might just have worked better than the “create it and abandon it” plan we now have.

 

[oldcelt]

Is the power of your parents’ love for each other an accident?

I would call it a consequence of attraction and random circumstance…so, at least partially accidental or coincidental.Nothing foreordained, IMHO.

John

 

[oldcelt]

Do you really believe nothing is significant and everything is absurd? If so In the midst of such absurdity how have you succeeded in becoming aware everything is valueless, pointless and meaningless?

I don’t think I ever used the term absurd, or even implied it. Our lives matter in how we contribute to the greater good in the here and now. Therefore, I do not believe that everything is valeless, etc.

John

 

[oldcelt]

Life is only brutal from the artificial viewpoint of a person sitting in comfort sheltered from the elements without having to hunt for food. If you can explain how **all **life on earth could live in similar conditions it would be interesting to know how that miracle could be achieved!

I don’t think that it can be achieved. Life is simply what developed…brutal in many ways…beautiful in may.

John

 

[Trident_H]

A simple example of a better world. First create the planet with fresh water everywhere. Oceans full of salt water with none for Earth’s inhabitants to drink is a poor design. With plenty of water everywhere, the planet might be a lush green paradise. People would have developed to eat vegetables. Do away with all the useless non-human animals. We don’t need cute little Koala bears, or ferocious African lions, poison snakes, sewer rats, viruses, etc. The list is endless. Probably create beasts of burden to help with the planting, transportation, etc. Explain to the people the things that happen around them so they do not think every lightening bolt is a message of disapproval from some invisible thing in the sky. As its creator, visit it once in awhile to see how things are going, give them a list of proper things to do to remain healthy and happy. And another list of things that are not logical to do such as stealing, lying, etc. This plan although naively simple might just have worked better than the “create it and abandon it” plan we now have.

Have you ever played a game. And then thought, wow, this would be so much easier without this one thing? Like one of the Civilization games. Only without the mountains. Or something.

I once made a map for a game I wanted to play. First thing I did was take out all the hills. And raise up all the valleys. So the map was just one big flat easy. Then I started building whatever it was I was building (I think a railroad game actually).

Well. Without any of the hard terrain to think hard thoughts about working around. And without any of the push and pull that would make me choose one engine over another (some were better at slopes and others were just built for speed). And without any other reason to do anything different for any other thing? I just ended up with every train having the same engine.

So here I had a game that offered me like 20 options. And all I could ever logically ever pick was 1. Over and over. Most boring game ever.

I don’t think God’s into dull. And I don’t think He needs our advice on how to make a more perfect perfect. I think His purposes are outside our view. So suggesting He should’ve made our world a full-on jungle’s just a bit off schedule.

Because where’d he have put the penguins?

Peace.

-Trident

 

[HelenRose]

Is it proper and acceptable, in any conceivable way, that this is the case? Consider the ocean depths. There we have countless, some yet undiscovered, creatures that only survive by killing and eating countless others. We as a human race would probably starve if we were forced to be vegetarians. We eat meat. We kill to do so. Some would blame this on the devil and the introduction of evil into the world by Adam and Eve. I think that is nonsense. I know fundamentalists that insist lions once ate grass. Again, nonsense. I think the answer lies in bad design of the creatures inhabiting this earth. Probably no design would be a better term. Design implies an intelligent qualified designer. No qualified designer would create a killing field like this earth appears to be. Did something go wrong? Or is the awful truth, that there is no awful truth, it’s just the way things are.

I have never thought of God as a soft warm fuzzy. We can not know the mind of God. Life does feed from life. Black holes do exist. Hurricanes bring fresh new air. The beauty of life - the beauty of the universe can not fit into a neat tight little box our limited little minds can conceive.

I know that this is a serious problem for many people. But somewhere along the line I have come to accept that “It is what it is” sounds very much like “I AM that I AM”

I worship “I AM that I AM” I don’t try to pretend that I understand. I don’t try to second guess. I only know that looking out into the vast dark starry skies, I long to love and worship its Creator.

 

[fisherman_carl]

A simple example of a better world. First create the planet with fresh water everywhere. Oceans full of salt water with none for Earth’s inhabitants to drink is a poor design. With plenty of water everywhere, the planet might be a lush green paradise. People would have developed to eat vegetables. Do away with all the useless non-human animals. We don’t need cute little Koala bears, or ferocious African lions, poison snakes, sewer rats, viruses, etc. The list is endless. Probably create beasts of burden to help with the planting, transportation, etc. Explain to the people the things that happen around them so they do not think every lightening bolt is a message of disapproval from some invisible thing in the sky. As its creator, visit it once in awhile to see how things are going, give them a list of proper things to do to remain healthy and happy. And another list of things that are not logical to do such as stealing, lying, etc. This plan although naively simple might just have worked better than the “create it and abandon it” plan we now have.

Far from the oceans being a bad design they are the largest ecosystem on our planet and have many benefits from enabling us to breathe to a source of food, work, and recreation.

marine-conservation.org/what-we-do/advocate/why-we-protect-our-oceans/

When you think about it we are using oxygen all the time. If we didn’t have something putting oxygen back into the atmosphere we would run out.

“Scientists believe that phytoplankton contribute between 50 to 85 percent of the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere.”

earthsky.org/earth/how-much-do-oceans-add-to-worlds-oxygen

By diversifying our oxygen sources we are more likely to survive any changes to the environment.