Why is God seemingly inactive?

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Della said:
He has done that. We don’t know if anyone prayed in the instance you cited or if God’s answer was no, which is sometimes is. Why God says no is up to him, for if you ask for a gift why should you expect that you must receive one? Maybe God has something else in mind that is better, such as us getting off our butts and aiding those in need.

Again, the onus is on the humans who are there who can and should help those in need. As for natural disasters around the world, we live in a violent ecosystem. We all know that, as well. There really is no safe place in the world. In my part of the earth we are subject to blizzards, tornadoes and floods. People are killed annually because of these natural weather conditions. God isn’t going to suspend all the laws of nature all the time just so no one need die. We all die, not to be callous, but it’s true. What we make of our lives is what is important not how many people die from the weather or accidents or diseases or anything else.

Now, I am done with this discussion because I’ve answered as best I can and because we’ve taken the thread off topic. Good day to you. :tiphat:
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👍 A superb summary, Della.
 
oldcelt said:
Again I have to ask, when and where? I guess God doesn’t like the people of the Gulf Coast or NY-NJ. If God steps in for one group, but lets the others suffer then He is being highly inconsistent.

I know of not a single documented case where God changed the weather at someone’s request. People getting lucky do not count. There are cases of that in just about every natural disaster.
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To attribute everything to luck is inconsistent with deism! How could everyone possibly be treated in exactly the same way?
 
livingwordunity said:
God has been very active. God the Father actively created the universe and all that is in it. God the Son came down from Heaven to be born as one of us. He could have been born rich and powerful, but He chose to experience suffering, pain, and an agonizing death to atone for our sins and so that we can know that our God can truly empathize with whatever suffering we might go through. God is also active in the Holy Eucharist and in the Sacrament of Reconciliation where He forgives our sins through the ministry of the priesthood which He instituted. And God the Holy Spirit was active in inspiring the human authors of Sacred Scripture and continues to be active in protecting the Church from teaching error in matters of faith and morals with the Church’s charism of infallibility. And then there’s all the times when I came close to getting killed or dying or when I was so down and out that it seemed like there was no hope, but God sent an angel to protect me and answered my prayers. I believe that God started doing miracles to save me from myself and from the dangers of the world long before I even started to look for Him and even when I was living in sin.
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👍 An excellent post! I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve nearly been killed…
 
mikekle said:
True, I also have heard of cases when God has altered the weather in extreme cases, and while it is true, people are aware of the particular weather conditions in a specific area, like regular drought, cold, etc. BUT if enough people pray and ask…could not God change the regular weather?
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Indeed! If God created the universe it is absurd to think He can’t change anything. 🤷
 
Dave_B said:
Hi All

We are told that God is all-loving and all-powerful.

Yet, when sickening crimes take place, God seemingly allows them to happen and does nothing.

For example, the singer from the band Lost Prophets, was arrested last year for multiple child sex charges, including conspiracy to rape a one year old. He has now been imprisoned for a large number of crimes against children.

You and me are law abiding people.

If we were witnesses to this, would try to stop such crimes.

Maybe by phoning the police, or perhaps even a violent act, like punching them in the face, to stop the crime from taking place.

If we had god-like powers, we could give the pedophile a heart attack, or touch them and cure them of their mental illness and insanity, or maybe we could dispatch an angel to speak to them.

… Yet, God, a loving person, with infinite powers does nothing and lets sickening crimes take place. Sits back, and does nothing.

How can you explain this?
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God is not just sitting back and doing nothing. Indeed, no event in creation takes place without His knowledge and will. The CCC#308 teaches following Holy Scripture: “The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator. God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes.”

Further, the CCC in #303-304 teaches: "As the book of Proverbs states: “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will be established.
And so we see the Holy Spirit, the principal author of Sacred Scripture, often attributing actions to God without mentioning any secondary causes. This is not a “primitive mode of speech”, but a profound way of recalling God’s primacy and absolute Lordship over history and the world, and so of educating his people to trust in him. the prayer of the Psalms is the great school of this trust.”

It is written in Isaiah 26:12: “Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in us.” God works in every agent as the First agent and First cause who moves all secondary agents and causes to act and therefore He is the cause of action in every agent (St Thomas Aquinas).

Moral evil is the result of the free will of human beings and even this depends on God’s will and eternal plan. I think we can be pretty certain that God prevents many evils in the world that might otherwise take place daily and the rest He permits according to His wisdom and justice.
 
Dave_B said:
If we had god-like powers, we could give the pedophile a heart attack, or touch them and cure them of their mental illness and insanity, or maybe we could dispatch an angel to speak to them.

… Yet, God, a loving person, with infinite powers does nothing and lets sickening crimes take place. Sits back, and does nothing.

How can you explain this?
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You call starting a Church and getting yourself nailed to a tree doing nothing? :confused:
 
oldcelt said:
I know of not a single documented case where God changed the weather at someone’s request.
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Ah, but if you did know of a single documented case, you would reject the documentation … no? :confused:
 
I don’t think it’s so much that He’s inactive, but that we don’t know the ways in which He works.
 
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