Why should I believe?

[Chanel]

Hey there,

I’m new here. I’ve been following this forum for quite a while and decided to join in and ask questions. I’m an atheist FYI.

So a question I ask for you who do believe there is a God out there, why should I believe there is a God?

I look around at this world we live in and see all the horrors of it. I look at it and see all the murders, racism, hatred, hunger, extreme poverty, the suffering, etc. and wonder how a good God could let this kind of bull garbage even happen.

As far as I’m concerned, if there is a God, to let all this suffering even exist on this tiny planet makes me think that it’s a God that’s very indifferent to the sufferings of humankind. To me, that’s nothing but an insult.

I look at the people around me - including my own self - and think how could a “so-called” powerful, loving, hates-sin, kind of God create people with flaws and create them to lie, steal, kill, and all that garbage?

I also can’t understand how people can believe in a God who demands that we remain humble and little and come from “the ground”. Why would a God create mortal beings?

I’m currently reading a biology book and couldn’t believe how there could be flaws and errors when it comes to DNA and “bad” mutations that happen. Oops, did God make a mistake when genetic defects and bad mutations happen? Guess he isn’t that perfect after all.

So I’ll be waiting to hear your answers.

Nice to meet ya!

 

[buffalo]

Many times we find ourselves asking about the “problem of evil”.

God permits evil. How could a loving God restrict His children the choice. He is perfect goodness. The opposite is evil. That is the choice - God (perfect goodness) and Satan (perfect evil).

No matter what an atheist believes when he chooses good He chooses God.

 

[Chanel]

Many times we find ourselves asking about the “problem of evil”.

God permits evil.

That’s interesting. I thought God hated evil. How can you say you hate something then allow it to happen? That’s like saying I hate liver but I’m going to order it at a restaurant anyways.

How could a loving God restrict His children the choice. He is perfect goodness. The opposite is evil. That is the choice - God (perfect goodness) and Satan (perfect evil).

No matter what an atheist believes when he chooses good He chooses God.

But how do you know that there IS a God that’s actually good?

 

[buffalo]

That’s interesting. I thought God hated evil. How can you say you hate something then allow it to happen? That’s like saying I hate liver but I’m going to order it at a restaurant anyways.

But how do you know that there IS a God that’s actually good?

God does permit evil because He loves us. Otherwise we would be programmed robots without any choice. He wants us to journey towards Him genuinely.

God is pure goodness. If there was only pure goodness then we wouldn’t exist.

If you are a parent you could appreciate this: You love your child, but as he grows he grows in independence and wants room to make his own decisions. You could lock him up in a room and eliminate his choices. If you love him you also allow him to turn his back on you or face and move toward you. You hate the bad choices he makes, but you love him anyway.

I really hate taking disgusting tasting medicine but I take it anyway. And as for liver, my mother made me eat it because it was good for me although I hated it. I choose not to eat it now.

Everyday I wake I make a choice. To move toward God or turn my back to Him.

 

[buffalo]

But how do you know that there IS a God that’s actually good?

Revelation gave us His attributes.

** The Attributes of the Divine Being **

1. 
   *] God is absolutely perfect. (De fide.)
   *] God is actually infinite in every perfection. (De fide.)
   *] God is absolutely simple. (De fide.)
   *] There is only One God. (De fide.)
   *] The One God is, in the ontological sense, The True God. (De fide.)
   *] God possesses an infinite power of cognition. (De fide.)
   *] God is absolute Veracity. (De fide.)
   *] God is absolutely faithful. (De fide.)
   *] God is absolute ontological Goodness in Himself and in relation to others. (De fide.)
   *] God is absolute Moral Goodness or Holiness. (De fide.) D 1782.
   *] God is absolute Benignity. (De fide.) D1782.
   *] God is absolute Beauty. D1782.
   *] God is absolutely immutable. (De fide.)
   *] God is eternal. (De fide.)
   *] God is immense or absolutely immeasurable. (De fide.)
   *] God is everywhere present in created space. (De fide.)
   

       **   **
   
       ** The             Attributes of the Divine Life **

   1. 
      *] God’s knowledge is infinite. (De fide.)
      *] God’s knowledge is purely and simply actual.
      *] God’s knowledge is subsistent
      *] God’s knowledge is comprehensive
      *] God’s knowledge is independent of extra-divine things
      *] The primary and formal object of the Divine Cognition is God Himself. (Scientia contemplationis)
      *] God knows all that is merely possible by the knowledge of simple intelligence (scientia simplicis intelligentiae). (De fide.)
      *] God knows all real things in the past, the present and the future (Scientia visionis). (De fide.)
      *] By knowledge of vision (scientia visionis) God also foresees the free acts of the rational creatures with infallible certainty. (De fide.)
      *] God also knows the conditioned future free actions with infallible certainty (Scientia futuribilium). (Sent. communis.)
      *] God’s Divine will is infinite. (De fide.)
      *] God loves Himself of necessity, but loves and wills the creation of extra-Divine things, on the other hand, with freedom. (De fide.)
      *] God is almighty. (De fide.)
      *] God is the Lord of the heavens and of the earth. (De fide.) D 1782.
      *] God is infinitely just. (De fide.)
      *] God is infinitely merciful. (De fide.)
      
      You can read the Catholic Catechism to see how we know these.

 

[VociMike]

Hi and welcome. You’ll find that we like atheists here - at least the well-mannered ones.

Anyway, your question is a bit ill-formed. You ask “why should I believe?” and yet you do believe. You believe that the universe exists (or at least that you exist) and so you must believe something to account for that fact. So then the question becomes, does God account for that fact better or worse than what you believe accounts for it? So does it?

As for the question of evil (a very serious one, without doubt, and no Christian should ever suggest otherwise), let me ask you something in return. If you were God, what would you have done differently, and why?

 

[Chanel]

Revelation gave us His attributes.

=4] God is the Lord of the heavens and of the earth. (De fide.) D 1782.

*] God is infinitely just. (De fide.)
*] God is infinitely merciful. (De fide.)

You can read the Catholic Catechism to see how we know these.

I’ve tried to read your catechism but it still doesn’t make sense.

Who wrote the catechism and how do they know that they are right? Did God tell them this and that? Or, is it just an assumption?

 

[Chanel]

Hi and welcome. You’ll find that we like atheists here - at least the well-mannered ones.

I could be an ill-mannered one but I know better. I also know that being an “atheist fanatic” wont get you anywhere as well. Only staying calm and politely asking might get you somewhere.

Anyway, your question is a bit ill-formed. You ask “why should I believe?” and yet you do believe. You believe that the universe exists (or at least that you exist) and so you must believe something to account for that fact. So then the question becomes, does God account for that fact better or worse than what you believe accounts for it? So does it?

I believe that we exist in a chaotic world. I’m not sure if the concept of suffering exists on Pluto or on another Earth-like planet somewhere in the galaxy or even another galaxy but I know for sure that it exists on this very planet which is a huge same.

Oh, do I exist? I didn’t know that I existed.

As for the question of evil (a very serious one, without doubt, and no Christian should ever suggest otherwise), let me ask you something in return. If you were God, what would you have done differently, and why?

It’s not just a concept in Christianity…suffering is a question in all religions. But no one can even come up with even a tiny bit of an answer. The people that have been asked that question (whether it be priests, rabbis, etc.) all “close” their minds and simply say “We don’t know God’s ways”. I’m tired of that cliche and that sort of answer.

How do we even know God has ways??

Well, I’m not God. Even if I was, I sure wouldn’t let or allow people to suffer. My word, even animals suffer.

Gotta go get dinner ready!

 

[buffalo]

I’ve tried to read your catechism but it still doesn’t make sense.

Who wrote the catechism and how do they know that they are right? Did God tell them this and that? Or, is it just an assumption?

The Catechism is a compilation of Catholic teaching. It uses Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium to synthesize Catholic history and belief.

Most of what is in the Catechism comes from Revelation.

 

[VociMike]

I could be an ill-mannered one but I know better. I also know that being an “atheist fanatic” wont get you anywhere as well. Only staying calm and politely asking might get you somewhere.

See, you are responding to the natural law that God writes into every human heart.

You don’t have to reply to that, since I’m not actually expecting it to convince you, even though I know it to be true.

It’s not just a concept in Christianity…suffering is a question in all religions. But no one can even come up with even a tiny bit of an answer. The people that have been asked that question (whether it be priests, rabbis, etc.) all “close” their minds and simply say “We don’t know God’s ways”. I’m tired of that cliche and that sort of answer.

Keeping just to Christianity since that’s what I know, anybody who just said “We don’t know God’s ways” is doing a terrible job of explaining what we believe.

Well, I’m not God. Even if I was, I sure wouldn’t let or allow people to suffer. My word, even animals suffer.

So you would create people directly in heaven, without any possibility of suffering or want or death? And without any possibility of doing the least good deed (because good deeds are only necessary where there is suffering and want and death)?

And that would be a better world, and people would be better off? That’s not obvious to me at all.

Gotta go get dinner ready!

Be sure and give thanks for it.

 

[VociMike]

I’ve tried to read your catechism but it still doesn’t make sense.

That’s unfortunate, because the new Catechism (the first in hundreds of years) is a remarkable document, a remarkable gift from the Church to the faithful (and to anybody else who is open to receiving it).

Who wrote the catechism and how do they know that they are right? Did God tell them this and that? Or, is it just an assumption?

Yes, God told them this and that. And not only that, be he stays in the picture to make sure they don’t forget what he told them. The Catholic Church has been given the fullness of God’s revelation. If that sounds too triumphalist, just think that where God has placed the fullness of his revelation is what we call the Catholic Church.

 

[Prodigal_Son]

It’s not just a concept in Christianity…suffering is a question in all religions. But no one can even come up with even a tiny bit of an answer. The people that have been asked that question (whether it be priests, rabbis, etc.) all “close” their minds and simply say “We don’t know God’s ways”. I’m tired of that cliche and that sort of answer.

Would you rather be yourself or a robot? I’m guessing you’ll say “you”, but I could be wrong.

What makes you so different from a robot? Two things, at least: 1) personality – and you clearly have a good one , and 2) free will. You choose what you do, and you do it with style. If you truly have a choice what you do, however, then God has to let you have that choice – he can’t *make *you choose good. So he can either create a perfect world without you in it, or make an imperfect world – which, luckily for you, makes your existence possible.

But why an imperfect world with so much suffering? This is a deeper question than I can possibly begin to answer, but I’m not going to leave it at “We don’t know God’s ways.” First of all, it’s worth realizing that most of the suffering is caused by our own freely chosen awfulness to each other.

I run a red light, and your friend gets killed – my sin, your pain (and my own pain too, in guilt!). Why doesn’t God make this suffering go away? Well, if He did, then I wouldn’t feel bad, and I would continue to make wrong decisions. This is putting it a bit crudely, but you get the idea.

If free will, then pain.

But here’s the good part: Joy is not possible without pain. Joy is an expressly human – perhaps even a uniquely human – experience, and it occurs in the context of adversity. I hope you’ve observed this, and know what I’m saying, but if not let me know, and I’ll give some examples.

There is a lot more to cover. What about natural disasters? Why am I born with the tendency to sin? Etc. These are all huge questions, but I wanted to show you a framework, to provide some hope of an answer.

God is a God of hope, Chanel. Have faith, because He is real.

The true answer to all your questions is in the person of Jesus, who felt all the pain and suffering we feel. In Him, God hurt. To reflect on that pain is to begin to feel the Story that is, the Story we can all become a part of.

And now it’s my bedtime. Night-night!

 

[Doxiemom]

How could you say that God is indifferent?

God loved us so much that He took His own Son , who was Himself, and laid all the sins of the world that ever were and would be, on Him and then turned away for Him to be alone" Abba Abba , why have You forsaken me?" he allowed His Son to be shredded and to have long thornes pierce into His skull and big thick nails driven into His Body.

That, is a love, beyond any human capacity. For the likes of us.

Want to know how truley aweful man can be? After Jesus rules for a thousand years of perfect peace, no sickness and no hunger, even then we are in rebellion. Satan is loosed “for a little while” and yet people are willing to join with him and war with Jesus.

And for us, yet, He had his Son suffer and die for us.

i will go one step further. One day, you may have a little child, say a 2 year old little girl. And that little girl is going to suffer pain and die very soon, the doctors say. No hope.

I defy you that you would not beg this God, who you say does not exist, to stop the suffering. let you die and let her live.

This is the one question I posed to my aeithist(not so much anymore) son-in-law, the scientist. God love him, we need scientists. He told me that was a cruel quetion. But it gave him pause and he did admit, he would drop to his knees in prayer and beg God.

Sometimes, friend, we have to do things just because they are the right things to do. believing in God, and most especially, accepting his Son, is the right thing to do.

I pray you decide to believe before you die.

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

Over and over I hear people blaming God for the suffering of mankind. Mankind has no one to blame but themselves. All the murder, all the poverty, all the hate are all mankind’s choice (instigated by the enemy of the spiritual realm). I’m continually amazed that people can choose to discount God’s existence because of all the evil in the world, and they won’t even consider the possibility of His existence when they look at the beauty of the world. Perhaps I see things differently because I am a Christian, but the beauty is everywhere. Yes, there is ugliness and a lot of it, because of the choices made by humanity. In fact, I can’t think of one bad thing in the world that doesn’t stem from mankind’s choice of choosing pride over humility, envy over love, lust over purity, wrath over patience, gluttony over moderation, greed over generosity, sloth over diligence.

You may ask why God isn’t stepping in to fix the whole mess. The answer is that He gave us free will. God loves us enough to make us truly free to choose. Perhaps this is because that in order to truly love God and neighbor we have to have the choice not to love. In other words, without free will, we’d just be robots or pawns of God. What kind of loving God would that be?

Scripture tells us that God uses all things to the good for those who love Him. We are also told that God disciplines us (through our trials) like a Father. It is our sufferings which give us the biggest opportunity to open our hearts to God and to love. Our sufferings are spiritual training, if we allow it. God may permit the suffering of one person, or many people, to not only give grace to the one suffering, but also to the ones who reach out to love them. The starving children in Africa seem to suffering in vain, but they are not, I assure you. The woman betrayed and beaten by her husband, the man who has lost his job, his home and his family, the child who is bullied at school, the disabled, the diseased, the hungry are all receivers of grace if they permit it. Those who reach out to help them are receivers of grace, if they allow it. God is helping mankind, but one who does not believe in Him will not recognize His handiwork. Basically, the ones who are suffering in vain are the ones who do not believe, because they have closed themselves off to the grace of God.

I pray that you will open your heart to God for so many reasons. Firstly, so that you can be in friendship with God now on earth and for eternity in heaven. But also that you may know the beauty of God’s love and the beauty of the love in the world by people who allow His mercy and love to flow through them. I pray you come to know Jesus Christ, Who laid down His life for your sake and for the sake of us all. When you permit God to permeate your soul, you will be astounded by how He reveals Himself to you. If ever you were wondering how people could allow themselves to be viciously martyred for God because they refused to renounce Him, it is because He really does reveal Himself to those who love Him. Surely just the chance that we believers are right about God is compelling enough for you to make a real effort to reach out to God.

 

[CentralFLJames]

So a question I ask for you who do believe there is a God out there, why should I believe there is a God?

Start off with hope!

There is an equivalence of hope with faith as the hope becomes discernable on the horizon as a real possibility.

Take hints from nature - from the majesty of the cosmos to the amazing mysteries of the smallest of subatomic particles there is an ordered principal that seem to direct all things toward an objective purpose and end. Just because you see a few imperfections here and there does not mean that there is no God. Quite the contrary, ask youself HOW you come to think of them as perfections? Why do you even take offense at seeing a fellow human suffering and why are you not indifferent if we are just all animals who live and die and that’s it? Ask yourself why we are at the top of the intellectual food chain in all of the known living things on this planet and apparently, so far, all alone in all of the Universe. Life is ultra rare compared to the vastness of the Universe. Ask why me? Why do I get to live? Why am I here of all planets in the known Universe that have life on them?

Accident of nature or coincidence? Ha!

Now start conjecturing - if there was a Creator - who could make such a magnificent and many splendored Universe and be so powerful - why would he permit suffering and pain or accidents of nature? Would that be cruel or indifference or would it be an invitation to you to see if you could go help remedy the imperfections and maybe figure out why imperfect things happen. Start thinking though it all as you are doing here then seeing where your own ideas of revulsion to suffering come from to start with. The clear pattern is that learn by contrast of right from wrong - we intrinsically know when something is ordered or disordered and breaks pattern with the natural order. All one has to do then is see that the natural order follows a grand design or universal order that implies incredible intelligence.

As for natural evolution - that is an acceptable belief in Catholicism if we see it as a method that God uses. But we just don’t see a lot of trial-and-error evolution in nature. Not a lot of forensic evidence where nature “tries one thing” sees how it works then backs up and tries something else. We see too much specialization of completely integrative systems in animals (spider webs, venom development, defensive appendages that all integrate to serve the creature and could not have independently evolved as individual systems etc.).

Anyway - we should first hope that there is a God then from there come to perfect that hope and have faith that it is so.

James

 

[Chanel]

That’s unfortunate, because the new Catechism (the first in hundreds of years) is a remarkable document, a remarkable gift from the Church to the faithful (and to anybody else who is open to receiving it).

Well, you have to realize that not everyone thinks like a Catholic like you do so why would it be unfortunate? Just because you’re Catholic doesn’t mean that it’s an unfortunate thing for me.

Why is it that Catholics say that “it’s unfortunate, blah, blah” when it comes to non-Catholics or non-religious people?

Yes, God told them this and that. And not only that, be he stays in the picture to make sure they don’t forget what he told them. The Catholic Church has been given the fullness of God’s revelation. If that sounds too triumphalist, just think that where God has placed the fullness of his revelation is what we call the Catholic Church.

And how do you know for SURE that God said this and God said that? How do you know it wasn’t written by man - who is known to make mistakes?

 

[Socrates4Jesus]

Hey there,

I’m new here. I’ve been following this forum for quite a while and decided to join in and ask questions. I’m an atheist FYI.

So a question I ask for you who do believe there is a God out there, why should I believe there is a God?

I look around at this world we live in and see all the horrors of it. I look at it and see all the murders, racism, hatred, hunger, extreme poverty, the suffering, etc. and wonder how a good God could let this kind of bull garbage even happen.

As far as I’m concerned, if there is a God, to let all this suffering even exist on this tiny planet makes me think that it’s a God that’s very indifferent to the sufferings of humankind. To me, that’s nothing but an insult.

I look at the people around me - including my own self - and think how could a “so-called” powerful, loving, hates-sin, kind of God create people with flaws and create them to lie, steal, kill, and all that garbage?

I also can’t understand how people can believe in a God who demands that we remain humble and little and come from “the ground”. Why would a God create mortal beings?

I’m currently reading a biology book and couldn’t believe how there could be flaws and errors when it comes to DNA and “bad” mutations that happen. Oops, did God make a mistake when genetic defects and bad mutations happen? Guess he isn’t that perfect after all.

So I’ll be waiting to hear your answers.

Nice to meet ya!

Nice to meet ya’ too, Chanel! Please tell me why you don’t yet believe. Is it the pain and suffering only, or is there a stronger reason?

 

[Chanel]

Would you rather be yourself or a robot? I’m guessing you’ll say “you”, but I could be wrong.

I’d rather be myself thank you.

What makes you so different from a robot? Two things, at least: 1) personality – and you clearly have a good one , and 2) free will. You choose what you do, and you do it with style. If you truly have a choice what you do, however, then God has to let you have that choice – he can’t *make *you choose good. So he can either create a perfect world without you in it, or make an imperfect world – which, luckily for you, makes your existence possible.

Geez, what is it when it comes to religions that people always come up with the concept of free will? (And yes, I have free will to write that sentence).

How do I have a good personality?

But why an imperfect world with so much suffering? This is a deeper question than I can possibly begin to answer, but I’m not going to leave it at “We don’t know God’s ways.” First of all, it’s worth realizing that most of the suffering is caused by our own freely chosen awfulness to each other.

So you’re telling me that it’s people’s stupid choices that cause suffering to eachother? Oh yeah, now I can really “love thy neighbor”.

I run a red light, and your friend gets killed – my sin, your pain (and my own pain too, in guilt!). Why doesn’t God make this suffering go away? Well, if He did, then I wouldn’t feel bad, and I would continue to make wrong decisions. This is putting it a bit crudely, but you get the idea.

Well, perhaps there shouldn’t have been the invention of cars then. Maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about accidents.

If free will, then pain.

So my friend was stupid to be out and about when you ran the red light but since they had the free will to be out and about, they still got killed. Yeah so God gives us free will, sometimes it kills us. What a beautiful concept. Free will can kill us.

But here’s the good part: Joy is not possible without pain.

What??!! I can still be joyful with no pain.

Joy is an expressly human – perhaps even a uniquely human – experience, and it occurs in the context of adversity. I hope you’ve observed this, and know what I’m saying, but if not let me know, and I’ll give some examples.

Not all the time.

There is a lot more to cover. What about natural disasters? Why am I born with the tendency to sin? Etc. These are all huge questions, but I wanted to show you a framework, to provide some hope of an answer.

Yeah, natural disasters is a big one for me. Why the freak would God create a “good” world then send natural disasters that KILL people. God kills people? What?

God is a God of hope, Chanel. Have faith, because He is real.

Well, I can’t have faith in something that I don’t know. Why should I believe and pray to a God who I don’t even know? Just as the Jew says that he/she will not go worship gods they don’t know, so will I cannot worship something I don’t know.

If God is sooo real, where is he? If I was to pray, I would pray, “God, get real!”

The true answer to all your questions is in the person of Jesus, who felt all the pain and suffering we feel. In Him, God hurt. To reflect on that pain is to begin to feel the Story that is, the Story we can all become a part of.

And now it’s my bedtime. Night-night!

You have to realize that I don’t believe that a man can be God or vice-versa. You can be disappointed all you want when I say that but that’s impossible.

 

[Chanel]

How could you say that God is indifferent?

God loved us so much that He took His own Son , who was Himself, and laid all the sins of the world that ever were and would be, on Him and then turned away for Him to be alone" Abba Abba , why have You forsaken me?" he allowed His Son to be shredded and to have long thornes pierce into His skull and big thick nails driven into His Body.

That, is a love, beyond any human capacity. For the likes of us.

You have to understand that not all people believe that God can become man and suffer.

Why do you believe that allowing his “Son” to experience pain and big fat ol’ nails drivien into his “Son’s” body would be love? So God likes pain to bring love?

Want to know how truley aweful man can be? After Jesus rules for a thousand years of perfect peace, no sickness and no hunger, even then we are in rebellion. Satan is loosed “for a little while” and yet people are willing to join with him and war with Jesus.

And for us, yet, He had his Son suffer and die for us.

I KNOW how awful man can be!!! Man is viciously evil! Hello, I live in this screwed-up world like you do and hear, see, even experience myself, etc. the horrors of this world! I KNOW how evil and cruel, ugly, disasterous, wicked, disgusting and pathetic man can be more than I know myself almost. You think I don’t know this world?

If the worst thing can ever happen, it’s going to happen on this very planet that our feet are “glued” to. Man is evil and I HATE evil.

FYI, I don’t believe in demons or Satan.

i will go one step further. One day, you may have a little child, say a 2 year old little girl. And that little girl is going to suffer pain and die very soon, the doctors say. No hope.

I defy you that you would not beg this God, who you say does not exist, to stop the suffering. let you die and let her live.

I don’t have any kids nor will I ever. Even if that was the case, I still couldn’t beg this God to stop this because what’s the point of praying if you don’t believe?

Besides, we’re all going to die anyway, whether we’re old or young so what difference would it make? Cripe, even the sun is going to die someday! Stars explode and die out in space, oh wow.

Life comes, life dies. The cause of death is life.

This is the one question I posed to my aeithist(not so much anymore) son-in-law, the scientist. God love him, we need scientists. He told me that was a cruel quetion. But it gave him pause and he did admit, he would drop to his knees in prayer and beg God.

I’m surprised he would admit such a thing…well, unless he was being sarcastic to ya. After all, he did have the free will to say that.

He may be a scientist and an atheist but remember, science is the search for truth.

Sometimes, friend, we have to do things just because they are the right things to do. believing in God, and most especially, accepting his Son, is the right thing to do.

So? Maybe believing in YOUR God is the wrong thing to do. Maybe believing in any kind of God is the wrong thing to do. Maybe believing in God is a form of idolatry. I know that sounds stupid to you - and I know it does because you’re a believer so I wouldn’t be surprised if you think I’m nuts for saying that.

I pray you decide to believe before you die.

See, you are starting to sound like a fanatic.

 

[Chanel]

Over and over I hear people blaming God for the suffering of mankind. Mankind has no one to blame but themselves. All the murder, all the poverty, all the hate are all mankind’s choice (instigated by the enemy of the spiritual realm). I’m continually amazed that people can choose to discount God’s existence because of all the evil in the world, and they won’t even consider the possibility of His existence when they look at the beauty of the world. Perhaps I see things differently because I am a Christian, but the beauty is everywhere. Yes, there is ugliness and a lot of it, because of the choices made by humanity. In fact, I can’t think of one bad thing in the world that doesn’t stem from mankind’s choice of choosing pride over humility, envy over love, lust over purity, wrath over patience, gluttony over moderation, greed over generosity, sloth over diligence.

I’m amazed that God would create humans with the tendency to do evil. Or I should say, how could we have evolved to do the stuff we do?

You may ask why God isn’t stepping in to fix the whole mess. The answer is that He gave us free will. God loves us enough to make us truly free to choose. Perhaps this is because that in order to truly love God and neighbor we have to have the choice not to love. In other words, without free will, we’d just be robots or pawns of God. What kind of loving God would that be?

Is free will the only thing religions talk about?

Scripture tells us that God uses all things to the good for those who love Him. We are also told that God disciplines us (through our trials) like a Father. It is our sufferings which give us the biggest opportunity to open our hearts to God and to love. Our sufferings are spiritual training, if we allow it. God may permit the suffering of one person, or many people, to not only give grace to the one suffering, but also to the ones who reach out to love them. The starving children in Africa seem to suffering in vain, but they are not, I assure you. The woman betrayed and beaten by her husband, the man who has lost his job, his home and his family, the child who is bullied at school, the disabled, the diseased, the hungry are all receivers of grace if they permit it. Those who reach out to help them are receivers of grace, if they allow it. God is helping mankind, but one who does not believe in Him will not recognize His handiwork. Basically, the ones who are suffering in vain are the ones who do not believe, because they have closed themselves off to the grace of God.

So? I suffer and it doesn’t open my heart. What are you trying to say? That suffering brings the belief in God because that’s the only way to have hope?

When you wrote “Basically, the ones who are suffering in vain are the ones who do not believe, because they have closed themselves off to the grace of God” I find that kinda cruel. That’s like saying that God is punishing people because they don’t believe in him. Yeah, that’s REALLY going to give people who don’t believe meaning when you say that!

I pray that you will open your heart to God for so many reasons. Firstly, so that you can be in friendship with God now on earth and for eternity in heaven. But also that you may know the beauty of God’s love and the beauty of the love in the world by people who allow His mercy and love to flow through them. I pray you come to know Jesus Christ, Who laid down His life for your sake and for the sake of us all. When you permit God to permeate your soul, you will be astounded by how He reveals Himself to you. If ever you were wondering how people could allow themselves to be viciously martyred for God because they refused to renounce Him, it is because He really does reveal Himself to those who love Him. Surely just the chance that we believers are right about God is compelling enough for you to make a real effort to reach out to God.

If I am to believe in any God, I will not believe in your God. I don’t believe that God can become man, vice-versa. If you carefully read the words of Jesus in your bible, he comes across not loving but rather harsh and condemning. “If you don’t believe I am sent from God, you will burn in hell!” is what I’m getting. He may have sounded like he loved but as far as I’m concerned, it was more of a restricted love.