Many believers assert that their
god is all good and that he wants to minimise suffering. So why doesn't he?
Some suggest that there is a reason behind it but they are totally unable
to tell you what that reason is. (They mumble that God works in "mysterious
ways", that he has a reason to allow the tragedy and suffering to exist).
But if god has a reason not to reduce suffering, then that contradicts their
earlier claim that he wants to reduce suffering, because now they are saying
that God has a reason why he
does not want to reduce suffering. I have
heard religious people argue that good comes out of suffering. That is dubious,
but even if it did, a god that wished to alleviate suffering could engineer
the universe so that good things happen without the suffering. Does a parent
need suffering to cherish a child? Not in my experience. There is no need
for suffering for good to flourish.
All through history up to and
including this minute people have been and are being tortured and suffered
/ are suffering unimaginably horribly. Such torture is conducted on subjects
of dictatorships; or on prisoners of war by people who disagree with the decrees
of political tyranny or, ironically, organised religion, and so on. Often
the subjects of torture are forced to watch members of their family be tortured
to death. God, according to a wide range of religious people I have talked
to, has a reason to allow such hideous torments to exist. In saying so, these
believers are admitting, in effect, that God (who is all-powerful)
wants
this suffering. If their god did not want this suffering then would not adhere
to his reason and would take measures to reduce or eradicate the torment.
And there is much suffering apart
from torture. Take the loss of members of families, the death of children,
for example, grief and anguish caused for no apparent reason other than Nature
is indifferent. As I am writing this I learned that just a few miles away
a fourteen-year-old girl was killed when a tree fell onto the car she was
a passenger in and other occupants are injured (there have been gales blowing
today). Random suffering is rife everywhere. Take warfare. Take terrorism.
Take famine. Take accidental injury that causes pain, disfigurement or brain
damage. Take the prevalence of diseases such as cancer and arthritis that
slowly and painfully destroy you. Take mental illnesses like depression that
regularly cause the victims to commit suicide just to bring the anguish to
a stop. The hypothetical good God could prevent all this suffering, but he
does not. He has a reason for wanting the suffering? He is supposed to be
all-powerful, so it is
His reason so
He wants the Earth to be
that way: full of suffering. Or perhaps the more simple and obvious explanation
that a god exists but doesn't care, or that no god(s) exist and bad things
inevitably happen in a neutral, imperfect Universe. I know which explanation
is less contrived.
Religious people sometimes argue
that this suffering-friendly God loves them and wants
them to believe
in Him and that their god is willing that "non-chosen" ones believe in false
gods. If I could have a quid for every religious sucker of any faith I met
who was absolutely sure that
he was correct and all the other suckers
who follow different religious suckers were wrong, then I'd be a rich man
indeed. It reminds me of youngsters who think that they alone are immortal,
and everyone else is going to die. Human's are fallible. Faith is fallible!
If you have faith then ask yourself
if it is sensible to believe that your religion happens to be correct, and
that all the other christians, pagans, muslims, astrologers, hindus, sikhs,
and worshipers of sun gods, and 1000's other religions are all wrong.
Be very afraid of your god. Does
he routinely condemn his own creations to an eternity in hell? Be very afraid
of your loving god, for he may cast you into the fire and brimstone, and your
loved ones too. Is this your idea of how a responsible God would behave? Or
are you being emotionally blackmailed into believing? Religion is extortion
of your psyche. Can you be sure that your religion is the one religion that
is the truth? Isn't that amazing! Isn't that egotistical! So the other religions
are wrong. You are right. You are special. Your faith is the right one. Incredible
isn't it! I'm just knocked out :)
And if you insist on believing,
think carefully about the moral nature of the god you believe in. Is he the
torturer of the Old Testament? Is he the torturer of the Koran or the Torah?
Is he the torturer of the New Testament? Take the Christian belief: God invents
pain. God invents humans. Humans feel pain. God comes to earth as a human
son. Human son (who is God) gets nailed to a cross. Human son (who is God)
feels pain. Moral of the story: God is a sadomasochist. (Either that or religion
is a malodorous mountain of insufferable bullshit).
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