I dont think that God is really that good because if he really is all seeing, all knowing, all loving etc, then why is our world the way it is. I am by no means saying that this world is ruined and there is nothing nice, but what about all the 3rd world countries that have nothing? What about those starving children who dont have anything to survive on? What about the children who get abused, by neglect, violence and or sexual assault? Did they ever do anything to deserve such a horrible thing to happen to them? If God is so fantastic, why doesnt he/she do something to help these people out? I dont see how there could be such a God who could let these kinds of things go on.
What about heavan and hell? If God loves us all regardless then why do we get sent to hell? what if we had good intentions but did the wrong thing? Everyone does the wrong thing and makes mistakes once in a while. Anyway, thats just my opinion.
If you look into it, there are many faults in your belief of God.
I find no logic in the teachings of God, as it seams quite rediculous to blame a child, whom is born innocent, who may be raised by “sinning” parents and their ideals, for any of his actions. God has no relevance to the actions of this individual, it is more logical to believe we are on our own, making our decisions based on our own intellect and making decisions based on how we were raised. Yes it is possible to be born and raised by “bad” parents, and still grow to become a great moral man, but it is much more difficult for some. Most do not get the chance to gain enough knowledge to realize right from wrong, as education is limited to some.
Those in this world who are suffering do not deserve to suffer, but are born into the suffering without a choice. Seams a little unfair to me, and very improbable that God does any of these things with a purpose.
It begins to be a little obvious that we are on our own in this world. Not many would like to believe this however, not for the fact that they find it improbable, but because they find religion as their only great hope to a better life which they are currently without.
Well, I waited a full day to respond to this post of unanswerable questions. Mel - nice to meet you! I seriously think you’ll get more answers to this if you repost this (or have a Moderator to move it) in the Religion forum.
But many people do have a great life. Doesn’t stop them from being religious and having a genuine faith in God. Otherwise though, well said; and I agree. Especially with that first sentence.
Very true, I feel those ones continue to practice out of fear of death, want for a loved one to still be alive in one way or another, guilt in one form or another, or some other reason of the sort.
Each individual seams to have their own strange reason to believe. It is usually something they lack mentally and feel religion completes them.
Some might just do it out of habit, never questioning the ideas they were taught from childhood.
Looks to me like religion is here to stay lol
Pardon my oversight, unFaith. Allow me to extend a welcoming hand to you as well. Welcome to the forums. 
Thanks for the welcome This is quite an interesting place lol. I’ll try my hardest not to provoke insanity amongst you all… 
Hi Mel,
The so-called “Problem of Evil” has a long history. You might be interested to look at some of the arguments here. There’s even a paper outlining a fictional trial, titled, “Is God a Criminal?”
The “Problem of Evil” has no bearing on an evil God. And yet an evil God could, with the snap of his godly fingers, make us think that he were a benevolent God (evil or good, a hypothetical god is still omnipotent). He could actually be a Devil fooling us into believing he was a benevolent God and we’d be none the wiser. These questions skirt Plato’s Euthyphro dilemma.
Michael
I wouldn’t say God is good or bad but I’d say He is just. It’s true that God is all knowing, all seeing and all powerful but the reason our world still seems unjust and unfair is because He gives us complete freedom to act. If we act responsibly we walk away happy but if we step upon another’s feelings or rights then this very free act of ours becomes our fate perhaps at a later date, it could even be in another life. I believe this because all of us are unique, go through different circumstances and perceive things differently or why we are all not born the same and go through the same experiences if there wasn’t a baggage to carry of dismay.
And the reason God doesn’t interfere in our bad actions or some outcome that He knows might be bad is because He would rather we are free to think and act and that only makes Him bigger. So just because we don’t act responsibly, don’t blame God for the adversities, we only bring them on ourselves because of our free thinking and act.
For example there are enough MORONS on this forum here who actually believe that I should not call them stupid when THEY incited that response in me. They even think that I am being bad when the truth is that they were bad to me in provoking. DO you think that God gave us the word wise to use but forbade us from using the word stupid? No He didn’t. So where I did the responsible thing in using the word stupid, they were wrong not only in accusing me for using it but were initially also wrong in abusing me for no reason at all and provoking me. Do you think that I should just see who used the word stupid and nothing else and blame the person using it? No! That’s nonsense. I’d say God has made language so, that it justifies itself. Therefore if I’m not justified in using the word stupid then I come out looking a fool accordingly not another. For this very reason all kinds of words and language should be given free reign but they are not and where people on forums like these are walking away with a lot of abuse by avoiding the use of bad language, they in my eyes are still the real culprits in provoking bad language from others and the people using bad language come out looking bad when they are not. In essence, it’s you and I who are bad but we put the blame on God who only gives us more and more freedom to think and act. It was a small example regarding the justice of God, but whatever…
A very popular topic that everyone has asked themselves at one point in there lives. To me, life is full of suffering. If any of you have seen my other postings, I base much of my philosophies on Buddhism. Like, “Suffering is a part of life.” We all have the ability to stop the bad things that we do to one another. I often ask myself, why is it that we walk around everyday and pass strangers and don’t say hello. This is a fellow human being. Why can’t we go up and shake hands, or give stuff away and not ask for anything in return? Some do, but not everyone. If we can not do the little things, the big problems like starving countries and countries in need of medical aid will keep on happening. Even if there is a God, Beena is right, we have 100% free choice. If there is a god, I would be very mad that he is controlling our lives by taking control of situations WE that can handle.
BeenaJain,
I am curious. Please explain your believe in god?
What gives you the impression that there must be a god apart from people being born in different places under different circumstances?
~peace~
Damn, that is one big sig picture, TS. Why not just make it a wallpaper while you’re at it?
I think there are 3 great theodicies, or reasons to justify evil in a Godful universe. And I think a composite of all 3, a 4th, if you will, holds sway with most staunch theist with philosophical training. If you really care, theodicy is the word you need. Google it.
[size=150]Thomas Aquinas.-[/size]
God doesn’t exist. The term God means “infinite goodness” Therefore, God does not exist because evil exists in the world.
Counteract:Evil is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce good.
-Everything that appears in the world can be accounted for by other principles. All natural things can be reduced to one principle, which is nature, and all things that happen intentionally can be reduced to human reason or will. Therefore there is no need to suppose God’s existence.
Counteract:Nature works out its determinate end under the direction of a higher agent, which leads to God as the higher cause.
Existence of God can be proved in 5 ways:
1.Whatever is in motion must be put in motion by another, and that by another again. This cannot go on infinitely, because then there would be no first mover. Therefore, it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.
2.The law of causation makes it necessary to put forward a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name God.
3.We find in nature things that could either exist or not exist, consequently they can exist, and then not exist. It is impossible for something to always exist, for that which one day exists must at some time have not existed. Therefore, if everything could cease to exist, then at one time there could have been nothing in existence, and that is impossible.Therefore, God exists as the being having of itself its own necessity, and not receiving from another, but rather causing in others their necessity.
4.Gradation found in things. Among beings there are some more and some less good, true, noble, and the like so that there is something which is true, best, noblest and consequently something which is uttermost being and this we call God.
5.Some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are ordained towards a definite purpose; and this being we call God.
God is perfectly sinless by nature.
A Sinless God hates nothing more than that which contradicts his ver nature: namely, sin.
A Sinless God created a sinless mankind, but Mankind chose to revolt by willing choosing to sin.
God, being perfectly just, cannot allow sin to go unpunished. Hence, He gave man over to the natural result of sin…death , suffering and hardships of all kind.
God has been more than longsuffering with a hard-hearted and rebellious man, who is brave enough to even say that God doesn’t even exist.
Man has effectively done all that he possible can to sin against God.
It sounds like to me that God has been pretty nice not to kill all of us a long time ago. I mean, in the end, no one will escape God’s eternal, omnipotent wrath that is being stored-up for those who are sinfull. In the mean time, we sin, thinking that because we haven’t died yet, we are getting away with something.
II Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
This is at least how the Bible takes it. 
So, if someone decides to do a drive-by shooting, and I happen to get shot and killed by a random bullet, I’m responsible?
Well, “blaming” (in a negative sense) God would be going against the Bible, so this situation really does not apply to any Christian with hakf a brain in his head. :wink
wow, this is pretty sad. ok, youre all, id assume pretty well intellegent people, who pride themselves on rational thought. part of gods nature is that he is INFINITE. now, i dont think a lot of people understand infinite, and as such i will give you the rundown. if something is infinite, than that means that odds are something thats not infinite, such as…oh say the human conciousness cant conprehend the reasons for its actions. did you ever consider that mabye, i mean im just taking a shot in the dark here, because like i said; i cant comprehend gods reasoning…that mabye he might be leaving the world in this state so people doubt his existence, and he roots out the faithful chosen, from the quasi intellectual morons that are so egotistical that they think that anything they cant percieve or understand is automatically illogical? i mean at 14, ive at least had the experience to know that there exists something beyond what i percieve in this infinite little place called the universe. i suggest some of you take some time out to humble yourselves before you go around spouting titles like “sentient”. peace.
There are many interesting arguments regarding the topic and I think the aspect that really perplexes myself is how God is seemingly “blameless” for what we constitute as “evil” within the universe.
Being that it is implied that God is the ultimate origin of the universe, I think it has to be inevitable that God has to have accountability for everything the universe entails.
This is of course where “free will” is thrown into the mix, but free will is still an accountable measure for the ultimate origin of the universe.
It is not logical at all, through my perspective, to have an ultimate origin like God, then turn around and claim that the ultimate origin has no accountability for it’s creation. And I think that is what we get when we deem the creator as something we deem as independent from evil. Yet it needs to be realized that evil is part of a universe that we recognize and ALL of the universe, even the parts we do not like, derive from the ultimate origin.
So it can not fairly be argued, again in my opinion, that there are aspects of the universe that are “evil” and the creator of such a universe has no such bearing upon such aspects of the creation.
No matter how you put it, if God is the ultimate origin of the universe, then God at some point had to introduce evil into this creation or it could never have entered into the picture. God has to be accountable for admitting everything into such a creation … everything.
I personally think the universe is exactly how it is and “evil” is just subjective intepretations of the universe that we personally do not like. However, evil is inevitably linked to being an aspect of the universe. A universe that had to some point had to have God’s seal of approval in order to be admitted or it could never have come into being.
mel, i don’t think you have a philosophical problem. There is a lot of evil in the world, but we can do something about it. It is for humans to make the world a livable place. If we have charity for our neighbor, the world will be a much better place to live in, and those doing the good will no-doubt be rewarded. That’s a Christian position.
Peace,
my real name
God—HA
Always looking for someone to blame. I take credit on my part that I sometime am the one that makes the world “bad”, although I don’t see it in the traditional way. Why blame God if you’re the one drinking Starbucks Coffee and driving a BMW? Why blame God if you aren’t doing your part to help the starving? I am the “evil” one.
I, for one don’t know what God is and therefore can’t blame It for something I have contributed to. I am probably going to go to hell in some peoples view, but I am trying to make the world better, are you?
Plus if God is infinite and everything, than I am God. I love thinking of the possibilities of the infinite but can’t comprehend them in my finite brain, and trying, although fun, leads ultimately nowhere.
My advice is to forget God and just be. That is enough, and that’s what is obviously intended.
Why is God referred to as a person or thought of in that way? It just seems ridiculous. I guess it’s the only way the human mind can comprehend it.
What I don’t understand is why people that believe in God pray. If God can listen to your thoughts and know what you need, is necessary to ask? Do you think he likes getting praised constantly; I mean it’s probably getting pretty old. I know I would get annoyed after a day, but what do I know.
I like to think of God as energy, as light, as love, as everything good and bad. The beauty in this is that everything is constant and correct because “It is”. Why do we have to have reason when “It is”?
What I am really trying to ask is “What is God?”