Why God Allows Pain

[tikipirate]

...he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt.

I'm still waiting to hear... Was it Jesus or Johnny Damon? Either way, I want an autograph!

 

[Larry Gude]

I find it...

"Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is that people do not come to me."

"Exactly!"- affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens is that people don't go to Him and do not look for Him. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

...interesting all the different ways gone about to tangibly, rationally explain religion; by definition intangible and irrational. Religion is FAITH, pure and simply. The best one I ever heard was is that if you don't believe, it can never be explained to you. If you do, nothing else needs to be explained.

It's a matter of...faith.

The barbershop one is silly, to me. I can't walk into God's shop, plunk down $20 and get a shave and a haircut. Nor can I go to Gods shop and pay him to get my life in order. Nor can I go to him and get those Amish girls fixed.

 

[Mikeinsmd]

...interesting all the different ways gone about to tangibly, rationally explain religion; by definition intangible and irrational. Religion is FAITH, pure and simply. The best one I ever heard was is that if you don't believe, it can never be explained to you. If you do, nothing else needs to be explained.

It's a matter of...faith.

The barbershop one is silly, to me. I can't walk into God's shop, plunk down $20 and get a shave and a haircut. Nor can I go to Gods shop and pay him to get my life in order. Nor can I go to him and get those Amish girls fixed.

Thank you LG. I've always said, if he shows himself to me, I'll believe (I'm a touchy-feely kinda guy).

 

[vraiblonde]

I've always said, if he shows himself to me, I'll believe

God could show himself to you a thousand times and you wouldn't necessarily believe. One man's miracle is another man's routine event.

 

[Kain99]

The Amish don't blame God.....


"GEORGETOWN, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Dozens of Amish neighbors gathered Saturday to mourn the quiet milkman who killed five of their young girls and wounded five more in a brief, unfathomable rampage.

Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, was buried in his wife's family plot behind a small Methodist church, a few miles from the one-room schoolhouse he stormed Monday.

About half of perhaps 75 mourners on hand were Amish.

"It's the love, the forgiveness, the heartfelt forgiveness they have toward the family. I broke down and cried seeing it displayed," said Porter, who had come to Pennsylvania to offer what help he could. He said Marie Roberts was also touched."


http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/07/amish.mourners.ap/index.html

 

[Larry Gude]

Does that matter?

The Amish don't blame God..... [/URL]

...the thread is about God allowing pain. I mean, regardless of ANYONES faith, agnostic, Christian, Muslim, Jew, you name it, those girls are dead and I would venture any parent anywhere from any time in history could relate to the agony those folks are suffering. Ones faith may, hopefully, help them carry on, but as for a God allowing this pain, in fact willing it, ONLY faith is ever going to help make sense of it or accept it because, in rational terms, maddness this way lies.

My heart breaks for these people.

 

[Bustem' Down]

The Amish don't blame God.....

I'm an atheist and I blame God for all kinds of things. I'm sure they do too on occasion.

 

[Larry Gude]

That's kinda like...

I'm an atheist and I blame God for all kinds of things. I'm sure they do too on occasion.

...saying you don't ride the subway and telling yourself you're late because the trains were off schedule, ain't it?

 

[Bustem' Down]

...saying you don't ride the subway and telling yourself you're late because the trains were off schedule, ain't it?

Yeah maybe, but sometimes you just have to blame someone.

I don't believe in God, but sometimes there's just no other answer for something, you know.

 

[sunflower]

I believe that GOD does exist. Sometimes I just wonder "Why" he takes the good people and not the bad ones. I think I've read or heard someone say "In Gods eyes no one is bad" That's the part I don't get.

 

[Larry Gude]

Which is why...

but sometimes there's just no other answer for something, you know.

...I don't have faith.

 

[Bustem' Down]

...I don't have faith.

Ok, now I'm confused.

 

[Winn Dixie]

Yeah maybe, but sometimes you just have to blame someone.

I don't believe in God, but sometimes there's just no other answer for something, you know.

Whether it be pain or pleasure, every life experience is a learning opportunity. In order to appreciate the one you have to have experienced the other. It's all within ourselves to understand and we can't blame God or anyone else for our sufferings. Enjoy the day and appreciate the experiences -- what is your alternative.

 

[Bustem' Down]

Well, but what it boils down to is that everywhere in the Bible it points to the fact that this whole expirence here on earth is a test, basically, to get back into heaven. It wouldn't be much of a test if we were all hanging out in Eden having meaningful conversations with God. Pain is, like sin, is there to test our endurance.

 

[crabcake]

Yeah maybe, but sometimes you just have to blame someone.

The Libs blame W for everything that goes wrong. And we all KNOW he exists. :shrug:

 

[Mikeinsmd]

God could show himself to you a thousand times and you wouldn't necessarily believe. One man's miracle is another man's routine event.

He needs to part the skies, tear off my roof, grab me by the neck, lift me off the floor feet dangling, and from his cloud ask: "Can ya hear me now boy??"

Then I'll believe!

 

[Bustem' Down]

He needs to part the skies, tear off my roof, grab me by the neck, lift me off the floor feet dangling, and from his cloud ask: "Can ya hear me now boy??"

Then I'll believe!

But that won't work, the basis of a religion is faith, which is the belief in something that can't be proven. Once that would become fact, there would be nothing to believe in and *poof*.

 

[Mikeinsmd]

But that won't work, the basis of a religion is faith, which is the belief in something that can't be proven. Once that would become fact, there would be nothing to believe in and *poof*.

Trust me if that happened, I would believe....

 

[crabcake]

But that won't work, the basis of a religion is faith, which is the belief in something that can't be proven.

Which is what makes it the most well-thought out monetary scam in the history of the universe.

 

[Bustem' Down]

Trust me if that happened, I would believe....

I keep getting reoccuring visions of Monty Python's Holy Grail.

"Every time I try to talk to someone it's "sorry this" and "forgive me that" and "I'm not worthy"... "