🚀 go-pugleaf

RonaldGrossi3811@yahoo.com wrote:
> http://www.gotquestions.org/sinners-prayer.html << I saw this site on
a
> search directory. Great Resource!

I've been waiting for the Jesus freak to come back. Here's a thought
experiment for all those Jesus loving God fearing Christian nut cases:

A Thought Experiment: On The Problem of Unjustifiable Suffering
by Dale Proctor


A Christian wrote in his web site:

The type of skepticism that I value is not simply disbelieving--that's
the lazy way out of life. Rather, skepticism should lead to active
questioning and hypothesis testing. Healthy skepticism should lead us
to question long-held assumptions. For example, I know atheists who
think they are models of healthy skepticism, but they refuse to examine
their long-held assumption that God does not exist. Some of these
so-called skeptics are unwilling to experiment with the possibility
that a divine being may exist. In some cases, the conclusion that God
does not exist was reached with terribly poor logic applied to unfairly
selected ('cherry-picked') data. The most common argument is that there
is too much suffering and misery in the world, so a loving God
obviously does not exist. In other words, 'God doesn't run the universe
the way I think he should, so he must not be there.' Hmm. Might there
be other possible explanations? Have they been considered fairly? Is 30
seconds of thinking adequate to deal with the most important and
profound issue of all? Inquire! Experiment! (In fact, the existence of
God should be the topic of a genuine experimental investigation.)
 - Jeff Lindsay
 - http://www.jefflindsay.com/jeff.html
Inspired by this quote, I will now try a thought experiment:

God is the supreme creator of all. He is omnipotent, omniscient,
omnipresent and, above all else, omnibenevolent. Meanwhile, back in the
park, a normally doting and attentive mother is temporarily distracted
and her five year old daughter wanders off. She doesn't go far but a
pedophile on parole for his previous crimes just happens to be there at
this moment. He wasn't intending on molesting any children when he woke
up this morning but his predatory instincts take over and he snatches
the girl up and rushes her off to his nearby car. The mother soon
realizes that she can't find her daughter and panic sets in. A frantic
search begins which the police quickly join. The whole community is
shocked and mobilizes in an effort to find the girl. Posters go up,
America's Most Wanted broadcasts the girl's picture for an entire
continent to see and the faithful pray earnestly.

They pray and pray for months but the girl is not found. Time passes
and life goes on for all except the little girl's family. Every day
they wake up and wonder what horrible things have happened to her.
Every day they pray and hope that today is the day their little girl is
finally brought home safe and sound. Every night they go to bed
disappointed and devastated. Finally, one fall afternoon a hunter and
his dog stumble upon some bones and a pair of little girl's rubber
boots hidden under some brush by a creek in the woods. Meanwhile, the
omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and omnibenevolent God looks on.

Now how can we reconcile the apparent indifference the omnipotent,
omniscient, omnipresent and omnibenevolent God has shown to all this
suffering? Could it be that, as a result of this tragedy, the little
girl's family and several other people turned to God and renewed their
faith? Not to mention the fact that the pain and fear the child felt
while on Earth pales in comparison to the joy and bliss the child is
now feeling while basking in presence of the Lord. These are all very
good things are they not? Wait 30 seconds! God is all powerful so
surely He could've found better means than the rape and murder of a
small child in order to achieve these things. Could it be Satan was
responsible for this? Nah. God is certainly more powerful than Satan
and would have prevented the Evil One from doing this to such a
defenceless child.

It must be because God has given us free will to follow Him or rebel
against Him and this pedophile has decided to reject His ways.
Therefore, God cannot be held responsible for this event. On second
thought, this doesn't sound right either because God has given us
wonderful and faith affirming miracles on occasion. If any time called
for divine intervention this surely would've been one of those times.

How about - God was temporarily distracted by saving some other child
at the moment of kidnap? That is unlikely considering He is present at
all places and at all times.

Perhaps God thought the monster was cured of his perverted desires but
then God wouldn't be all knowing if He did so that can't be it either.

It also can't be because the little girl's parents didn't tithe because
God loves all and is just.

I know. God works in mysterious ways! What's that I hear? It's the
sound of atheists groaning upon hearing the ultimate copout that's
resorted to when a rational explanation can't be found. If mere mortals
are not capable of understanding the ways and means of God, then it
also becomes possible that our concept of this God and our pet holy
books are all just a successful scam perpetrated by some renegade
supernatural deity in an attempt to lead us away from the real Creator.
If an internal logic in our concepts of God is not required or
possible, all manner of ideas can be posed and we would be unable to
tell the difference between the rational and the crazy. God couldn't
love us and confound us with such confusion at the same time.

There. I've tried but I'm afraid I can't make sense of this event
assuming the presence of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and
omnibenevolent supreme being.

Now let's imagine a world without a God or, at the very least, a God
who is not all powerful and/or loving. What's to stop that monster from
kidnapping the girl besides the conflict between his desires, his fear
of getting caught and his sense of right and wrong. Nothing it would
seem. The opportunity arose and he took advantage of it. It still makes
no sense but no further explanation is required or necessary in order
to explain how this could ever happen. Evil people sometimes do evil
things.

Having said all that, I'm sure if the mother had noticed in time she
would've fought with all her power, to her death even, in order to save
her daughter. It's just too bad that she's not omnipotent, omniscient
and omnipresent.

So dear Christian, please tell us in a forthright manner what logic is
there that can reconcile the unjustifiable suffering in our world in
the presence of an all-mighty, loving God who has an active interest in
our affairs. What are the possible explanations for this that you have
alluded to but have not provided?