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I understand your frustration, and that you see some worshiping a God that appears unfair and sometimes cruel. I have shared those thoughts at certain times in my life. This world is unfair and cruel, there is no way to argue that fact.

Certainly God hasn’t provided me with a fairy tale life. I have never won the lottery, or much of anything for that matter. I have suffered through much more hardship than some and much less than others. What God has done for me is to provide me strength to survive an abusive and terrifying childhood, guidance when trying to pull my life together, and comfort when things have been more difficult than planned. So it might not be as “measly” as you thought.

I take comfort in my belief that this world is temporary, but God’s world is not. Jessica has left the unfairness and cruelty of this world for a better place. I know her parents are still suffering, and I pray that God will provide some comfort from their pain.

I hope this doesn’t sound preachy or lecturing. I am not that kind of Christian. I am only trying to explain my beliefs to you, not change yours. The fact that you can obviously care so much about an innocent life, tells me that you are a good person. Probably a far better person that some “Christians” that I know. Peace.

I just never understood why people would believe in some supreme being who literally offered nothing in return in this life, only mansions and streets of gold in the afterlife. You'd think that a supreme being, the only god in all the universe, would be inclined to stop his 9 year-old followers from being kidnapped, raped, and buried alive. OTOH, he showed himself to have a pretty deviant streak in the Old Testament, so sitting idly by while Jessica spends the last 3 days on earth worse off than how Jesus spent his last days isn't so surprising, really. God never cared about slavery (except he didn't want his chosen people to be enslaved, I guess-- screw the rest of the world). God ordered his followers to stone those he deemed bad (even those who merely gathered firewood on the Sabbath, or were bad children, or girls who had premarital sex), a punishment so violent that it's illegal in our country and most every other civilized country-- instead of using his superpowers to zap them or something more humane. God even advocates violent slaughter of the wives and children of his enemies (the idea of an omnibenevolent god being pleased with smashing babies against rocks and ripping open the bellies of pregnant women is ridiculous to me and I'm not sure why it's not ridiculous to you and the rest of his believers).

It's unfortunate you had a tough upbringing. There's nothing divine about inner strength. Non-christian warriors throughout history were able to muster great inner strength. You give credit to God for something he didn't do. In fact, we're facing an enemy in the WOT who are willing to blow themselves up for their cause and they don't get inner strength to do something so difficult from God.

I bet her grandmother has stopped praying for good things to happen and bad things to not happen. She prayed unceasingly for Jessica and it achieved nothing. Her whole church and town probably prayed that way, too, without any effect. There is no evidence that God is real or even has a world since he doesn't show himself in any way-- saving Jessica certainly would have been useful to tell the world he's still around after being away from his desk for 2000 years. I actually understand why you believe in God. It's no different than understanding why people who are in pain use narcotics. That doesn't make it something that you should be doing. Most believers don't even worship the guy in the Bible. They worship the guy they think should be in the Bible.

Thanks. I am very confident in saying that you don't need God to be a nice person, either. You could decide today that it's all fiction and still be generous and kind to your fellow man. I appreciate the conversation. Have a nice day.