Posted on 06/11/2016 6:36:35 AM PDT by Salvation
Is your only answer "Just because"?
That's way off topic, but my answer is "I don't know".
It has something to do with stars exploding, scattering heavier elements about, and they accrete into disks, and form planets. It goes on even today.
Not exactly satisfying, but the answer that "I don't know, therefore God did it" is even more ridiculous.
It's understandable for a primitive man who sees a lightning strike start a fire and wonders about it. "I can't do that", he thinks. "Nobody in my tribe can do that". "I haven't seen any other tribe that can do that".
Humans being hungry for explanations, he ascribes it to a "god" that he can't see and invents reasons for this god to do such things. It sounds loud and looks fierce, so he imagines anger is the reason and himself as the culprit and starts imagining ways to assuage this anger.
All very reasonable, for humans 10,000 years ago.
But at some point, the real explanation for lightning and thunder comes out, and the idea of an angry god with a plan just seems silly.
That is NOT way off topic. As I wrote in my earlier post the reason I believe there is a God despite the problem of evil is because I can't explain the existence of the universe any other way.
So I am left with a quandary: It seems as if the universe requires a creator who is unimaginably powerful, and yet there is evil in the world.
You seem to want to take the easy way out and just not think about why there is a universe in the first place. Just assume it was created by a random event or something.
Then you can just claim that there is no problem of evil, there are just random events that are sometimes good for certain people and sometimes bad.
You're basically begging the question.
The distinction is that we are not simply made and regarded good (as in Genesis 1:4-25) but we are in the image of God (Genesis 1:26); the rest is created for us (Genesis 1:28).
The subhuman matter has value insofar as it serves us. We have value insofar as we are lead to salvation.
Values are never absolute and so a lower value sometimes yields to make a greater value. In the example that you give, a natural disaster might weaken a faith that is already weak, but it forges a stronger faith in those who might otherwise not have an opportunity for growth.
If you or I kill someone, you or I would be guilty of murder. If God kills someone, he is not guilty of murder, and it does not signify that God hates the person.
If you or I kill someone, you or I would be guilty of murder. If God kills someone, he is not guilty of murder, and it does not signify that God hates the person.
You did not notice the quotation marks around the word “floods.” Is English your first language?
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