No knowing what God is and therefore not being able to believe in the unknown is not the same as saying there is no God.
If I asked you if you believed in your husband before you meant him, you'd say the same thing. That's not saying he isn't out there.
Ok, I'll give it a try. God is in charge and not one thing happens that he does not already know it and has allowed it to happen. He is able to work all things according to his will and plan. Even the bad stuff, the evil stuff, the gross stuff and the horrible stuff.
Okay, then he is in charge and bad things happen because that's his will and plan, so then he uses sin to get what he set out to get? This doesn't agree with notion that God hates sin.
Now, the $64k question is why does God allow the evil to exist in the world? No matter what answer I give it will not satisfy everyone but if we don't accept that some things we cannot grasp with our fallible, finite minds then it will end up sounding like a non-answer.
Surely you'd agree that God could have created a sinless word, which is something one would expect from a God who really, really hates sin, but he didn't. In fact he is using evil for his ends. I think SFA and getoffmylawn are right: that paints an evil God.
Of course God could do whatever he wants but he did it this way and it sure does not matter whether we expect it or not he has a reason, a purpose, a plan and we are part of it. I do not think it paints an evil God at all because he has not created us and abandoned us to our own devices. He stepped in to our universe, into our actual space and time and even took on human flesh. He endured all manner of humiliation from the very beings he created and I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that, too. But I don't pretend he is something he is not because I don't like what it "sounds" like to say what he reveals himself to be in Scripture. Neither do I allegorize the icky parts because it doesn't jibe with my romanticized version of him. I accept what he says, I believe what he says and I take on faith that he is good and righteous and holy even when my frail mind screams the opposite when I see the awful stuff that happens. He is the potter and I am the clay and I praise him every day for loving me enough to redeem me from my own mess.
Yes, He did.
God DID create a sinless world.
Honestly, Catholic ignorance of Scripture is appalling.
“Surely you’d agree that God could have created a sinless word, which is something one would expect from a God who really, really hates sin, but he didn’t. In fact he is using evil for his ends. I think SFA and getoffmylawn are right: that paints an evil God.”
Positing an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful, just God, which world would He create,
1. none at all,
2. non-free world of robots,
3. a free-world where we could not sin,
4. a free-world where we would sin but all would be saved,
5. a free-world where we would sin, and some would accept God’s salvation but the rest would be lost?