Why does God allow suffering?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>^but robots are super cool</p>

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<p>Humans made to always choose “good” and never have anything bad happen would be no more meaningful than me making a screen saver that says “I’m so happy and you are great oh my master” repeatedly.</p>

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<p>^ Dude, that would be an awesome screen saver. Can you make it for me?</p>

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<p>Excuse me, sir do you understand how evolution works?</p>

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<p>Lol you took off the excuse me. I appreciate manners.</p>

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<p>There, I put it back on for you lol</p>

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<p>I’m a girl :(</p>

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<p>Excuse me, madam. This site needs gender listed under our names.</p>

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<p>^I think you can check people’s “profiles” to see what their gender is. I’m assuming you’re male? ;)</p>

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<p>You presume correct on both accounts. And apparently, your gender is “not saying” ;)</p>

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Obviously :)</p>

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<p>I really can’t stand atheists… and I’m an atheist. </p>

<p>Do they really think they’ve outsmarted everyone by asking something like this? “Ooh God allows suffering. If he were God, he’d really make all the suffering go away! Therefore, no God!”
The existence of suffering is totally explained by the Fall in Genesis. He did not create man with the intent that they would suffer. We earned that ourselves.
Even great atheist philosophers believe mankind suffers because we deserve it. “Oh wait” cries out the smarmy atheist, “what about babies who die in earthquakes? They haven’t deserved suffering.” The answer is that individuality is an illusion, and thus there is no such thing as an innocent individual. We all fundamentally share our humanity, and there is no greater punishment for humanity’s wickedness than to be trapped in an illusory world where <em>innocent individuals</em> suffer for seemingly no reason. </p>

<p>We done now?</p>

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<p>@Soul - No. There is no such thing as collective individuality. Saying that I should suffer because Person X did Y Act Z years ago is ludicrous. Similarly, if your great-grandfather committed murder, would you say it is fair for your grandfather, father, and yourself to be punished for your great-grandfather’s murder? Of course not. Which is why it is not justifiable for an omnibenevolent God to allow suffering.</p>

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<p>Maybe the events are just tests/obstacles to be overcome.</p>

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That sounds more far fetched than the bible stories.</p>

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<p>:confused:</p>

<p>So many things going on in your post, dude(tte).</p>

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<p>@boston Your question constantly jumps in and out of the constraints of the premise. I don’t believe I should be punished for my great-grandfather’s murder, because the difference between my great-grandfather and myself are negligible. There is no I, there is no him. There is a single humanity, with each <em>person</em> responsible for the actions of every single other person, and each carrying the burden of all humanity’s wickedness.
The only way to structure the question once you move past the illusion of individuality is, “Should humanity be punished for the crimes of humanity?” and the answer is obviously yes. Our punishment then is to live in an illusion where bad things happen to seemingly good individuals, and seemingly bad individuals get off free. But that is just an illusion, we are all just particles in a swirling mass, condemned ubiquitously to the misery we as a collective (for the collective is all there truly is) have deserved.</p>

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<p>@Bman - I’m assuming those arrows were meant to point at Soul and not me, correct?</p>

<p>@Casa - I literally had to read what Soul said a few times because I don’t think he knows atheists (and non-Christians) don’t believe in Genesis/Bible.</p>

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<p>^^ No offense, but you sound like a communist.</p>

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<p>that’s just because he speaks like the enemy in an ayn rand book</p>

<p><a href=“http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs11/i/2006/181/d/b/God_is_such_a_nerd_by_Bob_Rz.jpg[/url]”>http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs11/i/2006/181/d/b/God_is_such_a_nerd_by_Bob_Rz.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;