Ella S.
Well-Known Member
I do not conclude that G-d is cruel because He has created a world in which suffering exists.
You should. That's basically the very definition of cruelty.
I do not conclude that G-d is cruel because He has created a world in which suffering exists.
Strange isn't it?
It's OK that this universe appears to be cruel if G-d doesn't exist, and humans try to "have a good time" and get on with it.
..but if G-d exists, then G-d has made a cruel universe etc.
If it was that bad, we would all want to be dead.![]()
It is more complex than you suggest.You should. That's basically the very definition of cruelty.
It is more complex than you suggest.
There are millions of people who are suffering in this world .. and millions that are not.
Is it possible to create a mortal world in which there is no suffering?
I wouldn't of thought so.
Death comes to all eventually, and a positive attitude beats a negative one.
"Look at the flowers and not the weeds"
Cruelty is never OK, whether intentional or unintentional. Certain cruelties are almost impossible, if not impossible to "get on with it". These same cruelties won't promote a "have a good time" attitude.
Plenty of people commit suicide because things are impossibly bad for them.
You seem quite annoyed with this God you don't believe in, for not conforming to your own requirements?We wouldn't have to avoid looking at the weeds if God hadn't planted them, though.
Reply removed at user's own requestI am very sorry for your loss, Amir.
..... I think I can understand how badly you are feeling.
We have two little long-hair dachshunds, children to my childless wife, and great company for me.
Together with my wife they have changed my life.
I love them more than family, that's true.
When I was an infant my parents went to a dog pound, chose a big bull-terrier, brought it home and let it run out in to our garden where I was playing with a baby-sitter. The dog attacked me immediately, dragged me amongst rose bushes and left me injured and in terror. For sixty years I was terrified of dogs, wouldn't walk along a road if a dog was running loose in it....dogs just knew that I was terrified of them and it affected them = a descending terror and hatred of dogs.
My wife loves dogs, and she insisted that I watch all the Caesar Milan films, and in 2009 she told me that a little dachshund puppy had been brought in to the veterinary surgery where she works, and that she wanted to bring it home 'on trial'. It was only little; the cats didn't like it and I had to fend for it in the early days, but then it (called Smu) 'became', challenged all the cats and won the title of top-pet. I fell in love with it within about two weeks. And then we bought another dachshund.
And so, Amir, I know how upset you are.
I am a Deist, believe that every atom and tiniest force is a part of a vast and enormous Deity, the whole of everything. I am old now and our first little daxy is old as well. I have asked my wife to keep our ashes until we can be mixed together and sprinkled in the sea where Smu and I have swum together so often.
I am very sorry for your loss, Amir.
View attachment 2912
This.
Belief in the supernatural is not a necessary precondition for having a sense of justice. IMO.
Reply removed at user's own requestJust a thought, not a question to answer in public: Is there a real-life in-the-flesh person you can talk to about Louie (freely, not family who might depend on you for comfort in this context)?
You seem quite annoyed with this God you don't believe in, for not conforming to your own requirements?
..such as?I have more of an issue with the fact that believers so easily justify tragedies and natural disasters.
We all have our coping mechanisms, I get it, but to try to paint these things as "good" in some way is... well, it's wrong, in my opinion. They're not good. We need to do our best as a society to combat them and their destructive effects.
I think a few folks may be in for a bit of a surprise to find out some of the folks they're required to share paradise with, lolI have more of an issue with the fact that believers so easily justify tragedies and natural disasters.
We all have our coping mechanisms, I get it, but to try to paint these things as "good" in some way is... well, it's wrong, in my opinion. They're not good. We need to do our best as a society to combat them and their destructive effects.
..such as?
What do you see?...every tragedy and natural disaster? From every cancer victim to everyone killed by hurricanes. To say that these are the product of a loving, just God, well, I just don't see it..
What do you see?
That everything happens by chance, and that when you are dead, you will know no more and it is all meaningless?
What is the point of survival?Meaning is something we evolved to help our species survive..
What is the point of survival?
Is this life so pleasurable that we must survive to enjoy it?
I don't get it. Most of the time I am in physical and mental pain.
However, I don't blame G-d for that because He created me etc.
I see that life has more meaning than worldly pleasure.
..and I don't believe that when I die, I might as well not have been born.![]()
I am not so sure that it is nonsensical..I think this is a nonsensical question, in my opinion. "Points" are something that we evolved to come up with because they help us survive. Survival would be a meta-purpose, not being a true purpose itself nor having one..
I am not so sure that it is nonsensical..
You say "Meaning is something we evolved to help our species survive".
Is it really about the survival of a species?
..or isn't there a more cosmic reason why we experience our lives, perhaps learning things in the process?
I refer to meaning in a cosmic sense .. just like an historian gets meaning from his history books.
History cannot be wiped out by death.