How is a manifesting god compatible with the idea of a benevolent god?

argh. Can’t edit question typo.

If I have faith in a god, I would say it does not matter. God is God and He has his own unknowable reasons for doing what He does when He decides to do it or not.

I am agnostic. And part of the reason is what I have just stated above.

I believe that an all-knowing God sees a much bigger picture than we do. Maybe that child being murdered is what it takes to turn 1,000 people in that town to God, there is no way for us to know, we can only have faith.

When it comes to a football player, maybe the amount of media coverage he’s getting will keep God in the media for another year or two, every time he makes his touchdown he bows down and thanks his God. Perhaps the ultimate goal is to get as many souls as possible to believe, so he allows the TD’s.

People are marvelously inventive in explaining things, and the unknowableness of God allows people to posit any explanation at all as possible. Thus they avoid these kinds of apparent contradictions. In other words, they are punting. They just don’t know.

There can never be a satisfactory answer to a question like this. No one can explain life, neither a believer, nor an atheist. No one can explain righteousness or morality for events as they happen. We always presume an egocentric view, or at best, an anthropocentric view. But all you have to do is say that there is a universal view that does not put humanity at the center of things in order to say we can’t understand what happens.

That’s what @KNOWITALL did, and what’s weird is that it is true. We can’t explain and understand things. Even if we say that there are mental health issues, and people grow up having been abused and they seek love and punishment in crazy and hurtful ways, this doesn’t really explain anything. We can’t predict who will be the rapist or murderer up until the moment it happens. Few people do it from a long time intention.

Why would a deity allow humans who harm others? Maybe to allow us to learn. Maybe it is more loving to allow people pain so they can learn than it would be to keep them from pain. Without pain, there is no growth. What would it mean to be an animal if you couldn’t grow and change?

So under such a theory, it is compassionate to allow murder and pain. It is compassionate to allow stupidity and asshattery and meanness. Whatever.

@wundayatta If life brings you pain, as mine did much of the time, perhaps you can appreciate the blessings even more later?

@KNOWITALL There is more than one way to skin a cat, they say. How do we decide which way to do it? Beliefs can comfort us. But actually, it turns out, it isn’t the belief, but the practice that comforts us. It’s not God that fixes things, but you who do it. You do it through various mental practices that you associate with a belief in God.

But I see other people doing similar things without believing in God, and getting similar results. So it becomes clear to me that it isn’t believing in God, but something else that comforts you. Something that some day, we will probably be able to measure.

@wundayatta Perhaps, but we can’t know that for sure either. See, this is the kind of mature discourse that allows information exchanges without feelings being hurt. I dig it.

God see things according to purpose…
Men are with seeing in divided eyes and thus condemning themselves unto their own death by insisting on seeing things as good and as evil.

God is Good and all things are purposed unto a good end.
Even the blind accusation of men

I found the following very interesting and inspiring….
Professor : You are a Christian, aren’t you, son ? Student : Yes, sir.

Professor: So, you believe in GOD ?

Student : Absolutely, sir.

Professor : Is GOD good ?

Student : Sure.

Professor: Is GOD all powerful ?

Student : Yes.

Professor: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to GOD to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But GOD didn’t. How is this GOD good then? Hmm?

(Student was silent.)

Professor: You can’t answer, can you ? Let’s start again, young fella. Is GOD good?

Student : Yes.

Professor: Is satan good ?

Student : No.

Professor: Where does satan come from ?

Student : From … GOD …

Professor: That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?

Student : Yes.

Professor: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it ? And GOD did make everything. Correct?

Student : Yes.

Professor: So who created evil ?

(Student did not answer.)

Professor: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don’t they?

Student : Yes, sir.

Professor: So, who created them ?

(Student had no answer.)

Professor: Science says you have 5 Senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son, have you ever seen GOD?

Student : No, sir.

Professor: Tell us if you have ever heard your GOD?

Student : No , sir.

Professor: Have you ever felt your GOD, tasted your GOD, smelt your GOD? Have you ever had any sensory perception of GOD for that matter?

Student : No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t.

Professor: Yet you still believe in Him?

Student : Yes.

Professor : According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your GOD doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?

Student : Nothing. I only have my faith.

Professor: Yes, faith. And that is the problem Science has.

Student : Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Professor: Yes.

Student : And is there such a thing as cold?

Professor: Yes.

Student : No, sir. There isn’t.

(The lecture theater became very quiet with this turn of events.)

Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.

(There was pin-drop silence in the lecture theater.)

Student : What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?

Professor: Yes. What is night if there isn’t darkness?

Student : You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light. But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn’t it? In reality, darkness isn’t. If it is, well you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?

Professor: So what is the point you are making, young man ?

Student : Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.

Professor: Flawed ? Can you explain how?

Student : Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good GOD and a bad GOD. You are viewing the concept of GOD as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, Science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing.

Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?

Professor: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.

Student : Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?

(The Professor shook his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument was going.)

Student : Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor. Are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?

(The class was in uproar.)

Student : Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor’s brain?

(The class broke out into laughter. )

Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?

(The room was silent. The Professor stared at the student, his face unfathomable.)

Professor: I guess you’ll have to take them on faith, son.

Student : That is it sir … Exactly ! The link between man & GOD is FAITH. That is all that keeps things alive and moving.

P.S.

I believe you have enjoyed the conversation. And if so, you’ll probably want your fruiends / colleagues to enjoy the same, won’t you?

Forward this to increase their knowledge … or FAITH.

By the way, that student was EINSTEIN.

@njnyjobs, THANK YOU for that answer. It told about my beliefs in a much better way than I could have ever have.

@njnyjobs By the way, that student was not Einstein.

@glacial

I’m more interested in who the marine was in that last story. I know we shouldn’t laugh at violence but that was funny.

@Jaxk The point is that it is a made-up story full of wishful thinking. It did not actually happen.

Anyway, no science professor of any worth would claim that there is such a thing as cold. that is blatantly ridiculous.

God is the ultimate placebo.