" god is great, and god is good, and let us thank god for our food, we may well have more than we need and god well yet have mouths to feed, but god is great, and god is good, and someday soon, he'll feed you, too, 'cause once we've got our yachts and crowns, god planned some food to trickle down, so just keep those thoughts holy, be patient and be pious, and hallelujah! God'll grant your prayers, hosanna in the highest!"
Originally posted by Bardock42
That is not required, though, even if he doesn't meddle at all and he is omniscient or at least knows what will happen he is to blame for create people that suffer a lot. If he has the ability to ease the suffering and does not or the knowledge that it will happen he is to blame for it.
I think you kind of missedmissed the point of my post (later, you redeem yourself, though).
Do you understand why you are not supposed to help a chicken out of it's egg when it's hatching? This is why God doesn't mettle. He helps when it's necessary, from his higher understanding of humanity. I have VERY rarely seen any of God's work, in my own life. So rare, that I can count it on one hand. How many times did I ask for help or look for His hand in something?
Out of the trillions upon trillions of His children, why would he help me pass a test that I didn't bother studying for? That makes little sense.
Originally posted by Bardock42
Additionally your example again only works for suffering caused by other humans, which would be fair enough (though still his fault if he knew or if he could intervene like I explained in the first part), but much, maybe even most of the suffering doesn't come from other humans, it comes from the extremely faulty "chicken coop". Cancer, scarcity of food and water, bacteria and viri, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, animal attacks, AIDS are all not things that humans with free will bring onto themselves or other humans (it may be used to further suffering or by accident, but it all only exists cause God, if he exists, is a somewhat evil or at least pretty creator)And I understand that many Christians (you Mormons too I believe) think that suffering is necessary to know joy, which is an interesting argument, but doesn't take any of the blame for a horrible life of a person away from God.
Again, most of human suffering comes from other humans...minus "nature" items that you mentioned. Again, in order to know light, you must know darkness. The whole point of coming here is to grow and mature, spiritually, so we can be more worthy of higher responsibilities in the next life. That's why this is called the "probationary state": we are trying to improve ourselves.
And, imo, this chicken coop is awesome. It certainly is proving to be much more conducive to life than any other planet we have observed in the cosmos. That bacteria is just trying it's best to survive, as well. That virus is doing what natural selection has "trained" it to do. Just because we can do calculus, doesn't mean all other life ceases to be important.
Who knows, God might have a set of children almost infinitely more intelligent and "righteous" than we humans are.
Also, Humans are solving most of their "problems" of nature, on their own. Something that God also had to have foreseen.
If you want a world were there is no suffering and only joy, then you would not have been born and, instead, would have remained, eternally, as a spirit, dammed in your learning and understanding, with God.