Thank GOD this Thanksgiving; for you are blessed!

Why? Unbelief doesn't require much thought - belief certainly does, because you have to convince yourself of the unconvincing.

 

Broken record. But thanks for the endorsement.

 

You mean the turkey that I worked to pay for?

 

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”
- Epicurus

 

You left out all the real and most and only lasting reasons to be thankful to God for. All the stuff you mentioned are temporary. And are you only thankful to God during thanks giving?

 

Man creates starving children and God keeps Jedimiller's car running. Got it. I'm so glad you could help me understand.

 

Are you saying that you have somehow come to understand how illogical religious faith is?

 

What god? You don't believe in any such thing. So your belief is in the sayings of Epicurus, whoever that is.

 

Ahh, speaks volumes of explanation.

 

If we gave Lex Luthor the exact same attributes then you would only complain that Lex were given your god's attributes; you wouldn't care whether or not people believed in Lex.

 

Well, let's get real here. When Lex refers to himself as God, created the Universe and all life, when western civilization's dates are referenced to his time on earth, when miracles are performed by him and in his name, when the most well known book is the story of his life, when he is resurrected, when he promises eternal life to those that accept him as Savior, when he...

Then perhaps others may consider that he has the attributes of God and be someone people could believe in. Ditto for all the other false gods and those that started new religions such as Mohammed, Joseph Smith, C.T. Russell, Siddhartha Gautama, William Miller, Zoroaster, Laozi and many others who served satan.

 

So you don't believe in the parable of the lost sheep? Why not?

 

Ask God. You believe He created man, don't you?

 

I don't think he's blaming God. He's suggesting that God's apparent indifference to the suffering of innocents is evidence against his existence. I don't think anyone disagrees that a great deal of suffering can be laid at the feet of men. What man, given the power to end the suffering, wouldn't? Why does God refuse?
That is the problem of evil that has confounded theologians since the beginning of time, and it has never been answered with any cogence.

 

It is the wisdom of unsaved man that is confounded, we who are saved are not confounded. The answer is there in His Word. I would suppose that one who believes not in God does find the problem of evil difficult to understand.

So the sufferings of the guilty are ok? Suffering of innocents is evidence against his existence? How can this be? How can this prove there is no God?

 

Actually, the devout throughout history have wrestled with the problem of evil and suffering, not just the heathens. Those that don't wrestle with it don't want to engage it. That's all.
What greater good is there in allowing innocent children to suffer from starvation or at the hands of an abuser? If you had the power to stop it, would you? A rhetorical question. Of course you would.
Why doesn't God? Because control of the world was given over to the evil one? Why? To what end?
Would you allow someone to be tortured for you to win a bet? God did. Job suffered endlessly so God could prove a point. Do you believe that story? If so, how do you forgive God?
These questions have been pondered since before Augustine and will be after Merton.
Others close their eyes.

 

Lol..it was god who gave you those things man..learn to accept his gifts and love him

 

thank you beautiful...nice words.god bless.

 

Yup, that's the complaint I referred to. You carried it out to the letter.

Belief in a particular god compels the believer to assert that it cannot be characterized without believing in it while being perfectly comfortable with characterizing other intangibles precisely because he doesn't believe in them.

This kind of double standard is inherent to the form of exclusivism called religious conviction.

 

I get such a kick out of that!

If it is good - God gave it to you!

If it is bad - anyone, or thing, EXCEPT God, is responsable!

 

Not a double standard. It's the truth and you shall meet the truth upon your last breath. And to think that God offered you a free gift and you reject it to appease your human wisdom. In a word, it's foolishness. The truth shall set you free(ware).

 

Wisely avoiding my post, though, aren't you? You certainly haven't chosen to appease your "human wisdom".

 

You have to remember that this is YOUR TRUTH - YOU believe it.

Others may believe the foolishness to be on your part.

 

No, it is a critique concerning the basic premise of your theistic god.

So instead of dodging the issue, why not address the problem of evil?

 

Exactly.

However that bit is ignored by the theists. They will post on their Facebook about how god gave them a job, however the millions of suffering children in the world are obviously outside of the deities sphere of influence.

Hence one of my favorite bits of intellectual chest nuttery, the problem of evil.