"God doesn't give us more than we can handle"

[Foxaèr]

This realistically unsound biblical notion has been weighing on my mind lately.

I heard the line in a movie, followed by a rather deserving sound of dismissal.

The fact that people are daily broken and brought to their knees in utter despair proves that if any sort of deity could be behind the utter horror we experience on a daily basis, then we are clearly given more than we can handle.

And I do not want to read a retarded Christian retort that the deity was testing, as though a divine being should have any right to test anyone so cruelly. The job of any truly divine being, not because I am of a divine mind but instead of a rather moralistic one, is to ensure the happiness and security of its creation rather than playing silly playground games that derive from pure psychosis.

Any truly divine being does not ensure an imperfect world. Only a human one does. A human world creates an imperfect divinity that loves to protest its perfection; i.e. god.

[robvalue]

It's a ridiculous and clearly false statement. God gives us diseases which we die of. Many of us die as a baby. Many people commit suicide because they cannot handle what they have been "given".

It's this confirmation bias thing of attributing every good thing to god and explaining away bad things by free will, the devil, and such nonsense.

Even if someone can handle a large amount of suffering, pain, torment etc. what is the point of inflicting it on them? The more you can handle, the more you can get? If god was all powerful and all good, he could accomplish whatever secret plan he has without making anyone have to suffer at all. And he could make it so that we are all happy and appreciate being happy without having to program us so that we appreciate it more after being unhappy.

The biggest question of all is why god doesn't just put people straight into heaven, this perfect place where everyone is happy all the time supposedly. Why force use through this shit of an existence first? There is no good reason other than for his personal amusement. Just because you "create" something, that does not give you the right to do whatever you want to it. Why does he love to watch us suffer to our full capacity first?

[Alex K]

It depends. Does killing yourself or dying of agony count as "handling" the situation? Then sure, it's absolutely true.

[Cato]

This is an intellectually unsatisfying response to the problem of evil that serves the dual purpose of setting up the promise of heaven that in turn is used to extract obedience and tithes from the gullible.

[backslider]

Useless platitude. If your mom dies or your house burns down... it's ok, God doesn't give you more than you can handle. But what happens when you really get in over your head? If you're like my friend Dave and you get laid off from your job of 25 years, your start-up business venture fails, your wife divorces you and takes the house, and you end up sleeping in your office and cooking in a coffee pot... you're labeled a dysfunctional member of society. You can spend your whole life paying taxes into the system but as soon as you reach out to take some of it back it's because you're lazy. Since when do people still believe that circumstances beyond our control our the direct result of our actions? Not everyone that needs help is dysfunctional or lazy.

[Gawdzilla]

"God doesn't give us more than we can handle unless he's ready to call us home." This from one of my SoBap cousins.

"What if he give you more than you can handle and DOESN'T call you home? Say an eleven year old girl who's being used by an 'army' of bad guys in some hell hole country you've never heard of?"

No answer.

[Anomalocaris]

Evidently Christians can't handle reality.

[Tonus]

The hospitals, psych wards, asylums, and cemeteries of the world are full of people who couldn't handle what was "given" them.

[Mudhammam]

I've learned to dismiss anyone who puts words into God's mouth, or attempts to define for us her desires and powers, as nothing but a victim of narcissism, delusion, sociopathy, or all of the above. I'm pretty sure if there is any truth to belief in a being of such incredible capability as she is often showered with, in the most superficial, inconsequential, anthropomorphic adjectives that only humans could remotely conceive as meaningful, she's probably able to indicate to us individually any message about herself that she might like us to know.

[vorlon13]

I hear that one at 12 Steppers from time to time. Not sure if it rises to my "necessary fiction" for newcomers exemption. Considering the numbers of 'relapsers' that 'can't take it' and wind up dead, it is a tough to weigh if we retain more with that platitude or kill more.