It might be helpful for you to lay out what -would- be a valid explanation for all the pain and suffering in the world?  If the only category you can find here..that you would accept, are the articles of your faith..then you are not actually looking for any explanation of all the pain in suffering in the world, and no explanation of all the pain in suffering in the world would be valid to you unless it were a restatement of the articles of your faith.

Meanwhile, both pain and suffering are explicable, and by natural means.  Whatever plans your meat fairy might have to use pain and suffering on us in it's soul making experiment is extraneous to that...and it's plan is only working (if it exists at all, and if it has a plan, and if it is working) because of our very natural ability to experience pain...and suffering. If we didn't possess this natural ability, then no amount of scheming on the part of meat fairy would produce the intended effect.

-and there's still the issue of that baby getting eaten by a vulture..having learned nothing...and the issue of the god who watches it happen and does nothing, because it has no concept of kindness, compassion, or generosity.

After -aaaaaaaaallll- of that...there's the issue of this "reward". Dafuq? If I was interested in eternity I wouldn't be interested in eternity in some other dimensions paradise. I'll just stay right here, in my home, with everyone I know and love. I'm unconcerned about "deserving" whatever this pain and suffering inflicting sociopathic fairy is doling out to all the folks who licks it's hole and call it their soulmate....lol? It can fuck right off, and remember to close the door..all the bought air is getting out!

I've never understood what theists expect to see happen when they tell us something that is both false and repulsive?

(November 12, 2018 at 4:40 pm)Everena Wrote: We have a goal to acheive here of becoming better people so we can be rewarded with eternity in paradise.

Ew. That's no incentive for me to become a better person -- the idea of being trapped anywhere for eternity utterly horrifies me.

What about other planets? What makes the third stone from the sun so special?

(November 12, 2018 at 4:55 pm)Astreja Wrote:

(November 12, 2018 at 4:40 pm)Everena Wrote: We have a goal to acheive here of becoming better people so we can be rewarded with eternity in paradise.

Ew.  That's no incentive for me to become a better person -- the idea of being trapped anywhere for eternity utterly horrifies me.

Well then don't be one and keep coming back here for thousands of lifetimes until you do feel like being one. It's all up to you. We are all god and the masters of our own destiny. We are just imperfect gods, striving for perfection at different rates of speed.

No we’re not.

(November 12, 2018 at 4:55 pm)Astreja Wrote:

(November 12, 2018 at 4:40 pm)Everena Wrote: We have a goal to acheive here of becoming better people so we can be rewarded with eternity in paradise.

Ew.  That's no incentive for me to become a better person -- the idea of being trapped anywhere for eternity utterly horrifies me.

That's about it really. Problems with one's mortality. It comes for us all, believing in gods or not.

Oh well, better enjoy while not it.

(November 12, 2018 at 4:53 pm)Khemikal Wrote: It might be helpful for you to lay out what -would- be a valid explanation for all the pain and suffering in the world?  If the only category you can find here..that you would accept, are the articles of your faith..then you are not actually looking for any explanation of all the pain in suffering in the world, and no explanation of all the pain in suffering in the world would be valid to you unless it were a restatement of the articles of your faith.

Meanwhile, both pain and suffering are explicable, and by natural means.  Whatever plans your meat fairy might have to use pain and suffering on us in it's soul making experiment is extraneous to that...and it's plan is only working (if it exists at all, and if it has a plan, and if it is working) because of our very natural ability to experience pain...and suffering.  If we didn't possess this natural ability, then no amount of scheming on the part of meat fairy would produce the intended effect.  

-and there's still the issue of that baby getting eaten by a vulture..having learned nothing...and the issue of the god who watches it happen and does nothing, because it has no concept of kindness, compassion, or generosity.

After -aaaaaaaaallll- of that...there's the issue of this "reward".  Dafuq?  If I was interested in eternity I wouldn't be interested in eternity in some other dimensions paradise.  I'll just stay right here, in my home, with everyone I know and love.  I'm unconcerned about "deserving" whatever this pain and suffering inflicting sociopathic fairy is doling out to all the folks who licks it's hole and call it their soulmate....lol?  It can fuck right off, and remember to close the door..all the bought air is getting out!

I determined my explanation for pain and suffering by deciding on the only thing that would make this a fair and just universe. The fact that over a billion people in the world think so too was just an added bonus.

(November 12, 2018 at 4:55 pm)Astreja Wrote: Ew.  That's no incentive for me to become a better person -- the idea of being trapped anywhere for eternity utterly horrifies me.

(November 12, 2018 at 4:58 pm)Everena Wrote: Well then don't be one and keep coming back here for thousands of lifetimes until you do feel like being one. It's all up to you. We are all god and the masters of our own destiny. We are just imperfect gods, striving for perfection at different rates of speed.

No, I think it's considerably more likely (as in 0.999... probability) that our "selves" are just constructs of our physical brains and automatically cease to exist at the moment of brain death. As I see it, my real eternal destiny is for the molecules in my body to wander off and become other things, none of which have any particular connection to the "me" that I am currently aware of.

And I'm fine with that destiny.

(November 12, 2018 at 4:57 pm)no one Wrote: What about other planets? What makes the third stone from the sun so special?

It's where we live.