The argument goes something like this:

"My Son will come like a thief in the night.'" says God in 1 Thessalonians 5:2

"But," says Man, "The prophecy in Ezekiel 29:12 will be a dead giveaway, will it not? It never happened, and it cannot happen in the future because Egypt lying empty for forty years will tip your Son's hand. QED."

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

(December 9, 2022 at 7:44 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:

(December 9, 2022 at 5:18 pm)Lek Wrote: What does this have to do with the existence of God?  God can't exist be because these things do?

Well, since ‘everything is a characteristic of God’, surely that includes the things I listed. Do you find God in the swollen belly of a malnourished child? Do you kneel and pray at the maggot-riddled body of a dead dog?

The point is that if God is ‘everything’, then He’s not just love and compassion and glitter-covered unicorns. He’s also hatred and cruelty and sexually abused toddlers.

Boru

Yes. He is all that. When you experience it, so does he.

Quote:Yes. He is all that. When you experience it, so does he.

Well good job making your religion seem even sillier

(December 10, 2022 at 1:30 pm)Lek Wrote:

(December 9, 2022 at 7:44 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: Well, since ‘everything is a characteristic of God’, surely that includes the things I listed. Do you find God in the swollen belly of a malnourished child? Do you kneel and pray at the maggot-riddled body of a dead dog?

The point is that if God is ‘everything’, then He’s not just love and compassion and glitter-covered unicorns. He’s also hatred and cruelty and sexually abused toddlers.

Boru

Yes. He is all that. When you experience it, so does he.

Nah, God is completely untouched by anything that happens in "his" world, he doesn't suffer like we do, he doesn't care what happens here because none of it affects him.

(December 10, 2022 at 1:41 pm)Ahriman Wrote:

(December 10, 2022 at 1:30 pm)Lek Wrote: Yes. He is all that. When you experience it, so does he.

Nah, God is completely untouched by anything that happens in "his" world, he doesn't suffer like we do, he doesn't care what happens here because none of it affects him.

Why do you believe that?

(December 10, 2022 at 1:59 pm)Lek Wrote:

(December 10, 2022 at 1:41 pm)Ahriman Wrote: Nah, God is completely untouched by anything that happens in "his" world, he doesn't suffer like we do, he doesn't care what happens here because none of it affects him.

Why do you believe that?

Why wouldn't I believe that? People suffer in all kinds of ways and God does nothing. He either wants us to suffer (in which case, why worship him) or doesn't want us to suffer but can't do anything about it anyway (in which case, why worship him), praying to God, or doing rituals, or doing anything religious like that, does not end suffering for anyone.

(December 10, 2022 at 1:30 pm)Lek Wrote:

(December 9, 2022 at 7:44 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: Well, since ‘everything is a characteristic of God’, surely that includes the things I listed. Do you find God in the swollen belly of a malnourished child? Do you kneel and pray at the maggot-riddled body of a dead dog?

The point is that if God is ‘everything’, then He’s not just love and compassion and glitter-covered unicorns. He’s also hatred and cruelty and sexually abused toddlers.

Boru

Yes. He is all that. When you experience it, so does he.

If God is eternal and changeless (scripture says he is both), then God can’t experience anything.

Boru

(December 10, 2022 at 2:59 pm)Ahriman Wrote:

(December 10, 2022 at 1:59 pm)Lek Wrote: Why do you believe that?

Why wouldn't I believe that? People suffer in all kinds of ways and God does nothing. He either wants us to suffer (in which case, why worship him) or doesn't want us to suffer but can't do anything about it anyway (in which case, why worship him), praying to God, or doing rituals, or doing anything religious like that, does not end suffering for anyone.

Do you think that there is any good in suffering? Is someone who had never suffered better off than someone who has?

Quote:Do you think that there is any good in suffering? Is someone who had never suffered better off than someone who has?

Nope, suffering isn't needed...

Atheists look at our lives beginning when we emerge from the womb and ending when we draw our last breath. Theists view our lives as continuing after our bodies die. Suffering is often a preparation for something good. A US Marine is only one after he goes through boot camp hell.