The problem of evil/suffering when it comes to children

[God of Mr. Hanky]

Already good answers appeared but crown still belongs to Epicurus:

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?.

Problem is that you can't convince one who want to believe. If one thinks that his life is easier with god blanky then one will held to it despite all absurdities that entail.

Epicurus is the master, but apparently the sheeple-people need more blunt terms to understand the above.

[robvalue]

Yup, a "God" does not logically lead to a soul, an afterlife or any of the other rubbish. It's just been associated with such through popular stories.

A "God" is nothing but a creator which isn't allowed to be an ordinary being in another reality. But the thing is, if there is one, he'll be ordinary. Or more likely, he won't have realized he even created anything.

Think about what "afterlife" means for a second. It would be like a character in a computer simulation we made coming out of the simulation and literally existing in our reality. Yes, that is ridiculously dumb and there's no reason to assume it's even possible.

Although there are no actual gods as those depicted in the literature don't you think that the belief in the imaginary entities acts as a brake upon our more vicious behaviors (except for the guys like the ISIS nuts)?

I don't see how. Atheists seem to be at the very least as "nice" as theists, and I would say generally more nice.

The only time I'd make this argument is for people who lack crucial attributes like empathy or a conscience, for whatever reason. It could be that some sort of intangible threat or reward system could keep someone like that from hurting people. But otherwise, I see it as a lame substitute for just encouraging people to think and use their empathy.

[Ravenshire]

Although there are no actual gods as those depicted in the literature don't you think that the belief in the imaginary entities acts as a brake upon our more vicious behaviors (except for the guys like the ISIS nuts)?

Considering prisons are stuffed full of faithers, no it doesn't seem to act as a brake. Or, at least only for a minority of them. For every one that claims they would rape and murder if not for gawd, there's one that kills in it's name.

[comet]

the old child suffering angle.

 

we let people have children when we are fairly certain the cycle will continue.  so people choose to do nothing.  No god has nothing to do with it.

 
This "poor lil children" angle proves nothing.  At best it shows they have traits of it wrong.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Although there are no actual gods as those depicted in the literature don't you think that the belief in the imaginary entities acts as a brake upon our more vicious behaviors (except for the guys like the ISIS nuts)?

Considering prisons are stuffed full of faithers, no it doesn't seem to act as a brake. Or, at least only for a minority of them. For every one that claims they would rape and murder if not for gawd, there's one that kills in it's name.

I'm sure that most prisoners are brainwashed into religion after they are incarcerated than before they went to prison.  The problem is that it doesn't always stick since so many end up in prison again.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Pretty sure it was the child's fault he was born a descendant of Adam.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

Considering prisons are stuffed full of faithers, no it doesn't seem to act as a brake. Or, at least only for a minority of them. For every one that claims they would rape and murder if not for gawd, there's one that kills in it's name.

I'm sure that most prisoners are brainwashed into religion after they are incarcerated than before they went to prison.  The problem is that it doesn't always stick since so many end up in prison again.

The criminal mind is much too hard to be brainwashed - maybe a few lost "fish" will be easy prey behind bars, but the really bad guys "get religion" in droves because they know how to make a con job work for them with the parole board.

[brewer]

While I'm in agreement with most of the posts that what happened was not impacted by belief therefore why believe (didn't read all) I'm not entirely sure I'm comfortable with using the death of a child as a springboard for an attack on theism. If theism disappeared completely there would still be the unfortunate and cruel deaths of children.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

While I'm in agreement with most of the posts that what happened was not impacted by belief therefore why believe (didn't read all) I'm not entirely sure I'm comfortable with using the death of a child as a springboard for an attack on theism. If theism disappeared completely there would still be the unfortunate and cruel deaths of children.

Very true, but it would be much harder for anyone to whitewash the reality of such horrors, which may behoove people to do more about it than they now are to prevent more of these attacs on children by disease or by other humans from ever happening.

[Simon Moon]

Christians believe in a god that sits back and watches things like the atrocity the OP describes, then judges the perpetrator after he or she is dead.

As Tracy Harris says, "if I were in the position to be able to stop it, I would", which is why she (and most other psychologically healthy humans) are more moral than the Christian god.

And what is the best that Christians can offer for explanation? "God's plans are beyond our understanding".

The worst I've heard from Christians over horrible deaths of children like described in the OP is, "Well, god just needed more angels in Heaven". If that's the case, why doesn't the Biblical God character just create more angels?