A question about the love of god

[Welsh cake]

and god apparently thinks of us as his children

That's a disturbing thought.

Fuck deities and their "parental issues".

[FifthElement]

What disease does the boy have, and what is its cause?

According to many it would be epilepsy, which is like 100% not caused by demons

[Tonus]

For those of you that kids here,

I kids here all the time, so this is clearly addressed to me.

Anyway... god probably should've told people not to lick the dirt or eat their own feces, which would've kept them way healthier in the long run. And vitamins, for fuck's sake... give them VITAMINS.

[Ravenshire]

Because even now we do not know all their is to know about microscopic life. So the question then becomes who does He speak to? Us with our current limited understanding?
To the following generations who have a better more accurate understanding than we do?

Or is it just not better to make laws that tell people to avoid behavior that spread germs, and tell them that it is just "unclean?"

Wow, you certainly have a very limited view of an omnipotent power if you think it couldn't come up with a way of presenting germ theory to any group of people, at any point in history, without having to dumb it down for them to the point that the "clean" and "unclean" practices aren't even really in line with it.

"Thou shalt cook thy pork thoroughly to kill the unseen creatures living in it." would be better than "Don't eat no pigs."

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and god apparently thinks of us as his children

Sorry, but I've got to fix this:
and god apparently thinks of us as children

[Brakeman]

Matt 17
When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, 15 “[f]Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a [g]lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” 17 And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured [h]at once.

What disease does the boy have, and what is its cause?

The boy suffers from "fairy-talitis", a very common disease in the ancient middle-eastern world. It continues to be a severe problem in the under-developed minds of this country.

[Cato]

What disease does the boy have, and what is its cause?

What does it matter? Boy was ill. Jesus removed demon. Boy was better. Surely I'm not taking something out of context here.

[Lemonvariable72]

Where does Jesus say this?

Matthew has Jesus curing an ill boy by casting out a demon. I think that it would be beside the point if you were to stress the technicality that it wasn't in Luke and that Jesus didn't say it.

Can't blame Jesus though. His dipshit dad didn't know how to cure leprosy.

Actually Jesus casts out demons in all three synoptic gospels. Hell he even has a conversation with them in mark.

[Neo-Scholastic]

The OP is just a childish take on the Problem of Evil. It's just more atheistic moaning about why the world doesn't conform to their idea of perfect.

[Jenny A]

The OP is just a childish take on the Problem of Evil. It's just more atheistic moaning about why the world doesn't conform to their idea of perfect.

It's childish not to accept that there is evil in the world, because there is evil in the world. But it's hard to understand how there could be evil not created by free will in a world created by a loving god. It's harder still to understand how a loving god would not explain some of the less obvious dangers of the world like disease. I don't see what's childish about asking why didn't you tell me? If I let my child stick her hand in the fire, I think she'd have a right to ask that question, and it wouldn't be a childish question.

[John V]

What does it matter?

It matters because, if we don't know the disease and cause, then the boy may have been demon-possessed. Demon possession is of course cured by casting out the demon.

Boy was ill.

With what? Here's the verse in thirty translations. Note that only two use the word "ill." Most instead say that he suffered terribly or something similar.

Jesus removed demon. Boy was better. Surely I'm not taking something out of context here.

It depends. If that's the translation you usually use, then no, you didn't take something out of context, you just had a fringe translation of this verse. OTOH, if you did some translation shopping, then yes, you're taking it out of context.