How does religion explain birth defects?

[WiiRHim]

But God isn't just a judge. He is said to be the judge, the jury, the prosecution, the lawmaker, and the enforcer. Saying he's just doesn't make him just, and even if it did -- wouldn't he, being all-powerful, have the power to define justice as it suits his purposes? And isn't a self-defined, self-serving brand of justice the same as a vigilante's?

In a sense, God can be viewed as all those things in one. But it isn't us saying he is just, He says that He is just. And He can't change the definition of justice, because He himself is just, and He "is the same yesterday and today and forever." He won't just up and change. It isn't in His nature.

I don't find damning your 'children' to an eternity of torment in a fiery pit for questioning your existence grounds for having 'held back'.

YOU are the one who chooses eternal damnation. God doesn't make the choice for you. And He gave you a way to become right with Him. You don't think that doing that instead of just destroying you is holding back?

Yet it was God who supposedly created and defined this sin. You can say that sin was introduced because a woman ate an apple, but it was God who would have created that apple to begin with.

God didn't create the sin. Sin came about from disobedience to Him. If there was no disobedience, there would be no sin. Yes, he created the apple, but it wasn't the apple that caused it. It could just as well have been any other kind of fruit, because the sin was disobeying what God had told them. They knew that they could eat anything accept that fruit, and yet they disobeyed and ate it.

To himself and his followers perhaps, but not even a concept is exempt from the judgment of others.

I'm not sure what that is supposed to mean.

Why Hell? If he were all-loving why not let his beloved children choose their own path after death? Why not nirvana, reincarnation, or any of the other countless afterlifes? Why would a supreme being be so desperate for the praise and adulation of others that he would threaten torture for those who do not do so?

Because none of those supposed "afterlifes" could be as wonderful as eternity with Him. It isn't like He is sending someone to Hell for no reason. Every one of us has the ability to choose, and if you don't choose Him, you choose Hell. And while he is all-loving, he is at the same time just, so He will abide by your wishes to not be with Him, so if you don't want to spend eternity with Him, you will spend it apart from Him

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For starters, a dog is not comparable to a child. If you every have a child you will better understand.

True overall, but you've needlessly dismissed Lethe's main point.

Secondly, you all seem to think that God is just this big, unfair dietitian who is damming all who don't follow His insane rules. If you murder someone, what happens? If you are found guilty, you get the consequences. The judge doesn't just go "oh, it's ok, we'll just let you go". You go to prison. God actually has held back, because he loves us. We ALL deserve eternal damnation, because we are all sinful. God could destroy us all because we have turned away from Him, and have sinned. He would be totally justified in doing that. But he hasn't. He has given us a way to become right with Him, though Jesus. You say that He is unjust in allowing children to be born with disfigurements. If those children accept Jesus' free gift of salvation, they when they go to heaven they will have a perfect body.

People enact laws to protect people from other people. What purpose does god's law serve except to prevent god from not allowing us to heaven and therefore being plunged into eternal torture?
You know who else offers 'protection' from their own rules and punishments?
Mob Bosses.

@ Jaysyn: Christians DON't have the absolute truth on everything. We still wonder, marvel at, and explore the world and universe. There is much we can learn, and find out. We do however, have the absolute truth about Salvation. Everything else will just lead you down the broad path that leads to destruction. It isn't God being unjust when you will go to Hell when you die. He has given everyone the opportunity to choose eternal life with Him. It is your choice, He won't make it for you. One day everyone will bow before Him and acknowledge Him as Lord. If you don't choose to take His free gift, then you are choosing Hell. But you DO have a choice.

Right. We have a choice between slavery or torture.

It appears that you don't quite understand this: YOU have the ability to choose. If you want nothing to do with God, He will abide by your wishes and you will spend eternity apart from Him in Hell. And God's laws are for the same purpose, to protect us. A good amount of our laws today come from the Laws God has given us.