Benevolent Creator God?

[zwanzig]

Maybe you misunderstood or I was not clear. Very often theodicy is presented as if it were a defeater to Christian theism when in fact the so-called problem of evil is the actual argument from incredulity, i.e. the presenter claiming they cannot imagine what divine purpose could justify the touble, pains, and hardships of life. Job 38 is a reminder of how little we truly know.

That said, if there are truly vast cosmic forces of which we are unaware, and to me that seems obvious, then it seems reasonable to wonder what they might be and how one could align one's life to best account for them...without dwelling on it too much or projecting unwarranted certainty. Personally, I have more than enough reasons to say for myself that I know God exists but not much more than that. I have hope that God cares for me and has a plan even if it often does not seem so.

That said, I find discussions about theodicy frustrating because participants cannot seem to agree on a common nomeclature because there are too many terms of art bandied about.

I thought it was an interesting topic to talk about. It's not a gotcha and I'm not making a claim. I'm asking why the assumption is that a Creator God would be kind, loving, and merciful towards us or have our best interest in mind.

It is possibly an argument from incredulity when I bring up pain, suffering, babies dying, the problem of evil and assert that I don't consider those things done with my or anyone else's wellbeing in mind. But the bigger conversation is, if I have no reason to assume those as evidence for a Creator God not being benevolent, by the same turn no one has enough evidence to just assume such a being would be good or be good to them. I mean, there isn't evidence of its existence, so, this is more just a branch of that conversation.