(July 19, 2012 at 1:12 pm)MysticKnight Wrote:(July 19, 2012 at 1:08 pm)Skepsis Wrote: Are we talking about a generally good God by human standards or an omnibenevolent one?
There shouldn't be ANY suffering in a system created by an omnibenevolent God. That is paradoxical.
Why do you feel it is "to general" to say that suffering disqualifies an omnibenevloent God?
Because greater good (character building) can come out of suffering.
Like you said, "goodness" is subjective. Why is character building greater than the suffering it takes to acquire it?
You didn't answer me when I asked why an omnibenevolent God would require there to be a single bit of suffering in a creation of his own. This is contradictory, and I still haven't been given a satisfactory answer to this question. This nearly defeats the purpose of justifying certain sufferings with "character building" because of the fact that such a God contradicts itself in a different way. Instead of allowing suffering for a greater good, this God contradicts itself by creating a world with any evil/suffering despite moral perfection.
My conclusion is that there is no reason to believe any of the dogmas of traditional theology and, further, that there is no reason to wish that they were true.
Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.
-Bertrand Russell
Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.
-Bertrand Russell
