Quote:What if death were an exit and not an ending?
It wouldn't improve the case one whit. The death of a child is an enormous bereavement to a family, so I don't see that the false comfort of, 'Little Mikela has gone to a better place' alters the case that God bears the ultimate responsibility for human suffering.
Quote:What if God places more value on character than on circumstances?
Again, it is hard to see how that matters. If God valued character all that much, why doesn't he remove the impediments in the human character which prevent food, meds, etc from benefiting the people who need them the most? If you're talking about the character of the victims of disease and starvation, shame on you. What possible 'character' could God value in a three months old child dead of malnutrition? Of an infant born without a brain? In the Christian paradigm, God clearly does NOT place value on character as many of his victims never have a chance to develop any character at all.
Quote:Could these be possibilities?
Of course they could. ANYthing could be a possibility. But a much stronger possibility than the two you offered is this one: Gods do not exist. Suffering and death is the result of human fallibility, cruelty, and the pitiless indifference of the universe.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
