(October 18, 2014 at 4:18 pm)smithers Wrote: The problem is even when you point out the ridiculousness of the idea that 'god' must allow people to be hurt, tortured or even murdered for the sake of the 'big picture,' the person will often retort that though this seems cruel and nonsensical, we cannot understand god's plans because we are human. They simply dismiss the point that you make and rationalize the idea by saying something along the lines of, "I am not god and I do not pretend to understand god's plan, none of us possibly can!"
Some of the things that people say to justify the ridiculousness of many religious claims are just funny. Another point people will make is that evil is not god's will but man's will. Then comes the problem of free will vs a predetermined fate. So we either have no free will and EVERYTHING is god's plan, or we have free will and god has no influence over our lives. But there cannot be both and so many religious people fail to realize this: free will and fate CANNOT coexist at the same time. At least not in my mind. It's a funny thing to bring up the concept of evil and how it can coexist with a loving, compassionate god.
They are not funny to me because people act on these absurdities to their own detriment and to the detriment of others.
I find it sad that adults of all religions cant see that the bad in life is an unfortunate ratio in nature, and the real way to reduce bad things is to study them and find answers to solve those problems rather than chalk them up to fictional super heros and fictional boogiemen.
