How does religion explain birth defects?

[Loki_999]

Perhaps God bungled the coding for the very foundation of organic life and refused to defer to a professional because it was outside of his price range. Multiverse Inc. sent him numerous patches for his flawed system but he declined in installing them because it would take up too much space on his goddrive, space he needed for storing the inevitable flood of prayers that would be sent to him due to his botched design.

Agree with what a few are saying. All it says to me is that if God was real he is either a) incompetent or b) a complete and utter bastard. In either case, not a deity worthy of worship.

[God]

the god peddled out to the masses is a form of mass advertising. ive always considered organized religion as a power trip.
its not unlike the early days of a tobacco company. and again, my reasoning behind the hiding of god is to not distract us from
our purpose. which again, as a spiritualist, i believe each person has a purpose or a goal to accomplish.

[Rayaan]

Bullshit. If that's the case, your god is a dick. What possible reason is there for ruining an innocent child's life?! How can you believe what you are writing?!

As I already explained before, there is both good and bad in the world, and if the bad things never happened in our lives, then we're going to be less appreciative about all the good things that we already have. And secondly, the sufferers will get their payment of the good that they deserve in the next life and it's going to be proportional to how much they suffered.

That's... horrifying.
Birth defects aren't proof or disproof of god's existance. They're disproof of what people regularly call 'god's everlasting/eternal love of humankind.'

I don't believe that God's love is eternal/everlasting/universal either.

But, I believe that His love is greater than His anger because this is what was told by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), in which he said, "When Allah decreed the Creation He pledged Himself by writing in His book which is laid down with Him (the following): 'My mercy prevails over my wrath'" (Hadith Qudsi # 1).

Then god can go fuck himself.

Whenever you speak evil about God, you're not speaking against Him, but only against yourself, because your own words will come back to you one day (or in the afterlife). Uh oh.

[Loki_999]

Whenever you speak evil about God, you're not speaking against Him, but only against yourself, because your own words will come back to you one day (or in the afterlife). Uh oh.

I think the consensus around here is, if there is a God, and there is an afterlife, then we would prefer to be in Hell than in Heaven, given the choice between obeying a mad and tyrannical deity and hanging with Lucifer by the Lake of Fire listening to some Hendrix and smoking a fat reefer.

[Rayaan]

I think the consensus around here is, if there is a God, and there is an afterlife, then we would prefer to be in Hell than in Heaven, given the choice between obeying a mad and tyrannical deity and hanging with Lucifer by the Lake of Fire listening to some Hendrix and smoking a fat reefer.

Wow, atheists are very crazy then.

But trust me, Hell is not a good place to hang around in. There's a lot of fire and torture happening there if it exists.

[Ace Otana]

I think the consensus around here is, if there is a God, and there is an afterlife, then we would prefer to be in Hell than in Heaven, given the choice between obeying a mad and tyrannical deity and hanging with Lucifer by the Lake of Fire listening to some Hendrix and smoking a fat reefer.

Wow, atheists are very crazy then.

But trust me, Hell is not a good place to hang around in. There's a lot of fire and torture happening there if it exists.

Well being with and worshipping a mad vile dictator is considered a form of torture for us. I'd rather be in hell. My moral standards are too high for god. He is too much of a villain for me.
Anyway, seeing as hell is extremely unrealistic and makes no sense at all, plus no evidence make's it an extremely high improbability.
Also, it's just as likely that theists end up in hell as well.

[Loki_999]

I think the consensus around here is, if there is a God, and there is an afterlife, then we would prefer to be in Hell than in Heaven, given the choice between obeying a mad and tyrannical deity and hanging with Lucifer by the Lake of Fire listening to some Hendrix and smoking a fat reefer.

Wow, atheists are very crazy then.

But trust me, Hell is not a good place to hang around in. There's a lot of fire and torture happening there if it exists.

Well, you see the problem is that the text's you take to be the truth were written by those on the side of God. Now if we had some text's written by those who followed Satan/Lucifer/Devil/Shaitan then maybe you would get a different point of view.

You see history is written by the winners, and poor old Luce lost the war. But if you consider how he is portrayed in the Bible or the Koran, back at the start he comes across as a fairly decent guy (or angel or djinn if you prefer). So, he had a bit of a dispute with Yahweh/Allah, told God that he was doing it wrong, and got shit-canned for it.

In return God also runs some very bad PR against him that gives him and his new home a bad name.

For all we know, Hell may be the better place where there are non-stop parties and fun. Heaven on the other hand is more likely to be a totalitarian dictatorship with a mad ruler who demands constant worship for the souls trapped there.

Yup, if I believed that the Abrahamic god actually existed then I would be doing my best to get into Hell. However, as I (and all atheists) do not believe in God (Yahweh/Allah), gods, or any other divine entities, then we don't need to worry about these things. The only think we really need to worry about is who do we trust to clean our hard drives of all the filthy porn we have accumulated if we happen to die unexpectedly before our families start dividing our possessions.

[Lethe]

Hell used to be fairly nice. Tartarus was used only for Titan storage, it wasn't until the rise of Christianity they started writing in 'evildoers' subject to torment there. Then there were the Asphodel Meadows or Elysian Fields, no worship required. Not to mention the option for reincarnation. You only had to remember coinage for the Charon, and even if forgotten you weren't left to yourself for eternity, but you did have to wait a century after death for free transport. Ah the good old days...

[theophilus]

Adam's sin brought death and all other ills, such as birth defects, into the world. But even people born with defects can accomplish a lot of good.

http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/

[Loki_999]

Adam's sin brought death and all other ills, such as birth defects, into the world. But even people born with defects can accomplish a lot of good.

http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/

I'm sure that was Pandora's box...

Yeah, and really nice that. Bet it makes you feel all fuzzy and warm that your god can make people disabled, but hey, don't worry, they can still do something with their lives.

I feel almost physically sick thinking about how you can justify this shit just so you can keep maintaining your belief in a fairy tale.*

* my oh my, that is probably the strongest worded statement I have ever made on these forums! :-O