How does religion explain birth defects?

[Anomalocaris]

Fuck you, god.

[Skipper]

It is merely a condition of your earthly structure. You say it as if a birth defect gives life less of a meaning.
Although it may seem unfortunate, it is something they must endure.

But if god can supposedly interfere with "our earthy structure" in the form of miracles and supposedly starting life and guiding its evolution how can it be he just lets people suffer illness' from birth?! Why is it "something they must endure"?!!? If there was a loving god this would not be the case.

Of course, I don't believe there is a god, certainly not a loving one the main religions supposedly push, but just interested to hear how religious folk see this issue.

[God]

Well, as you may see, I am a modern spiritist. So with my belief, as part of its development, the soul chooses it's physical
body. As to why does not involve me; for I am on my own path. I can only speculate that it may have something to do with
teaching the parents a spiritual lesson of unconditonal love or acceptance. Which I don't want to start going off on a tangent
on my belief system.

[ib.me.ub]

Why does god always involve unconditional love?

[TheDarkestOfAngels]

Why does god always involve unconditional love?

because that's what it takes to pointlessly murder millions of human beings in a great flood or destroy entire cities because guys were putting it in the wrong hole.

[Loki_999]

Some babies are born without brains. They grow up to be religious.

[Captain Scarlet]

Science can explain why people are born with birth defects. How does religion? Surely, a god (which ever religion) who created the whole universe and made it possible for life to exist wouldnt have a problem in making it possible for all people (and animals) to be born without any life destroying and complicating illness' or defects.

Are these children born with issues that will effect them their whole lives and in some cases completely ruin them as a punishment? for humanities or their parents sins? Or is god simply deciding to stand by and watch without using his super duper, universe creating and limitless mega powers to help?

So, How does religion explain this?

DP pretty much said it. The thesitic reasoning goes something like this:

1- An all good god and innocent sufferring are compatible, if it is only possible to bring about maximal good by allowing innocent suffering (ie a higher purpose or greater good).
2 - Since this proposition can't be shown to be false, it could be possible that an all good god and innocent suffering are compatible
3- Therefore this argument against god fails.

It is a matter of debate as to whether this is a sound defence or not. Most atheists like me think it is flawed. Most theists think it sound. It is very similar to the free will defence against the argument from evil.

[Skipper]

I find it interesting that no one who subscribes to any of the main religions has tried to answer this. Or is that just me?

[Rayaan]

Well, some people are born with physical abnormalities because it was simply God's will. And there might be a good reason for why He made them like that. It doesn't always have to be because of humanity's sins or as a test of our faith. He can fashion His creatures in any way He wants to make them, such as this, this, this, and this, for example. And this. There are much more medical oddities that I've seen and I look at all of them as creations of God.

Sometimes I even find them fascinating because their bodies are so strange and unique (as compared to regular human beings).

When an atheist sees people like that, he thinks to himself, "There we go, that's another reason for God's non-existence." But when a believer sees people like that, he feels more thankful to God for not having those problems himself. Then he thinks about all the other healthy and normal people in the world as opposed to the abnormal ones, whereas an atheist would only concentrate on the negative aspects to prove that God doesn't exist, and not take into account how much people are being born everyday without any problems.

I think God made evil and suffering to make us reflect on the good things as well, because without any suffering in the world, we won't be able to truly appreciate the good things in life. There are opposite things in the world just like there is night and day, love and hate, ugly and beauty, hot and cold, happiness and sadness, etc. And these polar qualities exist to make us more aware of the dual nature of life. That's why we shouldn't expect everything to be perfect all the time. So, the problem of evil is not a very strong argument for the non-existence of God.

[Minimalist]

Well, some people are born with physical abnormalities because it was simply God's will.

Then god can go fuck himself.