If you were God....

If I was God I would end global poverty, stop wars, help people fulfill their interests and have fun. What would you do if you were God? I'd wager you'd probably want the same thing.

My point here is, given God is absolute - completely powerful, total arbitrator of all, why does he allow such evil, meaningless suffering to exist in the world? Why does he let some child be born with aids in Africa only so that it can die within a few weeks from starvation? What the hell kind of purpose is in that? You would have be some seriously messed up being to seriously allow that to happen.

It seems to me that everyone here, theist or non-theist, if they were God, they would stop the world's suffering and all the other stuff I mentioned. It would seem we humans have a far better moral direction that God has ever had, or acquired in his eternal majesty.

ps God here really refers to the most widely believed in God, that of the Abrahamic faiths, but conceptually it could be any notion of an absolute creator and controller.

 

So, in other words, you would eliminate even the pretense of freewill, enslave humanity and prevent them from making mistakes (and learning from them), and swaddle humanity like an abusive over protective mother?

If someone is born with AIDS, it might have something to do with the conduct of the parents, and, as you would eliminate the result of that conduct, you would eliminate promiscuity and unprotected sex as well.

You wish to be free of consequences, but we all know where that leads. Slavery.

 

No, just restrict human action so as to allow all humans to pursue their interests to the greatest degree. This is (more or less) the foundation of ALL law. Complete freedom would also be complete chaos; slavery, violence etc etc. God doesn't really believe in free will, in as much as if you choose the wrong thing you get burned for eternity. That isn't really a choice. No one would seriously do something wrong knowing that was their fate.

You forgot another possibility - eliminating the aids. Why cant that be done? As I said, God has absolute power - why punish the child for the choices of their parents? There is no justice in such chaos.

Which is EXACTLY what God has left humanity to dwell in for the overwhelming majority of its existence.

 

I would have made only one race - Caucasians. That would have prevented racism, and a host of other problems. There would be no homosexuality. Three would be no disease, only death by old age, stupidity, murder, or accidents. The atmosphere would be composed of nitrous oxide. Gravitational acceleration would be about 2 meters per second squared. The climate would be moderate with no extreme cold or heat. Dinosaurs would still be here. That's for starters.

 

dinosaurs are still here

life evolved from that generation too

life aint dying from old age. ie... the life of the first life is still here.


religions will be extinct but freedom will always exist.


the pinnacle of evolution (remember knowledge evolves) is when existence comprehends itself.

 

Did you just honestly compare not letting newborns die of starvation (The example given) to being and abusive overprotective mother?

Why allow disease to exist at all? The choice for AIDS? It is a cause of pointless suffering in our world. And no sex does not mean AIDS, God could simply get rid of the disease, sex does not have to be stripped from humanity to do so.

It is not slavery, it is the problem of evil, it exists without effecting free will.

 

Well, I certainly would not be a hateful and malevolent god. Disease would be eradicated, wars would cease, etc. However, I would not make myself known. I would require no worship, I am not nearly vain enough to seek such panderings.

Things such as these would not occur, to the dismay to those who worship a god that permits such atrocities.

 

Seriously? This is the biggest controdiction you can manage in this thread. Some peoples interest is to have power. And to have power over others to the greatest degree, they will have to enslave and/or kill others that want that same power. How would you (as God) allow Musalini (sp), Hitler, and Stalin to co-exist while all wanting total world domination?

But yet people do all day everyday. Christians know their fate, yet still sleep around. Muslims know suicide is wrong, yet blow themselves up. On and on people know their fate, and yet still commit sin. God knows this will always happen, but he gives you the free will to ask for forgiveness and will provide it if you really mean you are sorry for the sin.

Some people thrive on that chaos. The truely great people don't blame others for the hand their are dealt, they live with and try to flurish. This is why liberals can't be follower of God, they blame too much of their short comings on others.

That is the CHOICE Adam and Eve made when they disobeyed God. God said don't eat "this". Eve thought she knew better. So God said I will let you live with your own actions and deal with the consequences till you either kill everything/everyone off, or till you have learned that God's laws are to be followed.

 

You mean the downfall? Humans are by far the worse example of evolution. Our species is the only one that allows the mutation to survive and dilute the rest of the gene pool. We out breed our food supplies, we destroy the land scape, and we kill each other pretty easily with no remorse.

 

It's my belief that free will comes with the consequences. You can't have one without the other. If God were to, let's say, take away AIDS, then people wouldn't care about it at all, and they would sin without any care, which is kinda what God doesn't want them to do. Because the consequence was gone, we wouldn't care about whether the sin was bad or not. Besides, let's say that you are a child with AIDS because of what your parents did. Now you have a challenge in your life that you have to overcome through your own struggle and you become the better for it.

As much as disease, starvation, and things like this that are so horrifying are awful things, they serve a good cause. As I said before, those who suffer from them have to struggle and try and they learn and grow in the process. As well as that, it helps us who have surplus of these things to have someone to go and help. It's good to have charity, and if there was no suffering, then there would be no charity, and once again we'd have no chance to learn.

 

Would you also stop the ability for humans to reproduce so rapidly? Would you take away the pleasure from sex that drives us to the act of reproduction? Without these natural diseases, humans would have over populated the world centuries ago. The black plague was a necessity to control the human population. You think it is bad in Africa now with food shortages, imagine what happens when that population explodes when everyone is able to live till their bodies give out to old age...which is usually shortened by cancer, heart disease, and artery back ups. The human body can survive well into the 100s of years without the diseases that ravash us. So how do you support the existance of human life that lives for centuries while propogating at a moments notice?

 

I believe that the major contributor to people becoming Atheists, is our notion of God and the religious organization that push this drivel.

Our religions are an extension of our need to organize and control. Especially Catholicism.

I would be rather surprised if this God has any idea what is going on here...or that IT cares.

When you are the spirit of the universe...little blue planets with fanatics on it...probably ain't the place ya wanna spend yer summers...

 

God does grant all those things you would do, unfortunately, it is a death based, conditional paradise.

 

God allows free will. Most of the negative consequences are due to the human abuse of free will. Sounds like if you were God, you would be an absolute tyrant.

I wouldn't take the job of God.....

 

Yet true believers throughout time have disobeyed God, despite their heartfelt views that they would burn in Hell if they disobeyed God. That argument doesn't work.

 

He would be God, such problems could be easily mended, if he wanted to he could make the world infinitely larger for humanity. That is only one of many solutions he could employ without resorting to making humanity suffer pointlessly.

 

Then what is the point of living?

 

If they truly believed was all-knowing and all-good then they would not disobey him as he would obviously be right...

 

Agh, well, my mother was right about that tramp I dated when I was a teen ager. I dated her anyway.

Being right does not always result in perfect compliance. After all, atheism is wrong about almost everything .... people follow it anyway.

So what's the standard?

 

Oh boy. If you want me to explain my ethical position here, I can, but will you spend enough time to listen to it or just read one line then draw out random conclusions? I want to know before I go the length of describing this position.

You havent actually refuted my point here. Christians that are sleezy dont see anything wrong in their action in the same way suicide bombers often think what they are doing is moral.

This isnt about blame - its about the blatant and obvious contradiction of a 'merciful all powerful God' that does nothing to alleviate the merciless misery of others.

Keep your ignorant and mindless partisanship to yourself please.

But in doing so God became a tyrant - he gave them everything and then said they couldnt eat from one random tree - he was tempting them beyond all serious logic - why would he be so cruel to punish them when he knew EXACTLY what they were capable of? Not only this but it was the snake that told them - who made the snake? God of course!!

Are you seriously saying we are guilty for crimes we never committed? I never ate form the tree - did those thousands of starving kids in the world? I dont think so.

 

You forgot the fact God made us that way. What a cruel design so as to ensure many of us (*)(*)(*)(*) ourselves by his own action.

 

There is plenty of pointless suffering and evil that exists separate from free will. Disease, natural disasters, other accidental tragedies. Free will does not negate the problem of evil.

 

Who are you referring to?

 

Indeed the vanity of God is something I'll never comprehend. He has very little to be proud of.

 

That is seriously messed up thinking. What kind of sin is the starving AIDS infected kid in Africa prevented from doing? Your logic is disgusting.

NO THEY DONT - THEY DIE AND THAT IS IT! Kids in Africa in such conditions die as children! They dont "grow" - they die in miserable hellish conditions you clearly have no comprehension of!

Why learn? Why not be born into bliss?