Mindful
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #1
When most atheists and theists discuss God, one thing that always stands out as an enormous problem is the existence of suffering and evil, despite many atheists not believing in the latter. They argue: how could an all-loving, all-powerful God create such a world of perpetual misery punctuated by brief moments of joy? The short answer to that profound, emotional moral question is: Freedom of the Will and an eternal afterlife of bliss, void of any pain or suffering.
On moral evil, God gives us freedom to choose what to do rather than use us as puppets, rendering us soulless. However, with this freedom, some people unwittingly inflict suffering onto themselves, while others inflict it onto other human beings. As for natural evil (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, etc), such phenomena are requirements for sustaining a stable, functioning earth, thus maintaining the survival of human creatures lucky to escape the fatal consequences of the above.
For instance, in a Godless universe, a tsunami killing thousands of people is both good and bad: bad for those unfortunate people who suffered and died, but good for the marine life which feasts on the victims who drowned. This brings us on to the subject of Heaven: does it exist and will the victims of tsunamis or other fatal misfortunes, both moral and natural, go there?
For if it does exist, then any Christian who drowned and was killed in a tsunami or any other natural disaster and is redeemed by God, will have his or her earthly sufferings curtailed while entering the bliss of eternal life in Heaven.
Does Heaven Exist?
On moral evil, God gives us freedom to choose what to do rather than use us as puppets, rendering us soulless. However, with this freedom, some people unwittingly inflict suffering onto themselves, while others inflict it onto other human beings. As for natural evil (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, etc), such phenomena are requirements for sustaining a stable, functioning earth, thus maintaining the survival of human creatures lucky to escape the fatal consequences of the above.
For instance, in a Godless universe, a tsunami killing thousands of people is both good and bad: bad for those unfortunate people who suffered and died, but good for the marine life which feasts on the victims who drowned. This brings us on to the subject of Heaven: does it exist and will the victims of tsunamis or other fatal misfortunes, both moral and natural, go there?
For if it does exist, then any Christian who drowned and was killed in a tsunami or any other natural disaster and is redeemed by God, will have his or her earthly sufferings curtailed while entering the bliss of eternal life in Heaven.
Does Heaven Exist?