God never promised you would be happy in this life...

[KellBell]

The short answer is sin.

The long answer:

God doesn't make them deformed. He allows people to be affected, directly or indirectly, by the sins of the world, which humans invited in, some in more severe ways than others.

His reason for that?

I'm not a supernatural being with the ability to see the future and into people's hearts and minds, otherwise I might have an answer.
But, God does promise that everything he does or doesn't do has a purpose, a reason, a time, a season for everyone.
I used to wonder about why God allowed pain. I thought once I gave my life to Christ, my pain might lessen. When it didn't I sought answers and almost gave up on God.
A couple of things stand out from that time.

The Footprints in The Sand poster.
If you've never seen it, look it up. It's a metaphor for people who think God isn't with them during times of suffering, only during times of happiness.

The Passion of the Christ movie.
I thought well God must not understand pain at all if he allows such suffering. My prayers were never answered about pain relief. Either that or He is sadistic.

The poster helped me realize He is there during hardship as well as good times. Actually much more closely than you'd think.

The movie helped me realize: 1. God didn't answer the desperate prayer of His own son. The plea to spare Him the suffering he was about to endure. But there was a very important reason for that. 2. Jesus is God in the flesh, so everything Jesus experienced during that time, every painful hit and lash, broken bones, the pain of abandonment, friends throwing you under the bus or claiming to not know you, being without God's presence, hunger, thirst, all of that and more, God experienced as well.
Even though God knew what the end result would be, that Jesus would raise from the dead and be with him in Heaven to prepare it for all who will come, God still had to endure feeling and witnessing His Son go through all that and die a horrible death.

Sin affects people directly and indirectly.

But let me ask, which is better to have, a short span of misery in exchange for an eternity of happiness, or a short span of happiness in exchange for an eternity of misery?

God never promised anything, that book was written by men. Got anything else, like a real reason why a god would make deformed and retarded babies?

As KellBell explained, God doesn't make deformed and retarded babies. They are a result of nature, imperfect genes, passed down through the generations or as a result of the behavior of the parents such as fetal alcohol syndrome. Sin is that which harms us and/or others and it can be cumulative passed down through the ages. It is bad because it does harm us and/or others, and that is why God is against it, and why he warns us against it and teaches us to reject it. If everybody did there would be utopia on Earth. But EVERYTHING that is wrong on Earth generally comes from people not paying attention to God's instruction/law and/or overtly or inadvertently committing sin.

You do realize that god’s law, as you call it, was written by men, and not by an invisible superbeing.

No. God's law IS God's law. His person may be invisible, but his handiwork, his law, his Creation is evident for all to see who have eyes/soul to see. Some interpretation of it has been written by hand.

So some people made up their own versions (interpretation) of what a god would want. How do you know that that's correct?

No. They copied other people's accounts, one's that could be verified. Not to mention, the original manuscripts were found. There was a big hullabaloo about it and whether or not they would corroborate the accounts in the Bible, and if the message in the Bible would be different.
They did hold up to all the tests and the message was the same.
In case you're curious, it's this:
OT
God is good. God created the world/universe and all that is in it. God created man. God destroyed all but a few due to man being corrupted by evil. God guided a race of people and a lineage from which His Son would come. He also communicated with certain people and at times miraculously intervened in the lives of certain people. He gave rules and advice about life and how to avoid sin through particular people. Prophecies were made about the future of the world and the coming of a Savior who would become the final, blameless sacrifice for everyone's sins and the bridge to God. And to be the Prince of Peace.
NT
The Savior was born, lived, performed miracles, died, and rose again exactly as prophesied.
The Savior's message is: to believe in Him, who is the Son of God, the final sacrifice who paid our wages of sin forever, and the conquerer of death, thereby becoming the bridge to God;
to worship God and love God as unconditionally and completely as He loves us;
to love your neighbor as you would yourself;
to have Faith in Him;
to admit as a sinner, you need Jesus to wipe away your sins permanently in order to have everlasting life;
and that He is coming again.
Revelation
God's reiterated message that at some point the world will be as in the days before the Flood and His wrath will be unleashed once more before Jesus comes again.

Had the Bible been influenced by men, instead of God, this message would have been corrupted at some point.
I don't blame your questioning it. Unbelievers can't really understand until and unless they are ready to.

 

[Erinwltr]

Happiness is assured in Heaven not here. There are trials and temptations here. After this world is ended there will be joy.

A fine description of why religion is poisonous.

That doesn't even make sense. Why would a promise of joy in the next world make religion poisonous?

I've come to the conclusion that a good percentage of his posts are nonsensical. Maybe they make sense in his mind, but he doesn't seem able to clearly articulate his thoughts, so he comes across as an angry atheist, ranting and raving, but not clearly expressing himself.

He absolutely and clearly articulates himself and is not ranting and raving. You just make stuff up about him to justify your position.

 

[Foxfyre]

As KellBell explained, God doesn't make deformed and retarded babies. They are a result of nature, imperfect genes, passed down through the generations or as a result of the behavior of the parents such as fetal alcohol syndrome. Sin is that which harms us and/or others and it can be cumulative passed down through the ages. It is bad because it does harm us and/or others, and that is why God is against it, and why he warns us against it and teaches us to reject it. If everybody did there would be utopia on Earth. But EVERYTHING that is wrong on Earth generally comes from people not paying attention to God's instruction/law and/or overtly or inadvertently committing sin.

You do realize that god’s law, as you call it, was written by men, and not by an invisible superbeing.

No. God's law IS God's law. His person may be invisible, but his handiwork, his law, his Creation is evident for all to see who have eyes/soul to see. Some interpretation of it has been written by hand.

So some people made up their own versions (interpretation) of what a god would want. How do you know that that's correct?

Who is capable of knowing what is and is not 'correct' when none of us were there? Those who wrote the Bible were writing in their world, their time, their culture as they were capable of understanding it. We err completely when we try to evaluate what they wrote or anybody wrote eons ago via standards of our 21st century experience, sense of morality, our culture etc. and/or by demanding literal translations of everything that could metaphorical or allegorical or figurative. To understand the Bible or any other writings from long ago, we must read through the eyes of those who wrote it and allow them the same literary license that we allow modern day writers.

Meanwhile, here and now, we know God by experiencing God and using our God given common sense and logic and ability to see and understand. I think the fact that some try so hard to attack the faith of believers, to PROVE God doesn't exist, to convince others that their non belief is valid, is a pretty good case for God existing. They don't work as hard to disprove anything else.

There is a way to know for sure.
First, historical books have to go through a review to determine accuracy. The Bible is THE most accurate, of all the oldest books written. There are manuscripts from before Jesus was born that prove the OT as accurate.
Second, if God's word, the Bible, were capable of being corrupted by 100s of years of rewriting, the central message would have been corrupted long ago.
There was a council of holy men from different sects, but who believed in God, who met twice to determine what books should belong in the Bible. Once about 400 yrs, BC, before the birth of Jesus. Once in the mid 100s AD. Both times it was a days long meeting of all types of churches to determine what books were legitimate and belonged, first in the OT, then in the NT. If there was any inaccuracy in any account, the whole account was thrown out.
Not to mention, Daniel's account/book, which was written about mid 500 BC, according to another history book, prophesied that there would be 483 years between the decree to rebuild the wall and the city of Jerusalem and Christ's death/resurrection. And exactly 483 years after the rebuilding was finished, Jesus was crucified and rose again.

While I don't dispute any of your argument, the fact is that using the Bible as confirmation of its own authenticity, or the people who promote it as authentic as witnesses for it, simply is not convincing to the unbeliever. Just as we do not believe those who point to this article or that source as 'proof' when we know that their source is motivated to promote a particular thesis that we do not believe.

Paul explained it in his letters to the Corinthians: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God . . ." and "no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit."

In his time and in his culture and with the words he had to express it, he was admitting that the whole Biblical schtick looks silly and unbelievable to the unbeliever. But once you have a personal relationship with God, not so much.

Our job is not to convince them of the truth of the Bible. Those outside the faith are incapable of understanding that. But the Bible can teach those who seek, as can those who have that relationship with the living God. I just pray that we allow Him to use us. And then He takes it from there.

 

[Foxfyre]

No. God's law IS God's law. His person may be invisible, but his handiwork, his law, his Creation is evident for all to see who have eyes/soul to see. Some interpretation of it has been written by hand.

So some people made up their own versions (interpretation) of what a god would want. How do you know that that's correct?

Who is capable of knowing what is and is not 'correct' when none of us were there? Those who wrote the Bible were writing through their world, their time, their culture as they were capable of understanding it. We err completely when we try to evaluate what they wrote or anybody wrote eons ago via standards of our 21st century experience, sense of morality, our culture etc. and/or by demanding literal translations of everything that could metaphorical or allegorical or figurative. To understand the Bible or any other writings from long ago, we must read through the eyes of those who wrote it and allow them the same literary license that we allow modern day writers.

Meanwhile, here and now, we know God by experiencing God and using our God given common sense and logic and ability to see and understand. I think the fact that some try so hard to attack the faith of believers, to PROVE God doesn't exist, to convince others that their non belief is valid, is a pretty good case for God existing. They don't work as hard to disprove anything else.

"allow them the same literary license that we allow modern day writers." So basically, you're saying that the bible is fiction. Then we agree.

I did not at all say that the Bible is fiction. So we do not agree. The Bible is a masterpiece of collected manuscripts and you will find history, law, wisdom sayings, explanations, allegory, metaphor, symbolism, poetry, prophecy, all revealed through the understanding of a people who knew God and described him and what they believed he expected of them as best they could with their experience, within their culture, with the words they had to express. To call that fiction is akin to calling the writings of Pluto or Aristotle or Socrates 'fiction'.

Perhaps if I live long enough, however, I will understand the passion of those who so much want to destroy the faith of believers. What is it in people to make them that heartless and cruel I wonder?

Personally I’m looking for real proof, not trying to bum anyone’s trip.

But Pluto... is fiction, like philosophy. Is that what you’re saying the bible is?

Plato is fiction?

Consider Plato--honestly Pluto was a typo and not a Freudian slip --and his analogy of the cave for instance. His theory, which nobody can prove or disprove, is that all that exists does so because the human mind conceives it in a certain way. It is real only in the sense that the shadows of images on the wall of the cave are of real things, but they are real only because we choose to believe that they are. I do not personally agree with him on that, but I have no means to prove him wrong either.

Morpheus in "The Matrix" explained things much in the same way when he showed Neo that the world he perceived was not the way the world is any more, but is rather a computer generated illusion that the agents wanted humans to see. I have long suspected that the writer of "The Matrix" script was probably well schooled in Platonian thought.

But while "The Matrix" was true fiction, was Plato's analogy? Can you say that using familiar concepts or images to explain something real is fiction? Allegory, metaphor, symbolism, parable, etc. doesn't have to use real situations or real people in order to convey a completely accurate message.

So. . .though I consider myself an amateur Biblical scholar. . .I can easily accept that there are passages in the Bible that represent actual history, real people, events that happened. But I also accept that there is allegory, metaphor, symbolism, parable, poetic license, etc. to get a message across or explain why things are as they are. It takes dedicated Bible study to be able to read through the eyes of those who wrote down those words, as well as some education in the historical and archeological record, to get a sense of which is which.

And God is able to teach us through all of it.

 

[xband]

Eve ate the forbidden fruit thus Adam got kicked out of The Garden of Eden, sometimes called Original Sin.

 

[Foxfyre]

Happiness is assured in Heaven not here. There are trials and temptations here. After this world is ended there will be joy.

A fine description of why religion is poisonous.

That doesn't even make sense. Why would a promise of joy in the next world make religion poisonous?

I've come to the conclusion that a good percentage of his posts are nonsensical. Maybe they make sense in his mind, but he doesn't seem able to clearly articulate his thoughts, so he comes across as an angry atheist, ranting and raving, but not clearly expressing himself.

A gentle reminder though that the faithful must not behave as the unbeliever behaves. I shudder to think how many have been deterred or driven away from knowing the living God because of the unattractive, even cruel, way that a well intended believer introduced God to those people. I honestly doubt anybody has come to know and love God by being told he/she is going to hell.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

That doesn't even make sense. Why would a promise of joy in the next world make religion poisonous?

Because it's fake, and, fake or not, it causes people to devalue their time on earth, making the world worse.

Obviously.

 

[Foxfyre]

That doesn't even make sense. Why would a promise of joy in the next world make religion poisonous?

Because it's fake, and, fake or not, it causes people to devalue their time on earth, making the world worse.

Obviously.

Or it causes them to value their lives more because there is purpose, hope, and possibilities beyond whatever difficulties may befall us in this life. Nothing gives our present more purpose than hope that this is not all that there is.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Or it causes them to value their lives more because there is purpose, hope, and possibilities beyond whatever difficulties may befall us in this life

Now that really makes zero sense. Why would they value their earthly lives more than someone who doesnt believe in this childish afterlife nonsense?

And, if they need a fake promise of a childish idea to have a fake sense of value, then that is not psychogically healthy for them. They need to be treated like adults,not children, and get treated for depression.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Nothing gives our present more purpose than hope that this is not all that there is.

Nothing gives it less purpose than to think it is an insignificant blink of an eye compared to eternal afterlife.

 

[Foxfyre]

Or it causes them to value their lives more because there is purpose, hope, and possibilities beyond whatever difficulties may befall us in this life

Now that really makes zero sense. Why would they value their earthly lives more than someone who doesnt believe in this childish afterlife nonsense?

And, if they need a fake promise of a childish idea to have a fake sense of value, then that is not psychogically healthy for them. They need to be treated like adults,not children, and get treated for depression.

I suppose you probably believe that. But the person with hope lives his/her life for the present in the best possible way. The person with no hope doesn't care, and too often lives his/her life mostly selfishly and for his/her personal gratification. There are certainly exceptions in every case. But you don't see many, if any, atheist organizations giving of their time, talent, and treasure to start up and/or participate in those organizations that exist to help the poorest of the poor, the down and out, the people most in need of human compassion. That doesn't mean that all believers do that, because somebody has to fix the plumbing, bake the bread, and pump the gas etc. for the good of all.

But those secure that they are loved by God and they have purpose are generally among the world's happiest people.