Zone1 Is God a sadist?

[JoeB131]

I like ther way the writers put in Oh God part 2:

"God: [answering Tracy's question about why there is so much suffering in the world] I know this sounds like a cop-out, Tracy, but there's nothing I can do about pain and suffering. It's built into the system.

Tracy Richards: Which You invented.

God: Right. But my problem was I could never figure out how to build anything with just one side to it.

Tracy Richards: One side?

God: You ever see a front without a back?

Tracy Richards: No.

God: A top without a bottom?

Tracy Richards: No.

God: An up without a down?

Tracy Richards: No.

God: OK. Then there can't be good without bad, life without death, pleasure without pain. That's the way it is. If I take sad away, happy has to go with it."

And I think you've demonstrated why after Man invented God, he had to invent Satan soon afterwards.

 

[occupied]

So he is a sadist? In your view?

In my view there is no God or he does not care. Both result in the same random chaos we observe in the universe. Sadists care very deeply for their victims as they are the source of their satisfaction.

 

[rightwinger]

He was tempted by Satan. And succumbed to it. Get it right.

And what was the message from that salutary tale?

Tempted?
That’s it?
Never actually succumbed to Satan

That justifies torture?

God behaved worse than Job did

 

[Mindful]

Sadists care very deeply for their victims as they are the source of their satisfaction.

I must compile a list.

 

[expat_panama]

Well, I really don’t want to attack the messenger.

There are plenty of other theses I could have chosen.

But maybe God is neutral; CS Lewis referred to Him as indifferent, yet benign.

So maybe it’s our own emotional interpretations that decide the matter.

It's true that it's possible to see God as good and also possible to see God as neutral, but my thinking is that there actually IS a God out there that doesn't change from good to neutral and back depending on how people feel at the moment.

My thinking is that God IS. We have to deal w/ it, and my experience is that God is good.

 

[Mindful]

Tempted?
That’s it?
Never actually succumbed to Satan

That justifies torture?

God behaved worse than Job did

No comment.

 

[expat_panama]

God tortured Job for the fun of it

--and in the end Job came out w/ a pretty good outcome. If u want u can read the end of Job here.

 

[occupied]

How about I follow your thinking and you look at what we can both see together.

It's true that in this universe entropy currently increases That's currently, remember that It fell a lot w/ the big bang. There's still a bit of controversy over how it'll end --whether it's a big rip or a cold death-- but that won't be for what, trillions of years from now? In the here and now you and I exist and we're pondering reality. My take is that reality is good and it's our attitudes that can make it seem bad.

If someone wants to be happy they can be happy --and perfectly in tune w/ reality. If someone wants to be miserable that's their choice. We don't want to try and limit other people's choices.

Most people are miserable for perfectly valid reasons and choice has little to do with it.

 

[Meriweather]

Even if that were true all our struggles are ultimately pointless.

The point is creation. God is Creator...and His people are as well.

 

[occupied]

--and in the end Job came out w/ a pretty good outcome. If u want u can read the end of Job here.

Job is a work of fiction with a happy ending bronze age style. In the real world misfortune leaves you mentally scarred and less capable of contentment.

 

[occupied]

The point is creation. God is Creator...and His people are as well.

Well at least God gets to have a purpose, whatever it is.

 

[Meriweather]

Well at least God gets to have a purpose, whatever it is.

Doesn't it follow that the purpose of a Creator is to create?

 

[occupied]

Doesn't it follow that the purpose of a Creator is to create?

Only man ever brought purpose and meaning out of this random mess God supposedly created.

 

[norwegen]

When confronted with the question of evil, evangelical and fundamentalist Christians invoke a couple different stock answers, one being that man has free will, and man chose to fall and therefore invite evil into existence. Another answer is that of a yin and yang relationship; bitter does not exist without sweet; life does not exist without death; good does not exist without evil.

But pat answers like these only generate more rebuttals. For one, if God’s creation were perfect and chose evil, then His creation was not really perfect. And if the creation of good required the creation of evil, then again Eden was not a perfect paradise to begin with.

And hence the question of evil continues to haunt mainstream circles; it never really gets an answer that satisfies a political prisoner, a disfigured child, or an abused wife. Post-enlightenment gurus ask this question of evangelicals not so much to seek answers but rather to inflame a culture war between the religious and the secular and to saddle the church with a problem that the church need not solve, for eradicating evil from the planet was never the church’s mandate.

 

[rightwinger]

--and in the end Job came out w/ a pretty good outcome. If u want u can read the end of Job here.

Well, after being tortured by God, Job was rewarded

He should have been rewarded regardless

 

[SweetSue92]

Had God just put his thumb on the scale just a little so that evil is not so rewarding or that only bad people get cancer there would be no problem. In a world where justice is scarce and there is scant benefit to being virtuous it is difficult for grown up adults to believe God is good.

This isn't the end yet.

 

[SweetSue92]

Interesting, the article seems to be written by a psychologist working w/ folks who are failing to cope w/ reality.

I agree. "The Work" (capital W) is a big tip off. Instantly skeptical.

 

[SweetSue92]

Even if that were true all our struggles are ultimately pointless.

Says who, you?

Why would I ever trust what you say about God and eternity?

 

[rightwinger]

Then there was the Great Flood

God killed innocent babies, puppies and kittens
Pretty sadistic

 

[Meriweather]

Only man ever brought purpose and meaning out of this random mess God supposedly created.

Did man bring purpose and meaning...or do we recognize that purpose and meaning that is already here?