I was a devoted Christian for a very long time, 25 years or more - a Trinity believing Protestant taught that our creator God is omniscient (all-knowing) omnipotent (all-powerful) and omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time). This creator designed and created men and women fully and completely all by 'himself'.
What I don't understand, is if this creator purposefully designed and unleashed upon the earth a creature capable of rape and murder, why isn't 'He' to blame for these atrocities? Why would you construct a being with the potential to do so much harm to his fellow humans? What was the motive?
If my son murdered a human and I supplied the gun knowing ahead of time he'd shoot someone, I'm held accountable for my part in the homicide. How much more so should God be held accountable for DESIGNING a creature that he KNOWS ahead of time (he's omniscient, remember) will murder a fellow human?
Hi ya, Katz! Big hug for you, sweetie!
I understand your analogy, believe me. I lived with the morals of free choice for a long time. I don't see the Abrahamic God in the same way anymore (obviously, ha!) According to Christianity, God is our creator and designer, right? You don't see a problem with a designer purposefully creating a man who rapes, murders and dismembers a child all the while sitting back, watching and doing nothing about it? I realize you think this man has a choice, and you're correct, he does. However, why create a monster like this in the first place? My question to you, personally is, how do you reconcile that with your worship and faith in Him? I'd love to hear an answer deeper than "free will" from a Christian. I know we have choices. That's the easy part. What is God's motive for creating man the way he is?
I realize my OP could be viewed as a hostile question. I'm asking with genuine curiosity and not one ounce of bad intent. Good, I'll look forward to it. One thing I admire about LDS doctrine is that a person still has opportunity to come to God after death. That's absolutely missing in mainstream Christianity.
I currently define myself as agnostic. In my view, there's probably less than a 1% chance that the God of the Bible is a true, live entity. Regarding answering the posted quote, I'm not trying to sound snotty but I don't care much about 'how' we came into being. It's a fascinating scientific topic to study and the theories are changing all the time depending on new evidences discovered, but in the grand scheme of things, our initial appearance on the earth is not all that important to me other than from an evolutionary and anthropological angle.
I'm really not sure how to approach this question, but I don't view it as hostile, since none of my past interactions with you have been hostile in the slightest. You know I'm inclined to be long-winded, and I really do try not to be. But when I manage to be brief, I usually leave out something that turns out to be important. So, I just ask you to be patient with me in my efforts to somehow be both concise and thorough.
Let me explain. Mormons believe that God created us for 100% unselfish purposes. His ultimate goal was that we come to find everlasting joy and have potential beyond our wildest dreams. That doesn't just happen. It's a lengthy and sometimes painful process. You know already that we believe that death does not mark the end, with regards to our progress and our opportunity to change and learn and grow. One LDS Apostle put it this way: "The more you understand about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the more you come to realize that endings here in mortality really aren't endings at all." I don't know if you're aware of our belief that, just as death is not the end, birth is not the beginning. We believe that God created us as spirit beings before we came to earth to receive mortal bodies. That is important to understand, because we also believe that we had a choice as to whether we wanted to come here or not. I realize that is so far out in left-field when it comes to traditional Christian doctrine, but it's what we believe was taught and understood by Christians anciently. We came here with an understanding that life was not going to be all that easy and that, in fact, for many of us, it would be one long, miserable experience. So why would we choose it, knowing what we did about what it might be like? We chose it because we understood that it was a necessary step in our eternal progress. We wanted to ultimately be like our Father in Heaven, and we trusted Him when He told us this was actually what He wanted for each of us. I point this out because, even though we may experience tremendous pain and suffering at the hands of depraved human beings, we knew that in the end, all wrongs would be righted and all losses made up to us. And then, we'd be able to start on the path of true eternal progression.
We believe that everyone who has ever been born or will ever be born chose to be born. That includes the murderers, the rapists and all of the other dregs of the earth. None of these people started out as monsters. They made choices that made them become monsters. They weren't born sinners, but were born pure and innocent. Sure, God knew that some of them would make horrendous choices, but they were His children, too, and they wanted to experience mortality. When God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, He said, "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil." As "one of us"? Who would "us" be if not the Father and the Son? One of the attributes of godhood is a knowledge of both good and evil, and by eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve had taken the first step towards becoming like their Father in Heaven. Their Fall was, in reality, a "fortunate fall" or, as it is phrased in Latin, a "felix culpa."
God placed them in a world where both good and evil existed. They would have to learn to discern between the two and make good choices, as each of us must do. If no one were permitted to make poor choices, how would any of us learn anything about evil? How is good even good if there is nothing with which to compare it? You ask why would God create someone who "rapes, murders and dismembers a child, all the while sitting back, watching and doing nothing about it." Have you asked yourself when, exactly, He should step in and stop this from happening? Should He prevent the evil before it happens? If so, how? By simply zapping the monster before he ever did anything monstrous? Or by zapping him immediately afterwards? If He were to miraculously keep the murderer from committing his crime, wouldn't people then be justified in saying, "What's up with God anyway? That man didn't do a thing, and God just struck him dead for no reason?" It's not as if the monster is ultimately going to get off Scot free. Justice will eventually be served.
Another thought... Are you suggesting that God not allow men to commit any evil at all, or would you just somehow restrict it to "less evil"? Where would He draw the line? Would it be okay for a parent to verbally abuse his kid? Could he get away with slapping his kid across the face? How about beating him up? How about torturing him? How about killing him? I'm assuming that you'd say that one of these things crosses the line between acceptable and unacceptable. Are you absolutely sure where that line should be drawn? We see this life as a mere spec on a timeline of our existence that's going to never, ever end. The trials we experience in mortality will be like a single drop of water in the ocean when we've moved on to the next part of our existence. Our existence is about becoming perfect, not as starting out that way.
I am flat out just rambling at this point. I don't know if any of this is going to help you understand why I can worship this God. I could try to explain it in other ways, and I will if you still have questions and want me to try. Otherwise, I don't want to just go on talking for nothing.
