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Where was God during the Las Vegas shooting?

davidor

New Member
I always ask this question after something bad happens. It makes me mad when something good happens and everyone praises god for the great things he provides. But then something bad happens and god gave us free will. This just means stuff happens. Good and bad... stuff happens. God isn't controlling anything. If he's real, it makes me mad that he can just sit by and watch this stuff and do nothing about it. I struggle with religion. I've been reading a lot of books by Tim Keller and Case for Christ, and a few others. Once in a while, I'll start feeling like maybe there is something. But then something like Las Vegas or the Church shooting that just happened not too far from where I live here in Tennessee happens and then I ask, where was god? Was he just taking the day off? Does he not care? Or does he just not exist?
 

Spiderman

Veteran Member
I struggle with the same questions... It seems to me God is cruel... But somehow I find it in me to love him anyways
 

Lyndon

"Peace is the answer" quote: GOD, 2014
Premium Member
Maybe you should be blaming Satan instead of God.
 

Enoch07

It's all a sick freaking joke.
Premium Member
I always ask this question after something bad happens. It makes me mad when something good happens and everyone praises god for the great things he provides. But then something bad happens and god gave us free will. This just means stuff happens. Good and bad... stuff happens. God isn't controlling anything. If he's real, it makes me mad that he can just sit by and watch this stuff and do nothing about it. I struggle with religion. I've been reading a lot of books by Tim Keller and Case for Christ, and a few others. Once in a while, I'll start feeling like maybe there is something. But then something like Las Vegas or the Church shooting that just happened not too far from where I live here in Tennessee happens and then I ask, where was god? Was he just taking the day off? Does he not care? Or does he just not exist?

God gave us the heroes who stopped the man. He also blessed us with the heroes on the ground that fit as many people into their cars as they could to get away. The nurses, the doctors, the paramedics, on and on.

He won't Interfer with free will to stop someone from doing something terrible. But He does help us deal with it when others use that free will against us.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
I always ask this question after something bad happens. It makes me mad when something good happens and everyone praises god for the great things he provides. But then something bad happens and god gave us free will. This just means stuff happens. Good and bad... stuff happens. God isn't controlling anything. If he's real, it makes me mad that he can just sit by and watch this stuff and do nothing about it. I struggle with religion. I've been reading a lot of books by Tim Keller and Case for Christ, and a few others. Once in a while, I'll start feeling like maybe there is something. But then something like Las Vegas or the Church shooting that just happened not too far from where I live here in Tennessee happens and then I ask, where was god? Was he just taking the day off? Does he not care? Or does he just not exist?
Considering he creates evil

Isaiah 45:7 KJV
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

no one should be surprised god is indifferent to human suffering.

.

.
 

Kelly of the Phoenix

Well-Known Member
But then something like Las Vegas or the Church shooting that just happened not too far from where I live here in Tennessee happens and then I ask, where was god? Was he just taking the day off? Does he not care? Or does he just not exist?
God, in Job, made a bet regarding something He supposedly already knew, so I guess He was in a casino.

God gave us the heroes who stopped the man.
The Vegas guy shot himself, though. No heroes at all.

But He does help us deal with it when others use that free will against us.
If the guy was insane, he wasn't subscribed to free will.

God is not a Babysitter.
True, but He wants credit for raising the kids anyway.

no one should be surprised god is indifferent to human suffering.
Rains (bullets) on the good and bad alike, after all.
 

David T

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Have you read the book of Job?

By the way, the tendency of folks to praise God for good things, but not blame Him for bad things, might be some species of confirmation bias.
And I thought confirmation bias meant fact.
 

Enoch07

It's all a sick freaking joke.
Premium Member
The Vegas guy shot himself, though. No heroes at all.

Why did he kill himself? Because a small group of 5 or 6 cops was bumrushing his room. Had they not, who knows how much longer he could have carried on. Nice attempt at a illogical gotcha moment though. There were lots of heroes that day and not just police officers. It does you a disservice to ignore them.

If the guy was insane, he wasn't subscribed to free will.

IF he was insane. I think the jury is still out on that. ;)
 

YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
God gave us the heroes who stopped the man. He also blessed us with the heroes on the ground that fit as many people into their cars as they could to get away. The nurses, the doctors, the paramedics, on and on.

He won't Interfer with free will to stop someone from doing something terrible. But He does help us deal with it when others use that free will against us.
That is the thing that often gets overlooked in horrid tragedies like this is the 100,000 acts of kindness, compassion and love that push people well beyond their limits showing deep humanity and caring for their fellow humans. That it often takes events like this to bring out the best in humanity, is telling more about the comfort of our complacency, then it highlights deep flaws in our character. There are monsters among us, but there are also many, many times more truly good people.
 

YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
So you think a sane person could do what he did, that's insane!!
In my view, he was clearly not insane. From everything I have read and watched the planning was too cold and calculated to be the result of a psychotic event. Though he may indeed have been suffering from some kind(s) of mental illness, he was, clearly, quite functional and well aware of what he was doing. He was, by all accounts, an educated man of means, living in comfortable retirement.

Personally, I would not rule out that he was a very bitter Hillary supporter and decided to even the score. Sadly, we may never know the real reasons.
 

YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
I question the sanity of thinking he was sane!!
Your primitive logic is noted.

insanity
[in-san´ĭ-te]
a medically obsolete term for mental derangement or disorder. Insanity is now a purely legal term, denoting a condition due to which a person lacks criminal responsibility for a crime and therefore cannot be convicted of it. adj., insane´. <source>

Given that insanity is purely a legal term these days @Enoch07 is quite right in saying the jury is out on that as the case has not and will not be heard in a court of law.
 
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Grandliseur

Well-Known Member
I always ask this question after something bad happens. It makes me mad when something good happens and everyone praises god for the great things he provides. But then something bad happens and god gave us free will. This just means stuff happens. Good and bad... stuff happens. God isn't controlling anything. If he's real, it makes me mad that he can just sit by and watch this stuff and do nothing about it. I struggle with religion. I've been reading a lot of books by Tim Keller and Case for Christ, and a few others. Once in a while, I'll start feeling like maybe there is something. But then something like Las Vegas or the Church shooting that just happened not too far from where I live here in Tennessee happens and then I ask, where was god? Was he just taking the day off? Does he not care? Or does he just not exist?
Well, we tend to blame him for the bad and just be happy for the good.

Please remember what one Bible writer said, (paraphrasing it) 'we live this life, and thereafter, there is judgment for what we have done.' Those who have done good get their reward and those who do or have done evil - get their reward. If then God stopped all from doing evil, where would judgment of evil happen? It could not. Then there would be no judgment of good either.

Do not blame the ones who do not do evil (God, in this case).
 
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