Why make children suffer and die, which makes parents and family members suffer as well? You can say God created these cancers, but why? Would you deliberately cause cancer to a child? What does that achieve?
Your claims put pressure on yourself to explain all this so it makes sense, and is moral.
God did not create cancer, Cancer has many causes but God is not one of them.
God does not cause cancer in order to make children suffer and die.
Well atheists aren't convinced any gods exist. What we see theists like yourself do is claim a God is good, but then there are facts about the world that God is responsible for (according to you) that aren't moral or good, so those have to be questioned. Theists like to claim their God does good, and ignores the the very bad things, like naturally occurring defects and diseases. You can't claim only good from God and ignore the bad.
I am not a theist who claims only good from God and ignores the bad. I believe that God is responsible for both the good and the bad things that happen and that was in a thread I started recently.
Questions that believers cannot answer
All things that are not chosen by virtue of our own free are beyond our control and I believe they are predestined by God. God is responsible for both the good and the bad things that happen to us, if those things were predestined.
Man is compelled to endure the bad things that happen because God set it up that way since we live in a material world where some of the Bad things happen are beyond our control. Some of these Bad things are caused by the free will decisions of other people that affect us and some of them are simply accidents, misfortunes and diseases. These are our fate, for which God is responsible.
And the joys humans feel are often what they do for themselves. Most all people just want good health and a stable environment to live in. Sickness, war, violence, poverty, etc. all cause hardships, and we can't say that any sort of supernatural brings any of the good stuff.
For most believers, belief in God and nearness to God brings joy and peace. Belief in God has been a mixed bag for me; I do not feel near to God, but I get some solace knowing God is watching over me and will help me when I need help. Help comes in the form of other people who are there when I need them and I believe God has a part in that.
Yes, joys humans feel are what they do for themselves, but it is only because humans have free that they can choose to do these things.
When I said that God is responsible for the joys I was referring to the things that people enjoy in the natural world such as animals and nature and beautiful scenery, as well as physical enjoyments of the body, food, sex, etc.
Can you claim that my good health is God's gift and I should be happy with God? OK. But then I should ignore how a client's 3 year old daughter developed Leukemia and died almost 2 years later? IF, as you insist, God created both how does it make sense?
I cannot make any sense out of it, why some people have good health and others develop diseases and suffer and die. There are no answers to these questions. As I said in the thread I started, these are questions that believers cannot answer without resorting to a plethora of religious apologetics.
I have great health but I cannot be happy because my husband has cancer and is not long for this world. I am not going to say I believe that is fair because I don't believe that. The only way it can ever make any sense is if there is another world we go to after we die where there will be no more pain and sorrow. I firmly believe that but that does not do much to alleviate the suffering of my husband as he lies in a hospital bed, or the suffering I have to endure watching him in pain, or the suffering I will endure after he is gone. I used to be really angry at God because of all the suffering I had to endure but I finally realized the futility of such an attitude, so now I turn to God in prayer for help and I get help.
There is no escape from suffering in this material world, which is a
Storehouse of Suffering, so we either go through it alone, or if we believe in God we reach out for help enduring it. When I reach out, caring compassionate people come to my aid. In spite of the fact that I have not been involved with the Baha'is in my community for many years, as soon as they found out about my husband they all rushed in wanting to help. Had they not I cannot say what I would do because I have no close friends or family to turn to.
It makes vastly better sense to understand the universe and life as just how nature works, and life is often a lottery, some win, some lose. Trying to assume a God behind all this can only disturb and confuse a mind.
You are sure right about that. It is much easier to believe that nature is nature, and like a lottery, some win, some lose, rather than having to wonder why a God would allow some to be winners and others losers. I also addressed that in my thread.
If God is just, why did God create a world in which He knew some people would suffer so much more than others, many people hardly suffering at all? How is that fair?
