Why did God design nature to operate this way? Why did he design animals to fight and kill each other? Why did he create disease? Why is there physical pain?
How did you rule out that there is no god involved? Your question is loaded and assumes the existence of a god not in evidence.
This problem and many more resolve themselves immediately if one takes a naturalistic view on reality. Why does nature give us predators and carnivores? Why wouldn't it?
But today, we're about as certain as we can be that life was around long before mankind appeared, and it was just as brutal before we showed up as it is now. So the Original Sin explanation really doesn't cut it, anymore. We didn't create this "fallen" world through our sin, we were born into a fallen world - it was fallen from the very beginning.
Without original sin, there is no Christianity. Original sin requires that there be two first human beings created by a god. As paradoxical as it may seem, there never was a first human being, just as there was no (natural) first moment of daylight today.
As I suggested, all of this simplifies if you remove the creationist god and substitute blind laws of nature.
you've ceased talking about God, who is omnipotent by definition.
Your definition, and an arbitrary one at that. My definition of a god is any sentient creature able to create universes and laws of nature. There is no other requirement - not goodness, not omnipotence, and not omniscience.
If a God who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, etc. created the world, then it's necessarily implied that the world he created is the way he wants it to be. But that still does not answer why.
Man, I have no idea how you're still missing the point, but I give up trying to explain it to you.
He answered you. This god's reasons would be that that is what it preferred. There is nothing more to say.
Interesting. So, the brutality of nature is all for us, for our benefit, to help us grow and learn?
What else can a theist that believes in an omnisicient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent god say about a world full of what appears to be senseless suffering? Why is humanity under siege from a virus in a world run by a good god? Must be good for us.
But this is the problem with defining reality from one's imagination, and then trying to fit reason and empirical evidence to fit it rather than going in the opposite direction - beginning with observation and applying reason to come to conclusions. The latter produces science and useful knowledge.
The former forces you to engage in intellectual and moral gymnastics to try to force the facts to fit the faith-based belief, which is virtually always wrong. If faith-based thinkers ever guess correctly, such as embracing evolution rather that creationism on a guess rather than by reviewing what is known from science, his life will go easier than if he guesses wrong. In the first case, the evidence and reason will consistently support him.
In the latter case - guessing wrong - one will be forced to defend a wrong idea against the evidence that he is wrong for as long as he holds this idea. You have guessed that there is a good god, and now you're perplexed bout why a good god would want these things. But "it wouldn't" isn't an option any longer, so you must travail or why it did.
Much easier to account for reality without gods. None of our scientific theories require one, nor could any of them be improved in terms of its predictive and explanatory. Same thing if you stick two or three gods in there. They still don't have a job.
an imperfect world really provides the environment for us to grow
Why would we need to grow in a universe created by an tri-omni god? We could be born complete if that god so desired.
But what we see over and over again is that this god perfectly imitates a non-existent god. It always seem to choose what would perforce be the case in a godless universe. Such a god might have written a perfect holy book that no man could have written, or one replete with contradiction, ambiguities, failed prophesies, unkept promises, moral and intellectual errors attributed to a perfect god, and errors in history and science. In a godless universe, only the latter would be possible.
A universe created by a god might or might not have had regular physical laws, but a godless universe would require them, which, once again, is what we find. If this god exists, it chose to imitate the non-existent god again.
A universe with a god might have that god manifest directly or not, but in a godless universe, there can be no such manifestations. Once again, if this god exists, it chose to imitate the non-existent god again.
A universe with a god might have had all life appear in its present form or had it evolve, but a godless universe needs naturalistic methods like biological evolution. And of course, yet again, that's what we find.
In a universe with an interventionalist god that answers prayer and performs miracles, we might or might not see amputees restored to normal, but in a godless universe, the amputated limb never reappears. Check. That's our universe as well.
And on it goes. This god always chooses exactly the same choice that would be imposed on a godless universe, which is exactly what we would expect if there is no interventionalist god.
The world is full of these kinds of situations, so we can generalize to this form: If condition 1 is the case, we might find Situation A or Situation B as a result, but if Condition 2 is the case, only Situation B will be seen
Consider a coin. If it is a fair coin (Condition 1), flipping it can equally well result in heads (Situation A) or tails (Situation B), but if it is loaded (Condition 2), it will only come up only one of these two ways - say tails (Situation B). After awhile, say 100 flips, or 10,000, all tails, it is safe to assume that the coin is loaded even if there is a minute possibility that the coin is a fair coin.
This is how I view these god arguments, each of which explains to us why this god seems to do nothing. We are told he gives us free will and won't intervene in our lives so that we can learn helpful lessons, just as in a godless universe. Neither of those is as good as their opposites. My children would not have had free will were it in my power to upload integrity, courage, etc.. into them at birth. They would only want to do good and be upright. Free will is obviously a threat in a universe where it can get you damned.
We are not to tempt Him by requesting magic, because you won't get it and you'll just anger Him.
Your prayers will be answered, but you'll get a no as often as those that don't pray.
On it goes.
Or, just drop the god belief, and things make more sense.
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When the philosopher's argument becomes tedious, complicated, and opaque, it is usually a sign that he is attempting to prove as true to the intellect what is plainly false to common sense・- Edward Abbey
