A Benevolent God

[jomifl]

Having taken heed of some of the arguments in support of their benevolent god and Kromovacorum's posting on another thread, what are your suggestions for this benevolent god's mightiest works?
Here is mine:-

The boxing day tsunami

[jomifl]

Don't worry Khandro, things might get better by the end of the week.

[vetuste_ennemi]

The Second Coming's been done before, Khandro.

[jomifl]

you left out 'non-existant' Birdie

[idiosyncrasy]

The natural disasters that occur, are just that. Natural disasters. There are of course, manmade disasters which are caused through the greed and selfishness of man.
I would agree with MrsLulu's point about Satan. As to his being created. Well, yes and no. He was created a perfect angel, but he made himself Satan. This descriptive name was given to him because of his taking a course of opposition and resistance to God. Just as a child is not born a thief, he makes himself a thief so to with Satan. He was not created Satan, he chose to become an opposer of God.

[jomifl]

Idio,
Come on now, you are taking the pi$$ surely?

[LazyGun]

What - so Satan was, shock, horror, an atheist? an anti-theist?.:)

God creates everything perfectly - then it all falls apart. Adam and Eve, Satan etc. And its never his fault. Its like the installer of double glazing claiming its the fault of the resident that the unit failed because they did not use it properly.

Its the usual faith based bunkum - devoid of any factual underpinning and completely reliant upon directed compliance..

[goodlife]

How true the words of Jesus: Blind guides is what they are. If, then, Jesus continued, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. (Matt. 15:14)

[LazyGun]

Well perhaps instead of shooting off full of confidence that something would guide them, they should have thought first and used a navigational aid - like a stick, perhaps?

Sound like early candidates for the Darwin award to me.... How deep was this pit anyway?

[Khandro]

Great post LG :-)

[Kromovaracun]

"I would agree with MrsLulu's point about Satan. As to his being created. Well, yes and no. He was created a perfect angel, but he made himself Satan. This descriptive name was given to him because of his taking a course of opposition and resistance to God. Just as a child is not born a thief, he makes himself a thief so to with Satan. He was not created Satan, he chose to become an opposer of God."

To be clear, I don't believe Satan (or God) exists. But if you're using the Bible as a source on their respective characters, then Yahweh kills condsiderably more people (at the very least 2.5 million) than Satan (10 - most of whom he is instructed to kill by Yahweh.)

The objection is simple. We don't claim God exists, or that he is responsible for tsunamis. We're just questioning whether the world as we know it is consistent with the idea of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent creator. The proposition that the world exists alongside such a being is so full of holes that it ought to be rejected by any right-thinking person - and is in fact rejected by several theologians (albeit not by many an average believer).

[jim360]

Thanks birdie.

[society]

Birdie, people who believe the Bible would believe that, because it's what's in the the Bible.

[idiosyncrasy]

Kromovaracun //This would imply that, according to the Bible, the future is knowable and is therefore probably known by God.//

Yes. Surely as the one who set all things in motion he is going to know what the outcome will be. I am not sure of the scripture (think it is in Isaiah) but it says in the Bible, that he "knows the end from the beginning" .

[naomi24]

idiosyncrasy , //Surely as the one who set all things in motion he is going to know what the outcome will be.//

How come he was disappointed with his creation then, and felt obliged to rid the earth of most of its inhabitants by drowning them all? Wouldn't he have known that was going to happen?

[jomifl]

idio, you quoted / "knows the end from the beginning" . /
arguing that he knows how things are going to end from the very start. It could also mean 'he can distinuish between the beginning and the end' I can do that, omniscient or what?