Let's suppose there is a God. The point is, with the enormous amount of horrible things that happen in the world, why would anyone care whether there is a God? I mean, is God powerful enough to create a universe but not powerful or smart enough to make it so there are not a huge number of horrible things that happen? This seems hard to imagine and contradicts what people usually believe are the characteristics of God, i.e. omnipotence. If God really is not powerful enough to design a universe that has little to no suffering, I submit that God is hardly worth worshipping and should be treated as a matter of indifference.
Maybe we could say, "hey, thanks" but worship seems more sensibly directed towards a being who would have a much more positive resume of helpful intervention in our world then we can presently assume exists. If not helpful intervention, then an alternative design that would have led to more benevolent outcomes through the course of time. In other words, there is every reason to believe that if there is a God then it has abandoned us and doesn't care or that it is outright malevolent. To simply have faith that it cares is to confuse what care means. If I say there is a 3 year old little girl in Africa who has Aids and is malnourished and ask a believer in God why God let's this child suffer and die, and if they say they have faith that God cares, this is nonsensical since the definition of care is to help when you are able and willing. I don't think it makes sense to say you care about something and do nothing to help it. Like if I say i care about the War in Iraq and am against it, and then I basically do nothing to stop it, in what meaningful sense can I say I care other then in an abstract intellectual sense which means nothing for helping those who are suffering? I don't think we should throw around the word care if it is not tied to action. It allows people to get off too easily by saying, "oh, i care, but i do nothing."
Let's substitute myself for God. If I had the power and desire to help this little girl, and I did not help the little girl, someone could reasonably conclude I either don't really have the power or will. Because what other explanation would there be? That I am giving the little girl a test to see how well she can put up with suffering or see how much her parents can continue to believe in a caring god no matter how much the facts contradict that belief? If i did something like this, I would rightly be called cruel. If God does it, it somehow magically transforms into grounds for worship. If I deliberately starved my child and said I wanted to see if he continued to love me in his state of starvation, I would be considered some type of psychopath.
I could say a lot more, but that is all for now.
Maybe we could say, "hey, thanks" but worship seems more sensibly directed towards a being who would have a much more positive resume of helpful intervention in our world then we can presently assume exists. If not helpful intervention, then an alternative design that would have led to more benevolent outcomes through the course of time. In other words, there is every reason to believe that if there is a God then it has abandoned us and doesn't care or that it is outright malevolent. To simply have faith that it cares is to confuse what care means. If I say there is a 3 year old little girl in Africa who has Aids and is malnourished and ask a believer in God why God let's this child suffer and die, and if they say they have faith that God cares, this is nonsensical since the definition of care is to help when you are able and willing. I don't think it makes sense to say you care about something and do nothing to help it. Like if I say i care about the War in Iraq and am against it, and then I basically do nothing to stop it, in what meaningful sense can I say I care other then in an abstract intellectual sense which means nothing for helping those who are suffering? I don't think we should throw around the word care if it is not tied to action. It allows people to get off too easily by saying, "oh, i care, but i do nothing."
Let's substitute myself for God. If I had the power and desire to help this little girl, and I did not help the little girl, someone could reasonably conclude I either don't really have the power or will. Because what other explanation would there be? That I am giving the little girl a test to see how well she can put up with suffering or see how much her parents can continue to believe in a caring god no matter how much the facts contradict that belief? If i did something like this, I would rightly be called cruel. If God does it, it somehow magically transforms into grounds for worship. If I deliberately starved my child and said I wanted to see if he continued to love me in his state of starvation, I would be considered some type of psychopath.
I could say a lot more, but that is all for now.
This is why I don't go to church.
