It would appear that this \u201cPerfect\u201d god, really didn\u2019t do a very good job creating his people.<\/span><\/p>\nAgain, original sin \/ the fall explains much of human evil, that we commit against each other. We\u2019re fallen; we have a propensity to sin, temptations to do it, adverse influences from our surroundings. And so we sin.<\/p>\n
In Christian theology, God gives us power to overcome these things and do much better. He gives us grace through the sacraments (physical means of obtaining God\u2019s grace, which is powerful to counter sin). He gives us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us and help us. He gives us the Church and fellow believers and family and friends to guide and encourage and love us. There is prayer; there is intercession of others.<\/p>\n
These are the means of improvement, if only we would avail<\/em> ourselves of them. Many do not (many can\u2019t even figure out that there is a God and that Christianity is true), and so, how can they improve their fallen state?<\/p>\nI don\u2019t need to answer every single question you raise. Most are caused by our fallenness. The natural world has consequences that can be harmful, because of its very nature. If we fall off a building, we\u2019ll get hurt, because the ground is hard underneath. What is God supposed to do? Change the ground to jelly just because we\u2019re falling on it? Then the world would be unpredictable and we couldn\u2019t do things like science (that requires a principle or presupposition of uniformitarianism), which has made life easier and helped people live more comfortably (esp. medical science).<\/p>\n
You wanna foolishly blame God for cancer. My father and mother both died of lung cancer. My father was a smoker. We know through science that this directly leads to lung cancer. So he acted stupidly and caused his own final illness. My mother never smoked, but they say second-hand smoke can be very harmful. So maybe I\u2019ll be blessed by that, too, and die of lung cancer, due to someone else\u2019s stupidity; not my own. I\u2019ve never smoked a cigarette in my life. You blame God for what (in this case) was clearly caused by human stupidity and unwillingness to modify behavior. How is that<\/em> God\u2019s fault? You tell me.<\/p>\nPeople blame God for the Nazi Holocaust. For Pete\u2019s sake; that whole thing could have easily been prevented if the world had simply listened to Winston Churchill\u2019s warnings<\/em>, all through the 30s. It\u2019s as simple as that! But they preferred to pretend everything was fine, and put their heads in the sand, all the way up to 1940, even after Hitler had invaded Poland. Now we\u2019re letting Iran get nuclear weapons. We never learn. Malcolm Muggeridge was also warning everyone in the 1930s that Stalin was in the process of starving ten million Ukrainians<\/em>. No one wanted to listen. The liberals of the time were infatuated with Uncle Joe Stalin, who could do no wrong. Is all this God\u2019s fault, too? Or were people stupid and willfully blind to reality?<\/p>\nYou bring up hunger and blame God for that. There is plenty of food on the earth to feed everyone: probably several times over. So why do people starve? Again, human stupidity and greed . . . We know that several governments act in ways that are directly causing hunger: keeping food from people.<\/p>\n
That happened (to give two clear examples) in the Irish Famine in the 1840s and in the Ukraine in the 1930s\u00a0(just alluded to). Communism and socialism bring it about because they are empty-headed economic systems. So why are you so foolish to imply for a second that this is God\u2019s fault? He has given us the wisdom to produce food. If we\u2019d stop sinning and being stupid in our governments and economic systems, there\u2019d be plenty to go around. Or is the evil and stupidity of Stalinism and British oppression of the Irish somehow God\u2019s fault, too?<\/p>\n
Can\u2019t you figure these things out without me pointing it out to you? Your list may look very impressive at first glance<\/em>, but when we start to closely examine it, it\u2019s a very different story.<\/p>\nOne thing I know for sure. I\u2019d rather have all these things in a world with<\/em> God, where they may be sometimes difficult to understand<\/em>, but where we know God loves us (suffered and died for us!) and has heaven waiting for us if we follow Him; as opposed to a godless universe where nothing has any meaning at bottom and there is no ultimate hope: only death and a despairing, nihilistic sad finality to everything.<\/p>\nThat<\/em> is the really<\/em> thorny, disturbing problem: the \u201cproblem of good<\/em>\u201c, \u00a0which is far more of a difficulty than the problem of evil (the most respectable criticism of theism and Christianity).<\/p>\nThat was a very well written and well thought out response.<\/span><\/p>\nI\u201dm not saying that all of these things are \u201cGod\u2019s fault\u201d. What I\u2019m saying is why doesn\u2019t god do anything to prevent or fix these things?<\/span><\/p>\nYou state that people there is plenty of food, it\u2019s just people\u2019s greed that causes others to starve.<\/span><\/p>\nWell, my point is \u2026 if God is so powerful, and so loving \u2026 why can\u2019t he do something about that? Why can\u2019t he snap his fingers and make corn grow in Ethiopia?<\/span><\/p>\nHere is a question for you. Suppose a man had a son who was in pain and slowly dying. The man never calls a doctor, never gives his son medicine, yet every day his son gets worse and worse. This man does nothing to alleviate his son\u2019s pain, he does instead sits back and watches his child just wither away and DIE !!! What kind of a father would do that? What kind of cruel being would do that???<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019ll tell you exactly what kind of being would do that \u2026. God.\u00a0<\/span>This is exactly what your God does EVERY SINGLE DAY! He is supposedly \u201cALL POWERFUL\u201d \u2026 yet he DOES NOT use any of this supposed Power to actually Help his children. He does not use this power to end the suffering of his children \u2026. instead, he just sits back and watches them suffer and slowly wither away and die.<\/span><\/p>\nEither this God is not All Loving, not All Powerful \u2026 or doesn\u2019t exist.<\/span><\/p>\nGlad you liked the response and thanks for your kind comment about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m saying is why doesn\u2019t god do anything to prevent or fix these things?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nHe\u2019s under no more obligation to repair everything that we\u2019ve made a mess out of than a parent is to fix and repair every silly thing a child does. At some point the child has to learn to be responsible and live life without mommy or daddy holding his or her hand every moment. Likewise, with God and us. He gave us the ability and knowledge to solve almost all of the problems you cite. Therefore, it is absurd to keep blaming Him for our mistakes.<\/p>\n
Yes, God could do any number of miracles and solve the problems that we create in our sin and rebellion (occasionally He does when He deems it purposeful to do so). I don\u2019t see how that would help us. We would never learn responsibility or proper stewardship of what He has given us if God became a big \u201ccosmic Santa Claus\u201d in the sky. Atheists mock us for believing such things, then when God doesn\u2019t live up to what they think He should be, they (quite ironically and comically) propose even more<\/em>\u00a0\u201ccosmic Santa Claus\u201d than the caricature of Christianity that we (in their eyes) supposedly believe.<\/p>\nNow God is supposed to (in order to please atheists\u2019 never-ending irrational demands) prevent or immediately resolve every single calamity that is conceivable to the mind of man or that actually happens. He just swoops down and changes the sharp knife edge to jelly and the speeding bullet to gas. And we<\/em>\u00a0supposedly live in Fantasy-Land?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Pixabay \/ \u00a0CC0 Public Domain] This exchange took place in the combox of my post,\u00a0Why\u00a0Did\u00a0a\u00a0Perfect\u00a0God\u00a0Create\u00a0an\u00a0Imperfect\u00a0World?\u00a0The words of \u201cMountainDewFan4\u201d will be in blue. * * * * * So many people\u00a0think they could do a better job at being God than God does. Atheists love to do this; but not a few Christians fall into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":2653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,172],"tags":[260,262,258,182,259,183,261,174,175],"class_list":["post-2652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atheism-agnosticism","category-trinitarianism-christology","tag-all-loving-god","tag-all-powerful-god","tag-atheism","tag-god","tag-gods-characteristics","tag-gods-nature","tag-omnipotence","tag-problem-of-evil","tag-problem-of-good"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \\\"This Rock\\\" (now called \\\"Catholic Answers Magazine\\\"), \\\"Envoy Magazine\\\" (Patrick Madrid), \\\"The Catholic Answer,\\\" \\\"The Coming Home Journal,\\\" \\\"Gilbert Magazine\\\" (American Chesterton Society), and \\\"The Latin Mass.\\\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \\\"The Michigan Catholic\\\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \\\"Catholic Answers Live\\\" (twice), \\\"Faith and Family Live\\\" (Steve Wood), \\\"Kresta in the Afternoon,\\\" \\\"Son Rise Morning Show,\\\" \\\"Catholic Connection\\\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \\\"The Catholics Next Door.\\\" His large and popular website, \\\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\\\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \\\"index\\\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \\\"Surprised by Truth\\\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \\\"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\\\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \\\"The Catholic Verses\\\" (2004), \\\"The One-Minute Apologist\\\" (2007), \\\"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\\\" (2009), \\\"The Quotable Newman\\\" (editor: 2012), and \\\"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\\\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \\\"The New Catholic Answer Bible\\\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \\\"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\\\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \\\"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\\\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \\\"Quotable Wesley\\\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Defending God (The Atheist Blame Game Routine)","description":"So many people think they could do a better job at being God than God does. 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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \"This Rock\" (now called \"Catholic Answers Magazine\"), \"Envoy Magazine\" (Patrick Madrid), \"The Catholic Answer,\" \"The Coming Home Journal,\" \"Gilbert Magazine\" (American Chesterton Society), and \"The Latin Mass.\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \"The Michigan Catholic\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \"Envoy Magazine.\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \"Catholic Answers Live\" (twice), \"Faith and Family Live\" (Steve Wood), \"Kresta in the Afternoon,\" \"Son Rise Morning Show,\" \"Catholic Connection\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \"The Catholics Next Door.\" His large and popular website, \"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \"Envoy Magazine.\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \"index\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \"Surprised by Truth\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \"The Catholic Verses\" (2004), \"The One-Minute Apologist\" (2007), \"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\" (2009), \"The Quotable Newman\" (editor: 2012), and \"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \"The New Catholic Answer Bible\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \"Quotable Wesley\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).","sameAs":["https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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