{"id":540,"date":"2014-07-10T22:41:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T22:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/07\/three-reasons-why-god-is-a-problem.html"},"modified":"2014-07-10T22:41:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T22:41:00","slug":"three-reasons-why-god-is-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/07\/three-reasons-why-god-is-a-problem.html","title":{"rendered":"Three Reasons Why God is a Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Sitting at a coffee shop, I overheard a conversation between a man and a woman discussing the problem of suicide. The man suggested that God punishes those who commit suicide, and the woman completely disagreed. \u201cRead the bible,\u201d the man said. \u201cGod punishes people in the bible all the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care what the bible says,\u201d the woman retorted. \u201cGod cares and loves us. He knows that we have struggles, and he is here to take care of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The argument was shut down abruptly by another woman who was sitting with them. \u201cWe\u2019re not here to argue about religious texts,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re here to keep it positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

This conversation reminded me that God is everywhere. Despite the atheist\u2019s attempts to eradicate God, God remains one of the most pervasive beings in our society. Pastors, laypeople, and politicians appeal to him (because God is almost always a \u201che\u201d in the world within which we live) for justification for the things they do. People ask God for things; people rely upon God when things get bad. Yes, God is almost everywhere in our society.<\/p>\n

And God is a problem.<\/p>\n


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Sitting at a coffee shop, I overheard a conversation between a man and a woman discussing the problem of suicide. The man suggested that God punishes those who commit suicide, and the woman completely disagreed. \u201cRead the bible,\u201d the man said. \u201cGod punishes people in the bible all the time.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t care what the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThree Reasons Why God is a Problem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sitting at a coffee shop, I overheard a conversation between a man and a woman discussing the problem of suicide. 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