If God is good and all powerful, why is there so much suffering in the world?
141458
Check out Godel's theorem.  The way I read it it states that given any language you can write sentences that are true, false, or neither true nor false (i.e. "This sentence is false.").  I see God as the language which is Truth.  If you have the concept of truth, falsehood is derivitive from truth.  So if you have a true omnipotent God who is all good, you can have the false concept of his opposite, suffering, or any other sort of bad or evil thing you can imagine.  Just because you can say it in the language of God, doesn't make it true.  The material world is an example of sentences which you can construct in the language of God which are not true, i.e. illusion or relative.  As our thought becomes more spiritual or absolute, we find that the so-called evil in the world falls away from our experience, not that we ignore it, but our thought changes the world within the sphere of our consiousness.  The world is our collective shared consiousness, lots of people think that it is all that is real and filled with both good and evil, so it sure seems like God must have created all this suffering, while in fact he is of purer eyes than to behold anything but pure 100% good everywhere.  Just because you can have the concept of suffering or anything else bad, doesn't make it necessarily real.  We are God's image and likeness, we have free will, therefore, we can believe that which is not true to be true, i.e. believe that illusion is reality.  Without free will, the universe would not be infinite.
257917
Yes, this is how it feels. I am right now managing a sore throat and a congested nose. Yet, would all these come to heal without God? No, we are all punished for our actions,thoughts,and words. Are not we all evil in a way? We have all somehow harmed a creature... by stepping on it or eating it. God is not punishing us as bad as the bad. The truly evil are the ones with no love for anything. Those are the ones who are suffering. Even though I am not Christian, did Jesus not suffer? He did it for us. Does God not suffer?... seeing our pain and misery. Yet, throguh this darkness a light shines through. God is beautiful as anything. He is helping us. God sees misery in our hearts and shines light through. Think for a moment...How had God helped you?
522747
Good did not create suffering but believe that he is there waiting to carry your loved one home. As long as they believe in HIM he will carry them into eternity. The Lord works in mysterious ways  but i believe and u should too
1169819
God is big enough to take questions are you willing to hear or seek out the answers?\n\nGod does not cause the suffering men/women cause the suffering when the are driven by greed and hatred.\nWhat do you want God to do, kill everyone who does something we consider wrong? Or do you want God to take away our free will and turn us into robots?\nGod has chosen the best path...being able to comfort and guide the hurt to "greener pastures"
409347
God is all powerful. He (or She) could have done anything.\n\nHowever God in His unlimited love has given US the free will to choose. We choose to accept or reject God's constant offer of spending eternity with Him in heaven. God will respect the choice we make.
1130659
There's a good majority, Mixed with the created hormonal emotions from the processed food we eat, of humans that  define their reality in pain and suffering. They can't ever be happy. And their thoughts and Ideas, which are quite subjective, of what a perfect world should be, is always wanting to be put into effect. Like Hitler. His perfect world consisted of only blonde-haired blue-eyed germans. He was also beaten severly as a child, and i'm guessing a bit repressed. There are a lot of factors that go into it. Fear leads to anger. anger leads to hate. hate to suffering. It's true. Perphaps the key to fear is reverse paranoia. Instead of everyone expecting everyone to do wrong unto them, perhaps if they expected only the best from them. It's my personal experience that thoughts, whatever they may be, good or bad in perception, that they'll come to life and be seen most by the mind of that who thinks most about it. Your brain has a way of blocking out things it sees regularly from your memory. Only things that are of perceived importance, (things being thought of often) stay in memory, or in notice, on sight. Awareness is created by change. Things that are normal occurances always blend in. Therefore if you make a note of thinking most of good positive things, you'll find that you'll become a good positive person in essence. Likewise if you define your reality through narrowminded beliefs and generalizations, and only feel reality though existance in pain, always paranoid around those whom you don't know personally, then yes, you'll become old from the stress, twisted, maladjusted, and another force generating more negative energy for the world to pick up. Good begets good. Evil begets evil. If the world is to have full and thorough peace within it. There's going to have to be a LOT of accepting going on. Personally, I don't believe that'd be very possible due to the very natures of certain personalities. I believe everything must balance. There is no all good or all evil. Good wouldn't be good without evil. People cannot live without killing and consuming another live being or object. Whether it be plant or animal, the world was destined to always have some form of evil or another in it. I believe it's just the balance of society and of the universe. Otherwise, it'd just be our ego's driven by emotions telling us that death and dying and killing is bad or wrong. Our emotions tell us that, but universally, you'll notice the universe completely indifferent to all emotion. Perphaps just a mechanism to keep us alive, just like lust is a mechanism to keep us reproducing. If it wasn't for our minds ability to believe anything and to perceive purpose, i think we'd all go insane for being like puppets in the grand scale scheme of things, being strong along by our emotions and feelings towards certain things, embedded in our genetics and brains to make it all but most difficult to do anything but what the brains automated reaction had in mind. All in all, stepping out of human persona, and perception of derived purpose, in the grand scheme of things, without human aspect of good or evil, one could possibly say everything is perfect as is. But somewhere somehow, perphaps this is just a good form of entertainment to another entity larger than ourselves, or perphaps our perceptions. The beat goes on da-da-doom-da-doom-da-da. It's going to continue whether we like it or not, so we may as well know our roles and shut our mouths. That's my 2 cents.
230289
I was taught the same veiw of God when I was Growing up. Namely that an omnipotent creator was watching out for us. And you're right, given the vast amount of suffering we see, it's hard not to reach the conclusion that God is non-existent, not omnipotent, or non-interventionist. I lean towards the last.\nWhen you buy a car you don't pick one that will wind up in the shop every other month, so why do people automatically assume that God would have created a "high maintenance" universe?\nYou're right there is much suffering in the world, but in the end, the pain your body feels can't really touch or effect your soul (or animating energy). Animating energy, being energy, can't really die. When our body dies, this animating enrgy leaves the body, it's not wasted or destroyed. And if there is a creator behind this, then he/she would not automatically feel the need to alter the process.\nFurther, I really believe that man is in the "image of God". And to me this means (as God is self-eternal), that we have the ability to organize our animating energy into a permanent consciousness. and towards this, it would be a mistake for God to actually intervene in the process. So I guess I see it as all animating energy will eventually have that chance.\nLao-Tzu once said that "A leader is best when the world barely knows that he exists, and when his work is done the people way say, 'lo for we did the work ourselves' ".
551221
yep, God is more into successfull people. he is probably getting bored with all those hungry people begging and praying all the time.\n\ni guess i would have to come to the same conclusion as you have. else it would mean that God is horrible creature, so, i prefer thinking that he doesn't exist at all.
1134585
I find it hard to believe God made so many different people and only one way to worship  Him.  Faith is great, religion sucks.  Faith can move mountains, religion kills people.  Hell is on earth.\nReligion is for those who believe in hell,  Spirituality is for those who have already been there.
1115464
Do you really think anyone on Yahoo Answers has the answer to what many philosphers have been trying to figure out for thousands of years? Ehh... I'll try.\n\nI have spent countless nights trying to get some sort of answer myself. It's really hard for me accept that there is a God though. Either that, or it's hard for me to accept the God that my parents tried to drill into to my head since I was a baby. (They are fundamentalist Christians by the way. the outrageous ideas make me sad that there are more people out there like them.)\n\nI think there might a God because it seems very unlikely that such a complex life could have happened by accident, or by an explosion of matter. The way that DNA is constructed, cells, and just the way that the human body functions seems all too perfect for it to happen by some random chance. \n\nHowever, I as I said before, I don't know if I could ever believe in the Catholic or Christian God. Supposedly, God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. That means he is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful. I'm sure that you are well aware of the sorrow, suffering and pain that a billion people feel every day due to war,starvation, genocide, poverty, and most importantly evil. If God was all-good, he would not allow this to happen. If God is all-good, but he can't stop it, that means he is not all-powerful. If said God is not all-powerul, then he cannot be God. \n\nGod cannot be omnicent or all-knowing, because humans have free will, and those two are contridictory. One might argue that everything needs a creator. Even the Universe. Something cannot create itself. So God created the universe, but who or what created God? \n\nPerhaps there is a God, but it is likely that all of those rules, and dogmatic views that Christians teach is not accurate. The texts of the Bible have been PROVEN to be altered by numerous kings, who put into it what they wanted. Similar to how George W. Bush is running the country based on his morals. I don't know, you decide.\n\n The answer will probably never be solved, and people will always be kept wondering. I believe in God, but I don't believe in organized religion.\n\nRead this, you would find it interesting. It's a converstaion between an ordinary man and God. Good read.\nhttp://www.fullmoon.nu/articles/art.php?id=tal
723845
All people, christians and non-christians grow old and die and many die from unforeseen circumstances. The reason bad things happen to anyone, is because of God's enemy, Satan the devil. He challenged God's right to rule over the earth and said that humans do not need God and could rule themselves independently without God's help. God is answering Satans challenge by allowing man to try to live without his interference. Satan also said that humans would discontinue serving God if he( Satan and his demons)) were allowed to cause them pain and suffering. There have been and still are many who are proving Satan to be a liar, who love and serve God faithfully, despite whatever persecution Satan brings upon them.\nWhat has been the result of man ruling man without God intervening? Suffering and injustice, wars, crime and hatred. \nGod has promised to soon rid the earth of all those things and to destroy Satan and all who follow him. Satan will lose the challenge and be proved a liar. By remaining faithful to the end, we show that we are on God's side and prefer his rule over man's.  \nWe need a righteous ruler who will be just and merciful. Human rulers can do nothing for us. (Psalm 146:3)\nLook what Psalms 37:9-11 promises us--" For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." \nSoon the meek who inherit this earth will be under one government that will last forever. (See Daniel 2:44) No more will we have to put up with imperfect human rulers who can never bring an end to injustice, crime, terrorism or death itself. God's government will do all that and more.
609447
Many people think that god is a psychological invention by humans.  Like self-esteem, it serves a purpose for survival.  Unlike other living beings, we have the ability to observe and reflect.  We can understand some basic phenomenom of our world, but we are often confronted with things that we cannot understand.  With our natural need to feel in control of our world (which is part of our survival drive), facing something that we cannot control or understand leaves us psychologically vulnerable and stressed.  So early man created the gods.  The gods were beings who we could control (through prayer and sacrifices), who would control the unknowns in our lives.  This helped alleviate the anxieties and fears we were feeling.  Every culture on the planet throughout history created a system of gods that controlled the unknowable aspects of life.\n\nAs time has progressed, we have learned quite a bit about our world.  We understand what causes the weather to change, and how diseases occur, etc.  That has taken a lot of the steam out of the world of religion.  It's no coincidence that Christianity is suffering such a demise these days.  But it's not from a lack of morality in mankind.  It's because education has made us less frightened about the unknown.\n\nSo in short, if no one believed in God, then it would no longer exist.
76394
That's a tough one to answer here due to space limitations. I think one of the main reasons it is relevant today is Eliezer's (really, Elie's) struggle to maintain his faith and belief in a loving God after experiencing the Holocaust.  That feeling .. the insecurity of faith .. is present in every generation and every culture. It's basically the question, "How can a loving and all-powerful God allow ...." \n\nAllow 9/11\nAllow suffering\nAllow terrorism\nAllow hunger\nAllow cruelty to children\nAllow good people to suffer and die\netc.\n\nTry these sites for some additional help with your question, and good luck.\n\nhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/night/\nhttp://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/night/nighttg.html\nhttp://www.bookrags.com/notes/nit/
138329
Because God created everything on earth for man.  He said it is all good.  Why not enjoy it if we are ment to.
752543
God only put us here to be toys of amusement for him. He enjoys watching people suffer. Just think about it for a minute...supposedly he is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-...whatever. Yet he allows this world to be infested with disease, famine, war, death, and horrors beyond imagination. Now, how can you call a god who does all these things loving and expect him to do anything for you. People who always turn to god to help them in their struggles are just trying to find someone else to fix their mistakes. They can't handle the fact that their god probably doesn't like them. God allows all these atrocities on earth to occur and doesn't lift a finger. The question you should really be asking is "Why do I worship a god that does not care?" God did not give us free will. And as far as free will in the respect to god goes, if it had not been for Satan, we would all be wandering around in complete servitude without even realizing we were slaves. By tempting Eve to eat that apple, if you believe the story, he gave us the ability to realize our slavery. Furthermore, anyone who says that we have free will given by god should examine their religion further. How can it be free will when he says that to disobey him will result in a tormenting eternity of fire and brimstone? Are these really choices...slavery or fire? I will thank God for nothing. My thanks go to the god of the underworld for giving me the knowledge to know these lies as they are.
269231
Well technically the flooding of the earth was impossible. if the entire earth had flooded we wouldn't have a class of mammals found only in Australia, and certain plants would have been destroyed forever... I mean really could you imagine a cactus under that much water surviving? But to get back on topic... If there is a god, and he is all powerful, the only reason for man to suffer is that God wants man to suffer... For to be all powerful would mean the ability to do anything, even the impossible... So no matter what positive results we get through suffering, God could have given us without us suffering... some of these results may seem logically absurd without our having suffered, but remember, he is supposed to be able to do the impossible, so no matter what reason someone gives for human suffering, we could have easily, without even a thought, done without it...
708169
maybe. God uses hardships & struggle to build character to the person you might think has a 'hard life'. if he just hands over everything we want we dont learn anything.