David B

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4787706.stm

Church collapse, killing christians.

How to rationalise this, as a christian?

God works in mysterious ways?

They were not true christians?

Whatever!

If there were a god, this event in itself is enough to show that, by an act of omission or comission, it doesn't care about human kife or human grieving, let alone christian loss of life or christian grieving.

There is, of course, no such god.

But if there were

Fuck him

David B (supposes the christians will be able to rationalise this event in a way that maintains their view of an omniscient, omnipotent, loving god)

WishboneDawn

Unless God was the construction contractor I'd leave him out of it.

I'm guessing non-existant building codes and shoddy construction myself.

Mace

Don't be silly, David, it's free will of course. Also, God's judgement must be as large as his love.

I agree with you completely.

David B

An omnipotent, omniscient god, who is active in the world, could have made sure that the collapse could have happened when the place was empty, while at the same time failing to hide conclusive evidence of his own existence (though why a putitive god who wants to be worshipped would choose to hide evidence of his own existence is a bit of a mystery to me).

Of course it's just one of those things that happens when the laws of physics just work.

But let us pretend it is the work of god, by omission or commission

Any omniscient, omnipotent god who doesn't intervene in such circumstances is unconcerned about human life and human suffering, as far as I can see.

You?

David B

SkyDancer_0202

god gets the praise but never the blame?

Splarnst

Are you kidding? This one is easy: He was taking them to heaven. I've heard it used to justify the slaughter of Egyptian children by Yahweh in Exodus.

ziffel

Wow, that was quick.

ziffel

Btw, David, a similar story like this happened in Alabama to a small god-fearing southern baptist church, a few years ago. During Sunday service, a tornado touched down, skipping most of the other buildings in the area, and ripped the little church to ribbons, killing several, including the pastor's 4 year old daughter.

Later, in the local paper, the pastor gave praise to God for sparing the lives of most, and for 'calling his little girl home'

Bertsura

He probably doesn't realize how that sounds. Ah, the wonders of religion.

WishboneDawn

Not sure yet. But my feeling is that God is constrained. That his powers are constrained by human deeds. The "thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain," got into the 10 commandments because of the thought that invoking the name of God obligated him to act. There are tales where God is constrained by the choices of people.

But I haven't come to a firm understanding yet. I just keep in mind that though God is good, he's not nesacarily nice.