Badfish

Consider all the evidence, both scientifically and historically, and Occams Razor could easily fit the idea that intelligent design and God is the most likely conclusion.

winstonjen

What evidence would this be? Blind faith?

Badfish

Look around you, do you believe that everything became unique from a singularity?

There cannot be a cause without an effect.

What do you suppose caused the first cause that set these events in motion?

Everything is too sophisticated in it's design to be a mutation or an adaptation caused by a singularity containing all the ingredients for the plethora of species and elements. IMO

MrDarwin

One more time: my OP was not about the existence of evil, not about why God allows bad things to happen, not about free will. My question was about whether God answers prayers. Most Christians claim that God does indeed answer prayers, but I'm afraid I see no evidence of it. Does God help those who ask for it? In this case at least, it would appear not.

Radorth

I guess my own question stands as the unanswerable one. I suspect skeptics choose not to answer it because they know they would choose to live here in any case, showing their arguments to be rather hypocritical.

Rad

Radorth

ONE MORE TIME. NO, NOT EVERYBODY.

Are you like completely oblivious to the responses to your questions? That would certainly explain why you think Christians "won't touch" certain subjects.

Consider this one touched.

Rad

hezekiah jones

Personal comment deleted

JGL53

Maybe this has been addressed by a previous post - but the theodicy problem arises from an assumption that is backed by no evidence whatsoever, so why assume it?

The agnostic position seems true to me, in the sense that neither supernaturalism (with all its gods and demons and such) OR metaphysical naturalism/materialism can be proven in any guarenteed or absolute way, i.e, some assumption or "belief", if you will, is required.

So why assume god? You have the immediate, unanswerable question of its motivations. Why did god chose to create a universe wherein
1. a baby isborn horribly deformed, the mother dies in childbirth, and the baby dies in agony after a couple of weeks?
2. natural disasters like earthquakes, tornados, tsunamis, forest fires, floods, hurricaines, etc. mangle and maim untold numbers of people each year, including pregnant women and their fetuses, and small children?
3. humans are 'allowed' to mass murder each other - Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, etc.
4. ad infinitum similar horrors.

and

5. Does god answer prayer - that is, is it moved by requests to change the future and, if so, does it play favorites and if so, why and how? Are jewsish prayers answered but not christians, catholic but not protestant, buddhist but not muslim, baptist but not jehovah witness, etc. and
6. Is god supportive of the war in Iraq or not - and how can we reliable tell one way or the other.

7. And so forth, as infinitum.

If you assume god - who is omni everything - it's impossible to really explain how god is worthy of worship - it apparently is a monster. Religionists try to get around this 'theodicy problem', but they never have and never will. it appeares to me that assumption of god just adds a slef-contradiction that stops all logic in its tracks (unless one admits to belief in the existence of a god that is giant flaming asshole.

The assumption of materialism causes no similar problems whatsoever, plus it requires no faith or wish-fulfillment type belief in unseen, invisible, unknowable, and self-contradictory entities - manipulating reality behind our backs, in ways we can never understand. All of the advantages and none of the disadvantages seem to be on the side of philosophical materialism, it seems to me.

So, what's the big attraction of the god theory, Radorth, et al?
What does it explain? What use is it?

Badfish

I believe God does if it's his will, God created mankind for his good pleasure, maybe he felt that girl was better off in heaven. Who can say.

God doesn't answer frivolous prayers and doesn't answer sincere prayers if it is not his will, this must be the case.

wade-w

This is my last warning. If the personal attacks on other users do not stop immediately, this thread will be closed.