emotional

I wonder: why do atheists have such an obsession with the horrors of nature?

King Rat

The horrors of god?

Viti

It's not an obsession, it is an observation. The OP observed beauty and called it God...well nature has two sides. If beauty is God what is horror?

emotional

I don't see God in either the beauty or the horror. God does not live in this material universe. In this material universe there are the blind laws of nature alone. God is in the afterlife only.

Viti

Emotional, you don't believe in an interventionist God so the PoE isn't an issue. Christians and others believe God is an active participant in this world.

King Rat

I'm sorry, I forgot that emotional invented his/her own god.

Personally, I prefer a sour cream and onion god, that plain eucharist is just nasty.

emotional

No, but I do believe in a God who stands aloof while all the bad things are happening. Children die of hunger every day, and He does nothing. That troubles me very greatly. It causes me much doubt, and I have to struggle to switch off those doubts.

Viti

As do most theists. Many are simply able to compartmentalize and/or justify suffering...others can't. My deconversion started with my inability to reconcile what I saw in this world with what I had been told about God's love.

Viti

Bump, I am intrigued by Whispers last response and am interested in hearing back from him/her

Rhaedas

It's not an obsession as much as realization that in the natural world, there are multiple degrees of pleasantness as well as what we as humans see as horror.

One would point to a flower, a sunset, or the Andromeda galaxy, and remark how beautiful nature can be, and a theist would quickly jump at crediting god with such wonder. And yet, point to such terrible mishaps as the babies LadyShea posted, famine and starvation, or death tolls from natural disasters, and suddenly god isn't there. Why is he so selective (or rather why is the theist)?

An atheist, while quite disturbed by the Harlequin baby (I know I was), can attribute it to a massive failure in genetics, environment, or something else, and not for some evil purpose. It's tragic indeed, but life goes on, and many other babies are quite born healthy and live good lives. Optimistically, scientific study will determine what the cause of this type of thing, as it has others, and we can prevent it, or limit it at least.

Back to the theists. Can anyone who sees a baby as a product of god's will see those babies as a "good" thing? You cannot catergorize one, but ignore the other...what is god's purpose for them? If this is not good, then is this evil? Punishment for some crime of the parents, or their parents, etc?

An uncomfortable situation for the theist indeed...especially if you're taught not to question why god does things. I prefer the route of the atheist, to question, learn, and hopefully minimize such bad things in the future, since they all have natural causes, pleasant or not.