ex-idaho

Richard Ricci, the top suspect in the dissappearance of Jennifer Smart from her SLC home has died after suffering a brain hemmorage. How does this tie into a just and loving God scenario?

The man died without ever disclosing if he was guilty and if guilty where the girl or her remains could be found. If in fact he was guilty the parents will never get the relief and closure from a trial, conviction and possible location of the remains (if she is in fact dead).

Dosen't sound particularly loving or just to me.

case

Well, obviously he was guilty, and God punished him by giving him a brain hemmorage. Why else would he have died?

spurly

Actually, it seems that he was not guilty at all (at least in the case of Elizabeth Smart. We are all guilty before God and need a blood-covering, but that is another story).

It seems he just died because he lived in a fallen world where that kind of thing happens. Was it God's choice that he die? No. In the beginning these things were not even a part of paradise. Death entered because of our choice.

Kevin

Philosoft

Argh. This is the same God that made the rules in the first place. Presumably, he had thousands of alternatives to choose from, but he chose death as the punishment for eating a fruit that gave us the very knowledge we needed, but didn't have, to know that the fruit was off-limits. And he didn't just punish the two bad apples (pun intended), he punished every human thereafter.

Yeah, God had nothing to do with any of this. It all happened when he was in the bathroom.

wally

and hence the expression: shit happens!

Amie

good answer...

Hi ex-idaho
Many things do not tie into a just and loving God. I hope to someday have all the answers to lifes mysteries. Until then I have to be content with saying "I just don't know all of the whys"...
However I must say that I do believe that things happen for reasons. Reasons we may not fully understand now. Such is life...

emotional

The question is, shall we ever have that knowledge? You see, the main difference between scientific unknowing and religious unknowing is that scientific unknowing is for lack of trying and technology (but science is working on it), whereas religious unknowing is because God doesn't want to reveal the knowledge (so nothing we do will help lift the ignorance).

My take on this, as an atheist of course, is that the death of that man chanced to happen before a trial could be had. God had nothing to do with it, or with anything at all that happens in the universe. All in the universe is blind flow of the fates of all creatures, and you won't find any overarching rhyme or reason to what happens -- just direct causes everywhere.

lpetrich

(Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper's recent death...)
So the Garden of Eden would have gotten choked with reproducing life? And what did all its non-photosynthesizing inhabitants live off of? Plant sap?

Perhaps that is why Adam and Eve decided to eat that apple -- eating nothing but plant sap had gotten boring.