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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:26:29 AM EDT
[#1]
Interesting article, thanks op
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:27:11 AM EDT
[#2]
Money
Lawyers are scum. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:31:44 AM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
http://i.imgur.com/SIyVYkg.png |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:32:14 AM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
God's gift to man was not happiness, but free will, the fundamental aspect of life and agency. There can be no meaningful choice without the possibility of failure and the subsequent consequences. The measure of a man is not about how he behaves when all is well. A man's character is revealed through adversity. Would you play a video game where you always won, and every challenge was easy? Probably not for long. It would grow boring in short order. Now consider that from the perspective of a true believer, life IS a video game, a very complex MMO. It's a simulation, and not reality at all. It's a crafted challenge, where you can choose to cooperate, go it alone, value others or treat them as tools. You actions and decisions influence the world for good or ill. And, yes, sometimes, the random number generator screws you, no matter how well you played. One of the most fundamental design considerations for games is "meaningful choices." If you think of it in those terms, there are no contradictions. You chose to play, to compete, to measure yourself against others. When the game ends, the players will be scored. Hopefully, there will be another game, and another, ad infinitum. What else would one do with eternity except challenge himself and learn his true nature? Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
We all experience suffering in one form or another. https://bible.org/article/why-christians-suffer http://www.focusonthefamily.com/lifechallenges/emotional-health/living-with-chronic-pain-and-illness/when-we-suffer-a-biblical-perspective-on-chronic-pain-and-illness God's gift to man was not happiness, but free will, the fundamental aspect of life and agency. There can be no meaningful choice without the possibility of failure and the subsequent consequences. The measure of a man is not about how he behaves when all is well. A man's character is revealed through adversity. Would you play a video game where you always won, and every challenge was easy? Probably not for long. It would grow boring in short order. Now consider that from the perspective of a true believer, life IS a video game, a very complex MMO. It's a simulation, and not reality at all. It's a crafted challenge, where you can choose to cooperate, go it alone, value others or treat them as tools. You actions and decisions influence the world for good or ill. And, yes, sometimes, the random number generator screws you, no matter how well you played. One of the most fundamental design considerations for games is "meaningful choices." If you think of it in those terms, there are no contradictions. You chose to play, to compete, to measure yourself against others. When the game ends, the players will be scored. Hopefully, there will be another game, and another, ad infinitum. What else would one do with eternity except challenge himself and learn his true nature? Apparently God couldn't have just made Earth like that 
We'll just be robots with no free will in heaven, huh... |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:33:53 AM EDT
[#5]
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There is no god... |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:34:40 AM EDT
[#6]
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That kid must have forgot the sabbath day, forgot to keep it holy. Or coveted his neighbor's bowl of cassava. so you poke someone's eye out in a past live, and you will be stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of this life. Whether it's true or not, I have no idea. If the Bible is true, it does not encompass all reality. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:34:52 AM EDT
[#7]
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Same reason parents allow their adult children to make stupid decisions. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:35:41 AM EDT
[#8]
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:36:33 AM EDT
[#9]
LOL
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:41:14 AM EDT
[#10]
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Because of Christ, we are not under the Old Testament law anymore. Rather, here is what he says in John 13:34. "Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another." Matthew 25:44-45. "And they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45Then the King will answer, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’…" Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
That kid must have forgot the sabbath day, forgot to keep it holy. Or coveted his neighbor's bowl of cassava. Rather, here is what he says in John 13:34. "Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another." Matthew 25:44-45. "And they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45Then the King will answer, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’…" |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:42:03 AM EDT
[#11]
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That picture, like your angry accusation against God, is an illusion. That picture was taken 40 yards away from an airstrip where they were offloading food, and his mother was within eyesight, standing in line for rations. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
http://i.imgur.com/V6P5iII.jpg That kid must have forgot the sabbath day, forgot to keep it holy. Or coveted his neighbor's bowl of cassava. That picture was taken 40 yards away from an airstrip where they were offloading food, and his mother was within eyesight, standing in line for rations. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:43:24 AM EDT
[#12]
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I have no doubt OP had good intentions but this forum is a shitshow. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:44:08 AM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Same reason parents allow their adult children to make stupid decisions. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:44:38 AM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
And yet there is supposedly a heaven with eternal joy and no sin and nothing bad. Apparently God couldn't have just made Earth like that
We'll just be robots with no free will in heaven, huh... The alternative is believing you only get one shot, and nothing matters because the universe ends in heat death or big crunch. If that is so, no choice we make matters anyway, and only aesthetics have value. In that case, who could fault a man for choosing whatever world view that pleases him? The only possible meaning to life would be whatever one chose to get him through the day. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:45:38 AM EDT
[#15]
Why do we allow it? It's our worlds...
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:49:05 AM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
1. We did not choose to rebel. We did not even exist at the time that God cursed Mankind. 2. Adam and Eve did not choose to rebel. They were basically two dumb kids left alone in a room with a loaded gun on the table, by an irresponsible father who left and knowingly permitted -- if not directed -- another individual to go in and tell the kids that it was okay to play with the gun, that daddy was just kidding. It's clear that Adam and Eve were deliberately set up to fail by God. 
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:50:32 AM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
http://i.imgur.com/V6P5iII.jpg That kid must have forgot the sabbath day, forgot to keep it holy. Or coveted his neighbor's bowl of cassava. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
2) Most suffering is brought about by our free will choices to disobey the Creator and His Word. The wages of sin is death. That kid must have forgot the sabbath day, forgot to keep it holy. Or coveted his neighbor's bowl of cassava. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:55:45 AM EDT
[#18]
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There is no god... Bullshit created to keep the masses in line. Granted it is good way to treat your fellow man |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 12:56:27 AM EDT
[#19]
Why does the creator of this earth and all life in it not do things the way we want him to? I don't know. I would not presume to know the will of God.
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Posted: 5/21/2017 1:12:05 AM EDT
[#20]
Without suffering, there would not be firearms.
Fact. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 1:13:51 AM EDT
[#21]
I'm an atheist. Didn't read the article.
We can't grow and become better people, or become truly empathetic without failure, or suffering. Besides how boring would this world be if everything was perfect and easy. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 1:33:25 AM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
1) Let us not forget that Christ suffered more than any of us, and unlike us, He did not deserve it. He did so willingly so that all who accept Him shall have eternal life. 2) Most suffering is brought about by our free will choices to disobey the Creator and His Word. The wages of sin is death. 3) Other suffering is brought about by Satan via spiritual warfare. The Bible says that he comes to "kill, steal, and destroy" and goes around like a lion looking for whom he can devour. 4) As for God "allowing" it, I think it is the Book of Isaiah says that says His thoughts are not like our thoughts, and His ways are not like ours. The good news is that eventually, He is going to put an end to it. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 1:47:38 AM EDT
[#23]
IMHO,
If a supreme creator of all creation exists it is beyond any anthropomorphic conception our brains are capable of conceiving, therefore my perspective is inherently, limited, flawed, and could be outright wrong. That being said, to me, the creator encompasses the totality of all creation thus it is everything, and as everything it is something-- as well as a something's opposite and everything in between. This is because for something to exist its opposite must also exist, otherwise you have neither. Also, being everything it is also nothing as well. For example, the creator is both loving and fearful, joyful and hateful, good and evil, innocent and guilty, and so on and so forth ad infinitum. Such a notion rejects the idea that the creator is wholly good, wholly loving, etc. Furthermore, for free will to exist creation must be able to fully express and experience itself. The creator set forth all the laws of creation to work with the fundamental elements of itself so that it can evolve and function independent of direct intervention, allowing creation to continuously create and experience itself. If the creator did not allow people to suffer there would be no experiential knowing of its opposite, just as if there was no night we would not know what day is, we would not know hot without cold and so on. I find most religious dogma to be an antiquated, infantile, attempt to understand the greater reality, which is beyond what men a long time ago (and today) were capable of writing about. I find the atheistic perspective improbable because it assumes that the entirety of our existence within this particular 15 billion year old universe is confined to the 80 or so years as a bipedal hominid and that's it (void?) I do believe as we continue to evolve we will come to better understand creation. I don't know if my perspective will be helpful to you in your journey but its whats working for me presently, and its always subject to change. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 1:54:06 AM EDT
[#24]
I believe less with each passing day
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:02:43 AM EDT
[#25]
Being god is like building a city in Sim City. You build the earth's terrain, lay a few roads and some infrastructure, and let your civilization grow and develop, but you dont micromanage every little thing. And then theres the disaster button. Sure you try to let the city develop and thrive, but you get bored, hit the disaster button and laugh maniacally as a Tornado destroys some stuff. Its not that youhate your city, you just become bored and need some entertainment... cause you're an asshole..
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:04:41 AM EDT
[#26]
Humanity has to be pushed in one way or another. Without adversity, why would we bother advancing ourselves?
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:04:49 AM EDT
[#27]
There can be no mountains if valleys did not exist.
Either that or your god is an impotent, petty little jerk off. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:09:20 AM EDT
[#28]
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Humanity has to be pushed in one way or another. Without adversity, why would we bother advancing ourselves? |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:13:13 AM EDT
[#29]
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Yes, she was. No anger here on my part, there's a certain happiness knowing that she is no longer in pain and in a better place. The slow death of cancer is akin to Spanish Moss on a tree. If it's not removed it eventually just sucks the life out of its host. Yea, cancer really does suck.   
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:13:35 AM EDT
[#30]
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So you're saying they were the first dindus? Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
1. We did not choose to rebel. We did not even exist at the time that God cursed Mankind. 2. Adam and Eve did not choose to rebel. They were basically two dumb kids left alone in a room with a loaded gun on the table, by an irresponsible father who left and knowingly permitted -- if not directed -- another individual to go in and tell the kids that it was okay to play with the gun, that daddy was just kidding. It's clear that Adam and Eve were deliberately set up to fail by God. 
I'm saying their father was an abusive asshole who wanted blind obedience, intentionally kept his kids ignorant, and didn't protect them from an individual whom he knew would seduce them. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:20:26 AM EDT
[#31]
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Humanity has to be pushed in one way or another. Without adversity, why would we bother advancing ourselves? I didn't go to college to overcome adversity. I did it to learn more than I already knew. I didn't go to the gym to overcome adversity. I did it to become stronger than I was. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:26:31 AM EDT
[#32]
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Because there is no magical cloud person in the sky...  |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:27:49 AM EDT
[#33]
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Sticking your nose in a discussion just to make a slimy, shitty comment like this what I'd expect from a high school student. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Because there is no magical cloud person in the sky... |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:28:19 AM EDT
[#34]
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There is no god... |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:34:25 AM EDT
[#35]
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There can be no mountains if valleys did not exist. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:34:30 AM EDT
[#36]
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And how was the universe created? God is always one step beyond what we are able to comprehend. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:37:09 AM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
And how was the universe created? God is always one step beyond what we are able to comprehend. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
There is no god... |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:38:02 AM EDT
[#38]
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Not true. There can be mountains and plains, with no valleys. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:42:00 AM EDT
[#39]
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Not a fan of the spirit of a line of thinking? Quote HistoryQuoted:
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Not true. There can be mountains and plains, with no valleys. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 2:47:26 AM EDT
[#40]
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Not a fan of erroneous thinking. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 3:14:12 AM EDT
[#41]
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My dad just passed away, I seen the most horrible kind of suffering from his cancer I have ever heard or seen in my life, the last week of life was not fit for an animal let alone a person. We "us family" were brought to tears, on our knees next to his recliner, he had to sit up to catch his breath, one maybe 2 words at a time before he started coughing up blood and drowning from fluid in his lungs, they drained more than a quart and a half of fluid from his lungs everyday. Nobody is going to tell me god love's you me or anyone else, ya fuckin right god loves you. Fuckin load of shit, I am still a mess, can't believe this could go on, DR please put him to sleep was said more than once. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 3:17:03 AM EDT
[#42]
I think the concept of reincarnation eliminates a lot of the theological problems with suffering, pain, etc. Consider the possibility of reincarnation as Plato believed (i.e. not Hindu reincarnation). People incarnate multiple times on earth, which is a kind of school. Each life is like a different class. Maybe in one life, you are a peasant, and you think "Man, that guy in the castle sure is a dick. I work all day and he steals 1/3 for this 'taxes' bullshit" The next life you are the guy in the castle, and you think "Man, those peasants sure are ungrateful. I spend all day protecting them from Saracens and its all bitch bitch bitch." Back in the eternal part of the universe, you synthesize both of those lessons, having seen it from both perspectives. After many, many such lives you have acquired great wisdom, and are ready for better things.
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Posted: 5/21/2017 4:08:39 AM EDT
[#43]
If (just pretend for a moment) you make the assumption that there is no God, this becomes kind of a dumb question.
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Posted: 5/21/2017 8:32:44 AM EDT
[#44]
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Maybe the photographer should have picked up the kid and saved him, instead of honoring photojournalist integrity standards and letting him die for the sake of his profession. And then realizing his inhumanity and committing suicide because he was, in reality, a pussy. |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 8:43:52 AM EDT
[#45]
Watch or read "The Shack"
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Posted: 5/21/2017 8:49:19 AM EDT
[#46]
Reasons. Lotttttttts of reasons.
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Posted: 5/21/2017 8:52:10 AM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
http://i.imgur.com/WtDqDZ2.jpg |
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Posted: 5/21/2017 8:55:31 AM EDT
[#48]
Father Odin gives us pain in life to harden us for battle so that we may die fighting and earn a place at the long table.
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Posted: 5/21/2017 8:55:35 AM EDT
[#49]
Who knows such things?
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Posted: 5/21/2017 8:59:20 AM EDT
[#50]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
That picture, like your angry accusation against God, is an illusion. That picture was taken 40 yards away from an airstrip where they were offloading food, and his mother was within eyesight, standing in line for rations. According to your version of the story, men are there to help. I don't see gods doing shit. The photog ran off the buzzard and the child lived for 14 years only later to die from malaria. Malaria is a disease that kills millions, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is the number 1 contributor to malaria research and medical assistance. The Gate's are atheist and the richest people in the world. Way to go Bill!!! |
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