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Lessons to be learned, and a balance in all things.

One idea is, like protons and neutrons, there must be positive and negative to create a balance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq2zU5LG1sw

This probably doesn’t mean much to most people, but it may for someone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RflQLiswvSE

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Also ponder this:

When you say there is evil, aren’t you admitting there is good? When you accept the existence of goodness, you must affirm a moral law on the basis of which to differentiate between good and evil. But when you admit to a moral law, you must posit a moral lawgiver.

Who might that be?

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OP needs to find a good Bible based church, instead of trolling the internet.

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Brings me back to my original point.

Why create something with a built in defect ?

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So you would rather have God force you to follow him rather than allow you to choose?

He lets us choose between heaven or hell.

And He even sent his Son to be slaughtered so His blood pays the price of our admission to heaven

Sounds pretty fair to me.

I hear that you're struggling. You wouldnt be posting this if you werent. My prayer for you is that you keep seeking.

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God’s jealousy is a sin in itself if you accept he is real and actually demands worship or he punishes you forever.

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It's a sin because you say so?

http://www.bluehogreport.com/wp-content/uploads/facepalm.jpg

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This is a different approach but stick with me. The Bible speaks of predestination. A thorough study of the doctrine reveals that some people are innately open (as a function of their free will) to the possibility of God. Others are predisposed to reject God.  

People who are open to at least the concept of God eventually find Him. After all they're not in this alone; God is fully engaged.

People who are hostile to the possibility of [a good and loving] God will never find Him. They have used/use their free will to wall themselves off to the possibility.

Jesus spoke of this situation in a parable.

Luke 16:

27 And he [a formerly rich sinner who has died and gone to hell] said, 'Then I request of you, father [Abraham], that you send him [a poor man who died and is now in heaven] to my father's house 28 for I have five brothersin order that he may warn them, so that they will not come to this place of torment as well.' 29 But Abraham *said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' 30 But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!' 31 But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Jesus told this parable knowing that He Himself would rise from the dead and most would still reject Him. [He also told it to illustrate that one man had his good things on earth and his bad things afterwards; the other man had bad things on earth and good things afterward.]

This is the bottom line. There's no point in asking about God if you have ruled out the possibility of a good and just God a priori. Otherwise, seek and you will find. That's a promise.

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I would like to know how someone chooses what to believe and what not to believe from the bible. Does anyone here believe that some old ancient guy really lived 900 years? That Noah gathered two of every species on earth and kept them on a boat? I mean there is just so much nonsense. I have a friend that believes that the universe is only six thousand years old, apparently t-rex was around at the same time as man. That's just stupid isn't it?

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So you would rather have God force you to follow him rather than allow you to choose?

He lets us choose between heaven or hell.

And He even sent his Son to be slaughtered so His blood pays the price of our admission to heaven

Sounds pretty fair to me.

I hear that you're struggling. You wouldnt be posting this if you werent. My prayer for you is that you keep seeking.

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The mental gymnastics required to excuse and justify that by a believer could not be considered logical anywhere in the known universe or any hypothetical dimention of space and time.

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So you would rather have God force you to follow him rather than allow you to choose?

He lets us choose between heaven or hell.

And He even sent his Son to be slaughtered so His blood pays the price of our admission to heaven

Sounds pretty fair to me.

I hear that you're struggling. You wouldnt be posting this if you werent. My prayer for you is that you keep seeking.

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@dex71 do you have a link to where you discussed your NDE? I have always been intrigued by those experiences people have.

I would consider myself to be in a similar situation as the OP, but reading about experiences others have is one of those things that makes me believe I may very well be wrong in my way of thinking.

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"You don't believe what I do, I think you're stupid for that, even though I can't show how what you think is stupid."

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 I've had a miracle happen in my life, even though at one time I had turned
 my back on God.

  nothing I say will change your mind, but I do want to tell you and everybody else
  that my Faith in God will never be shaken.

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Another question I asked and either got no answer ( or one that seemed made up on the spot ) was.........

Will the God that Christians believe in, accept into paradise, those who WERE religious and WORSHIPPED a God but just chose ( or were born into ) the wrong one / wrong religion ?

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Not a troll ( unless you feel asking a logical question is an attempt to annoy you ).

Bit of background for you - the reason I stopped believing in religion at 12yo ( and in a small town in West of Ireland at the time so "sticking my head above the parapet" does not even begin to cover the shit show I willingly let myself in for )........................

As a 12yo boy who spent most of his time reading and IMHO having a fair grasp of logic - I had a problem when I observed the evil that exists in the world. And the suffering of innocent people ( disease etc )

Because God created all those humans engaged in evil. And all those humans getting diseases.

I asked my relisious education teacher the following question.............

If God created us and had free reign in our design and specifications etc - why did he not hard wire us with the inability to harm another human. Why did he build in horrible diseases ?

I backed up that question with the example of a robot manufacturer deliberately choosing to create a product with the ability to do harm to his other robots when he has the ability to manufacture one hard wired to rule it out.

Or a car manufacturer deliberately making an exquisite car. The very epitome of luxury and reliability. But deliberately taking 1 in every 100 on the production line and building in a flaw that makes it a write off in its first year of use - why would a manufacturer do that ???

Free will I hear some say ? He gave us free will and WE have messed it up.

Well ok then - my logic still applies.

God thought free will might be a good idea. But that has turned out to be a terrible idea ! So, surely God would withdraw that free will ? If he can create us - he can fix flaws too ?

This has kept me away from the Church for 40 years. I still try to be the best human I can be - I do not fcuk with others where its not needed. My values are decent for the most part.

I read of a USGI who was dealing with rescuing the inmates from a WW2 death camp. On the side of one of the bunks he found the following ( or similar ) scratched into the wood ( by the dead occupant ).........

"IF, there is a God - when I finally meet him, he will have to get on his knees and beg my forgiveness"

It says it all for me.................

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Another question I asked and either got no answer ( or one that seemed made up on the spot ) was.........

Will the God that Christians believe in, accept into paradise, those who WERE religious and WORSHIPPED a God but just chose ( or were born into ) the wrong one / wrong religion ?

Quoted:
So you would rather have God force you to follow him rather than allow you to choose?

He lets us choose between heaven or hell.

And He even sent his Son to be slaughtered so His blood pays the price of our admission to heaven

Sounds pretty fair to me.

I hear that you're struggling. You wouldnt be posting this if you werent. My prayer for you is that you keep seeking.

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So he gave us free will.

Then sent his son to be killed.

But only if we acknowledge that his son is the savior will we get into heaven.

Doesn't that negate the whole "free will I sent my son to absolve you of your sins and now you will all get to heaven" argument?

I don't understand how all of those points jibe.

If someone would explain it, I would appreciate it.

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So tell me, do you believe someone lived 900 years? Do you believe that Noah built a boat and had two of every species on it for months? Do you take it on faith that t-rex has to have lived at the same time as man? If not how do you choose what is true and what isn't? Serious question, I'm really trying to understand.

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There are two major problems with your argument. #1 you assume that lack of problems is somehow desirable and #2 you assume you know the purpose of life.

In my years, I have found that what makes something good is the fact it's the opposite of bad. A vacation is great because it's not that job you may hate. Health is appreciated because it's possible to be unhealthy and have disease. The satisfaction of accomplishment is only possible because you failed many times. How you treat others can in many times correlate with how others treat you. Without bad things happening, the good has little meaning. And so I have grown by embracing the bad and learning from it. It's a positive force, whereas someone who may be lazy views it as a negative. It's all perspective.

And to my second point, who's to say the purpose of life and why we were even created? Why would one assume it's about us at all? Even if we are pawns in some evil scheme, that doesn't detract from the existence of a god. You may be able to say that such a god is not your friend, but that god could still exist.

To conclude, what you feel about a particular situation speaks nothing to the existence of a creator. And what you perceive as problematic may be viewed as something positive or beneficial to someone else. It's all perspective, and Christians are trying to gain that perspective so they aren't viewing things in a negative light but instead are aligning themselves with the larger purpose.