People give thanks to god for all the things that they have and for good things happening but we have no active proof of god interefering with our lives.

How can he let good people die so easily, and children be born with horrid detriments?

How could there be one correct religion and god let others be born into others with ignorance

then make some people more intelligent that other?

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That is why the world isnt fair , If there was a god and he/she would give us equal chances what would there be to fight for in life?

My understanding is God isn't allowed to do anything to effect the world unless it's a good thing that happens. As in he can't stop bad things from happening..... but he can and apparently does in the form of Miracles.

Man this is tough to explain.

i.e.

Person surviving cancer (Good stuff there, a miracle if you will)

Starving kids in Africa afflicted with Aids (Nah, I'll leave that be)

quote:Originally posted by sketchy:

My understanding is God isn't allowed to do anything to effect the world unless it's a good thing that happens. As in he can't stop bad things from happening..... but he can and apparently does in the form of Miracles.

Man this is tough to explain.

i.e.

Person surviving cancer (Good stuff there, a miracle if you will)

Starving kids in Africa afflicted with Aids (Nah, I'll leave that be)

By letting people survive cancer he is stopping a bad thing from happening.

♠

quote:Originally posted by Psykadelic:

By letting people survive cancer he is stopping a bad thing from happening.

♠

Or he doesn't actually do anything and it's just classified as a miracle by religious people. There is no reason why one life would be worth more than another. Many believe God does exist but doesn't perform miracles and that is why there is so much pain, struggle, hunger, etc... in the world.

You can come up with multiple theories on why

He needs to test some more than others, for example.

i call it Karma!

People who dont follow karma usualy end up asking questions like this

Back when I was under the thumb of religion, I used to thank God for things that I did.

I.e. If I did well in an exam and passed.

Now that I've seen the light that is Atheism, I feel sooo much better and proud when something like that happens, because I know I did it on my own, without having a religion saying God was with me helping me.

He doesn't have a duty to help us in this world. It's the afterlife that will be the final destination, and this world is preparing you for that.

Get over the pain, and/or help others who are in it. God's not a babysitter, he's not our servant, he doesn't have to provide food fot starving people.

People get pissed that he doesn't fix certain things but don't ask the question Has He Actually Fixed Something?

For all we know, God stopped another outbreak just like the Plague, or made sure that that one plane didn't crash, or helped people feed many of the people who aren't starving.

We don't know if he's the reason we're sitting here right now, instead of hiding because of nuclear fallout.

First of all, there is no "good", no "bad." These are just labels we put on things that we agree or do not agree with, and the labels say more about us than the things we judge.

God does not intervene, cannot intervene. To do so would contravent our free will. The world is as it is because of the choices we have all made. If enough people decided to end world hunger, it WOULD be ended. If enough people realized--as many of us do now--that no state or religion is better than any other, war would end.

There are no villains, no victims in life. We all choose--most of us without thinking about it--how we experience our reality.

Shakespeare said it well--"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

quote:Originally posted by Frost:

i call it Karma!

People who dont follow karma usualy end up asking questions like this

Well karma doesnt explain people doing at birth things like that, but people need to understand this world isnt full of puppy and lollypops its the way the world works, look at animals many of their children die at birth or are killed early, these things happening are either natural, everything isnt perfect deal with it and stop whining, if you dont want people starving in africa instead of whining for god to help become god, and by what i mean do what you dont see him doing help them devote your life to the cause otherwise stop whining about it if you arent gonna do anything

One could say that all moments in life are controlled by something divine.

We often asociate divine intervention with a positive outcome. Could it be that perhaps something happens that we percieve as negative happened to teach us something?

quote:Originally posted by ArmsMerchant:

The world is as it is because of the choices we have all made. If enough people decided to end world hunger, it WOULD be ended. If enough people realized--as many of us do now--that no state or religion is better than any other, war would end.

Ummm not so. first of all if a bunch of people got together (and i mean an assload) and decided to end world hunger, every country would be poor as hell and the world would slowly deminish. besides, if these people are starving that clearly means that there isnt any food around. so we would have to borrow food from somewhere else which would cause everyone would run out of food much quicker. eventually everyone would be in the same boat as the people who were starving in the first place. and the other thing you talked about, religion and the country and whatnot, that would be impossible because no one thinks the same. there will always be people who have their own opinions about how things should be done and what people should believe. even if a large majority thinks one way theres going to be a bunch of little groups always conspiring to do the opposite and ruin everything.

Now on with the OPs topic. i find it slightly insulting when you do something good, such as pass a test or win a prize for being the best, and then people have the nerve to say "well its a good thing god gave you the ability to do that." i mean come on, people just dont win because they are naturally good at something, everyone still has to work at perfecting that talent. so suddenly they think that i couldnt have done it on my own, that i needed some sort of divine help to come through on top, its bullshit. i worked my ass off and i deserve some god damn credit.

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It's not a miracle, it's coincidence.

2000 people die of aids. One person over comes. It's not because he prayed. A lot of them probably prayed. He survived because he was a statistic. Not because god wanted him to.

quote:Originally posted by The_Big_Beef:

Ummm not so. first of all if a bunch of people got together (and i mean an assload) and decided to end world hunger, every country would be poor as hell and the world would slowly deminish. besides, if these people are starving that clearly means that there isnt any food around. so we would have to borrow food from somewhere else which would cause everyone would run out of food much quicker. eventually everyone would be in the same boat as the people who were starving in the first place. and the other thing you talked about, religion and the country and whatnot, that would be impossible because no one thinks the same. there will always be people who have their own opinions about how things should be done and what people should believe. even if a large majority thinks one way theres going to be a bunch of little groups always conspiring to do the opposite and ruin everything.

Now on with the OPs topic. i find it slightly insulting when you do something good, such as pass a test or win a prize for being the best, and then people have the nerve to say "well its a good thing god gave you the ability to do that." i mean come on, people just dont win because they are naturally good at something, everyone still has to work at perfecting that talent. so suddenly they think that i couldnt have done it on my own, that i needed some sort of divine help to come through on top, its bullshit. i worked my ass off and i deserve some god damn credit.

[/rant]

You're idea about not being able to feed all the worlds people is flawed.

Firstly, some 90% of all the agricultural goods grown in the world goes to feed animals we eat. Imagine how many more people could be feed if that produce wasn't used to feed live stock.

Secondly, people in "modernized" countries literally eat twice as much food as what they actually need to survive and live a happy life with a full stomach.

And about divine intervention, anyone who attributes their own or others ability to do something to a higher power are afraid to take responsbility for their own lives.

My philosophy is that fate (divine intervention) responds to you, not the other way around. Everything has meaning and holds a lesson. How you handle what happens to you is entirely up to you.

"When you consider the opportunity and power He had to really do a job, and then look at the stupid, ugly little mess He made of it instead, His sheer incompetence is almost staggering."

quote:Originally posted by Mercury_firefly:

You're idea about not being able to feed all the worlds people is flawed.

Firstly, some 90% of all the agricultural goods grown in the world goes to feed animals we eat. Imagine how many more people could be feed if that produce wasn't used to feed live stock.

Secondly, people in "modernized" countries literally eat twice as much food as what they actually need to survive and live a happy life with a full stomach.

And about divine intervention, anyone who attributes their own or others ability to do something to a higher power are afraid to take responsbility for their own lives.

My philosophy is that fate (divine intervention) responds to you, not the other way around. Everything has meaning and holds a lesson. How you handle what happens to you is entirely up to you.



Yes once we take away the food that goes to all the chickens and livestock and give it to all the poor starving countries we'll all be starving. THATS BRILLIANT!

You're not even really reading what i'm saying.

quote:Originally posted by The_Big_Beef:

Yes once we take away the food that goes to all the chickens and livestock and give it to all the poor starving countries we'll all be starving. THATS BRILLIANT!

You don't need chickens and other livestock to live, we can grow grow stuff too. What do you think vegetarians eat?

Vegetarians eat vegetables and fruits. now not that theres a problem with that because i eat fruits and vegetables all the time, but meat is a necessary component of a healthy meal. true fruits and vegetables are pretty damn healthy but its not healthy enough to eat 3x a day, everyday, for the rest of your life. its impossible to end world hunger. as long as someone has food to eat, there will always be someone else that doesnt.

Again, you're making conclustions based purely on your own assumption.

People in western modernized countries eat some 20 times the essential daily requirement of protein. Just look at an average american meal and you'll see it's almost entirely meat.

Now look at your average asian mean. In India protein is supplied almost entirely from tofu (soy extract) and in other asian couintries meat is rarely the centerpiece of the meal.

Your body doesn't use protein like you think it does. If you take down a steak, the protein in that steak doesn't go straight to your muscles. It's first broken down into amino acids then reassembled into protein. There's around 20 different amino acids you need to survive, out of those your body naturally produces 12 of them.

In conclusion, you don't need much protein to survive.

Now lets get back on topic.