tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9661811.post878832412418041578..comments2024-02-18T12:18:45.788-05:00Comments on Sun and Shield: Where is God when things hurt us badly, pt. 3Martin LaBarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14629053725732957599noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9661811.post-4219897088556160032008-01-13T03:05:00.000-05:002008-01-13T03:05:00.000-05:00Thanks again, David B. Ellis.Perhaps we are nonres...Thanks again, David B. Ellis.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps we are nonresponsive. Perhaps, on the other hand, our response is trust in a God that we believe in, rather than an attempt to deal with the matter rationally. (I recognize that there is a possibility that this trust is misplaced.)Martin LaBarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14629053725732957599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9661811.post-26138182636365360252008-01-12T18:06:00.000-05:002008-01-12T18:06:00.000-05:00It is certainly true that believing God and an aft...It is certainly true that believing God and an afterlife exists, and that God loves and cares about us, helps many people to cope with life's trouble.<BR/><BR/>If an individual is sincerely unable to cope with life without this conviction I'm more than content to leave them to their belief.<BR/><BR/> I am a man of no special strength of spirit but found I was able to face life with none of the comforting aspects of the religious beliefs I grew up with without great difficulty. I suspect most people could do the same. I think many people who claim they couldnt face a world with no God strongly underestimate themselves.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Either way though, stating that God loves us really does do nothing to address the serious question of why a God would allow such terrible suffering as is present in our world. I think calling it a nonanswer is entirely accurate and I think the fact that the best and most popular answer believers come up with when faced with this issue is so nonresponsive to the substance of the philosophical problem says much about the credibility of belief in God's existence.David B. Ellishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09468191085576922813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9661811.post-10029133256102700712008-01-09T17:44:00.000-05:002008-01-09T17:44:00.000-05:00Thanks, C. Marie. This is a very complicated subje...Thanks, C. Marie. This is a very complicated subject, and believers are all over the map on it. Some, for example, believe that death before the Fall is compatible with scripture, and, of course, others do not. I'm pretty sure that the book you are referring to is _Darwin's Black Box_, by Michael Behe.<BR/><BR/>For more on the different views of origins, you may want to see this <A HREF="http://home.earthlink.net/~mflabar/OriginsTheories.htm" REL="nofollow">web page</A>, which gives strengths and weaknesses of some of the views.Martin LaBarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14629053725732957599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9661811.post-6534038155688649922008-01-09T13:29:00.000-05:002008-01-09T13:29:00.000-05:00Thank you for responding. when I referred to "evo...Thank you for responding. when I referred to "evolution" is short-hand, I meant I had issues with the idea of MACRO-evolution, which is usually given that title. When you try to jibe this with known laws of genetics, you run into some serious problems, and that's why I threw the theory of MACRO-evolution out back when I was still an agnostic. Later on, I enjoyed the book _Shattering the Myths of Darwinism_ by Richard Milton. He states he's not a creationist, either, but he does pose problems with the theory of macro-evolution. (But then he got accused of being an rabid creationist. As did the author of _Darwin's Little Black Box_, even though that author is Catholic & is not required to subscribe to a six-day creation.) Anyway, I've read some other older-earth creationists & they make sense to me. Also, there's the idea of sin coming with death, but theistic evolution requires death from the beginning for improvement of the earth. Thanks.C. Marie Byarshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09402541164388777896noreply@blogger.com