If God exists, why did he create life? (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by dhw, Friday, December 17, 2010, 20:48 (5089 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: His silence does not cry out for explanation. It is more than His asking for faith. He has given us intellect and insatiable curiosity and challenged us to figure out how he did it, made the universe, gave us life, etc.-For one blissful moment I thought you were going to point out that silences don't cry, but you are far too kind! -I think we challenge ourselves to figure out whether he did it, and if so how he did it. But in any case that is not the silence that disturbs uncommitted folk like me. It's the silence that greets the prayers of those who are being destroyed by catastrophes and diseases and all the other treats that God's natural world has in store for us. Theologians tie themselves in knots trying to explain or justify them, whereas the simplest explanation by far is that if he exists, he doesn't care. Take one step further, and ask why he created them and us if he doesn't care, and the simplest answer is that he enjoys the entertainment (the good as well as the bad). Any more favourable explanation can only rest on faith. As you have so rightly pointed out on the Similarities thread, "Religion tries to answer 'the why question', but has done so in a very unsatisfactory way so far." Atheists needn't bother with 'the why question', but of course that doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't ask it. -(Thank you, George, for the Yog-Sothoth references. If he's insulted, does he ferment into Yoghurt-Sothoth?)