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

by dhw, Saturday, December 18, 2010, 12:18 (5088 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

TONY: I apologize in advance if this comes across as a rant, but the statement above struck a nerve DHW. In all my years of searching, as theist to near atheist and full circle back around to theist, this has been the most common and altogether aggravating statement/question that I have seen from every group of people that I have talked to. [...] -We as, humans, screw ourselves, each other, and everything around us up beyond all reason, and still have the gall to blame something outside of ourselves for the pain that comes from it. Why? Are we really too ignorant, or arrogant, to take responsibility for the fallout of our own failings? -This is the most common and altogether aggravating statement that I have seen from every religious apologist when the question is raised of God's responsibilities. My complaint was worded with scrupulous care in order to pre-empt just such a defence: "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 them." You have given one example after another of the disasters caused by man, for which of course man is responsible. The only example you have given of natural disaster is malaria, and then you blame people for not using netting or medication. Why do you think your God created malaria in the first place? Do you think the millions of people who died from it before man found a cure were responsible for their own deaths? Do you think that floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, the thousands of diseases are all man's fault? You may, as many modern apologists do, try to blame them on man's indiscriminate exploitation of the planet, but what about the time when man did not have the means to exploit the planet? Do you think our ancient ancestors were to blame for the natural catastrophes and diseases that maimed or killed them? Or did their lives not count?-Your apology for God ties in with the story of Genesis, in which God created a paradise and then man ruined it by disobeying him. But here's the rub: if you believe the story of Genesis, God was perfectly capable of creating paradise. Disease and natural catastrophes were unnecessary. Even if you don't believe it, it's hard to imagine that a God powerful enough to create a universe is incapable of creating a domain free from disease. But the apologists continue to defend him by presuming there was no other way (a strangely impotent omnipotence), or by switching attention from natural disasters to man-made disasters as you have done. Another interesting defence is that God sets us challenges. Again, the victims clearly don't matter in such games between God and humans, but what, after all, could be more entertaining than a game?-I agree totally with both you and David that life is a wonderful opportunity (credit to God - if he exists - for the good as well as the bad), many humans mess it up, we are responsible for our own actions etc. But to go back to your one and only example of a God-made disaster, I don't see how you can blame the millions of children who died from malaria before man even discovered the cause. And so my new question to you is: why did God create a world in which helpless humans could be destroyed at a moment's notice by forces beyond their own control? But to avoid the conventional theological digressions, please focus your attention on natural catastrophes and diseases, and on the time before humans even knew the causes of those diseases.