God and Suffering (General)

by dhw, Thursday, November 20, 2008, 08:48 (5644 days ago) @ Mark

Mark asks: "How can you know that it is possible to create a world anything like this, in which creatures having the personal qualities of humans can evolve, but without carnivores, viruses or floods?" - This tempts me to point out that if God is the omnipotent being that most Christians think he is, he can do anything, which would include creating a world in which creatures having...etc. etc. But perhaps you don't believe in God's omnipotence (you'd once have been burned at the stake for that), in which case I have to admit that I don't think it is logically possible to create a world like this that is not like this. ("Anything like this" raises too many questions.) It was you, however, who raised the problem of horrific suffering, and I can only conclude from your new question that if the Judeo-Christian God did indeed make the world, this must be the way he wanted it to be, i.e. he wanted to subject his creations to indiscriminately inflicted suffering of his own making. As a loving father - and this was the point of the original post - I would never do such a thing to my children.