God and Suffering (General)

by dhw, Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 10:31 (5638 days ago) @ Mark

Mark, I'm pleased that you're beginning to understand my thinking, and I shall continue to try and understand yours! - You say it may well be that "creatures with free will can only be made by evolution in a world which allows disease, floods etc." This to me conjures up a rather endearing picture of God the scientist able to work only within the parameters of the materials that have been made available to him, which leads me to the following alternatives: 1) God planned from the start to create humans, but it took him a while to figure out how to do it. 2) He had no plan, but just kept experimenting till he got us. 3) He invented DNA, then sat back to see what would happen. Which of these scenarios (they all seem to me to have important repercussions on one's image of God) do you favour ... or can you think of another? - I still find it surprising that you can accept with equanimity the thousands of generations of innocent people suffering (not to mention animals), but perhaps this is linked to the second part of your post, which is intriguing. You write: '"Heaven", "the kingdom of God", "the new creation" ... whatever it is called ... is only reached through this world, by God bringing it to its fulfilment.' Heaven is not "a parallel independent creation into which some people are transferred at death." This must be a mighty disappointment to some of your congregation, and I'm sure they will have asked you the same questions that I am now about to ask: What do you think is the "end towards which creation is directed" if it does not entail some sort of afterlife? Whatever it is, will it involve resurrecting everyone who ever lived? And finally, if there is no parallel creation, where did the resurrected Jesus ascend to?