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Hollywood_Guy
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23 Feb 2020, 5:23 am

I am ex-Catholic and today I believe God is cruel or indifferent, or at least I feel like he is. I know a lot of Christians just say that humans shouldn't judge God, but I feel pretty awful looking at the state of society at-large today and at personal issues. I don't really like the idea of Heaven either it sounds like all we will do is worship God 24/7 and have everything today we know besides pure joy or happiness stripped from us. I wish more people empathize and try to understand the reasons why people think what they think about God, if it exists.

Do you too think God is cruel or just indifferent either way, if he/she exists?



kraftiekortie
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23 Feb 2020, 7:13 am

He wants to seem indifferent so we don’t depend on Him too much.



Borromeo
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23 Feb 2020, 7:30 am

This is a really big question Hollywood_Guy. I believe the answer is "no" but too make actual sense of it, I'd suggest taking a look at a book by Peter Kreeft called the Handbook of Catholic Apologetics.

You & I are members of one of the most faith-ignorant generations of Catholics since the Dark Ages, and thanks to the catechesis of the 1970s-2000s I believe its not getting any better. I study to disprove, and that's why I'm fairly strong in my Catholicity today.


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auntblabby
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23 Feb 2020, 8:26 am

satan is the real boss of this world. god stands by and allows it. so which is worse- a god who could but does not restrain evil, or the evil itself?



vermontsavant
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23 Feb 2020, 10:01 am

It's a cruel and distopian world so:

A-God cares but is cruel in nature

B-God is indifferent and does not care

C-The human race is so wicked and corrupt that they have been hung out to dry by God because they deserve it


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AprilR
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23 Feb 2020, 11:00 am

God is not evil, life is meant to be a hardship in my opinion.



Borromeo
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23 Feb 2020, 12:35 pm

vermontsavant wrote:
It's a cruel and distopian world so:

A-God cares but is cruel in nature

B-God is indifferent and does not care

C-The human race is so wicked and corrupt that they have been hung out to dry by God because they deserve it


D- The human race decided to get into evil and are doing such a good job rejecting God and picking literally everything else, that it's a wonder God hasn't hung us out to dry. On the whole we seem to richly deserve it.


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23 Feb 2020, 1:51 pm

God is a static energy source of pure love and bestowal. The human soul is purely the will to receive or ego. The purpose of creation is for the particles of the common soul ( humanity) to connect in love above their egos, and attain an equivalence of form ( pure love) with the Creator. By connecting together with the intention of mutual guarantee and love we create a mechanism by means of which we are able to tap into Gods' Light and ascend towards the correction of the common soul of which we each, every single human, are a particle. Every single thing that transpires in this world is God communicating with me. Every flaw I see exists within myself.
This is "the last generation" the revelation of the evil inclination, separation. Chaos, disease and wars, natural disasters will increase until we choose unity and love over separation and egoism.

This is what I believe, this is the wisdom of kabbalah. Heavy stuff I know :D


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funeralxempire
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23 Feb 2020, 2:46 pm

God can't be cruel. In order to be cruel God would need to exist but since no gods exist they can't possibly have traits or behaviours.


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23 Feb 2020, 3:42 pm

Hollywood_Guy wrote:
I am ex-Catholic and today I believe God is cruel or indifferent, or at least I feel like he is. I know a lot of Christians just say that humans shouldn't judge God, but I feel pretty awful looking at the state of society at-large today and at personal issues. I don't really like the idea of Heaven either it sounds like all we will do is worship God 24/7 and have everything today we know besides pure joy or happiness stripped from us. I wish more people empathize and try to understand the reasons why people think what they think about God, if it exists.

Do you too think God is cruel or just indifferent either way, if he/she exists?

I have a strong devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows, (http://www.motheofgod.com/threads/my-parish-priest.14404/page-2#post-273189) and because of that, for the time being at least, the Will of God, and His allowance of difficult things in this life don't bother me, provided I keep my eyes in Him and not on other the things themselves. The third Sorrow in the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, is very good at dispelling doubts about God's goodness and Love, the third Sorrow is the disappearance of Our Lady's Son in the Temple. Our Lady was Immaculately Conceived and never committed a sin in Her life, She knew that She did nothing wrong and that this was not a punishment from God, She knew Her Son was God the Son incarnate and that this was God's Will; but She didn't know why this was happening, just as She didn't know where Her Son was. When She finally found Her Son in the Temple, did She yell at Him? Dante, in his Purgatorio didn't think so, and neither do I rather, when I meditate on Her Saying, "Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing[,]" (St. Luke 2:48 DR) I imagine Her hold Her Son tightly and gently whispering the words into His ear.

If Our Lady can bear such an ordeal from God and not get angry at Him, who am I to question God's Will?


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23 Feb 2020, 7:51 pm

I think we have no reason to believe in a non-indifferent god, that wants us to behave any way or other. If there was a caring god the least we would expect is a clear cut non-disputed book with instructions on how to lead our lives. This is surprisingly easy to do. Along with instructions on life some knowledge could be revealed that could not possibly be known without advancement well beyond human. E.g. a list of large consecutive prime numbers given 2000 years ago which could only be verified by computers today etc.

If a god did exists and he could have created all people without autism I think it is extremely cruel to create people with autism. Or people with other disorders. I think we all know the constant heartache autism causes...



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29 Feb 2020, 7:12 pm

Doesn’t matter to God,if they exist.We do a fine enough job on our own.Mother Nature is also impassive about whether a baby bird or human survives or not.Nature is neither good or evil, why would a god be any different.


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Edna3362
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29 Feb 2020, 8:06 pm

God is not cruel.

But our mind is. :lol: And therefore it's interpretations, perpetuating and 'supporting' one another.


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29 Feb 2020, 8:56 pm

Hollywood_Guy wrote:
I am ex-Catholic and today I believe God is cruel or indifferent, or at least I feel like he is. I know a lot of Christians just say that humans shouldn't judge God, but I feel pretty awful looking at the state of society at-large today and at personal issues. I don't really like the idea of Heaven either it sounds like all we will do is worship God 24/7 and have everything today we know besides pure joy or happiness stripped from us. I wish more people empathize and try to understand the reasons why people think what they think about God, if it exists.

Do you too think God is cruel or just indifferent either way, if he/she exists?
It depends on what interpretation of 'God' you take. Not telling you to convert but just wanting to make clear a part of religious history that's been lost to us. If you are a dualist the Abrahamic version might not be what you're looking for in this case, there is the Zoroastrian version but unfortunately the Arabic conquests of Persia cut it off from it being considered by other countries before it could fully be considered by others.

Which is apparently: "God" (The Wise Lord) is all good but not all powerful, and that our purpose in life is to make it easier for good to floursh by pushing back against or removing the bad, and practically enriching or renovating the world around us. There is also no eternal Hell, only temporary where everybody eventually is released or goes to Heaven. The theology teaches that all bad comes from Angre Mainyu who loves to watch people suffer, sabotages the good, experience a dog-eat-dog world or and disorder etc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsWvxIE649U

There are some groups that accept people while others do not, main source of this is the Gathas scriptures etc. The writings also have supported gender equality historically and animal welfare. Hence some major secular humanist ideas actually came from Pre-Abrahamic Persia. You are also judged purely on your actions instead of your religious choice in the afterlife mainly.

So it is theoretically possible that its just that the 'evil/dark one' or 'evil mind' (Depending on your interpretation) has a stranglehold on the world for now, because it is possible for people to choose a side in the theology or to be influenced by good or evil (Light or Dark).

Hence that would mean our role is to try to overcome him, and practical action like activism in favor of good causes over prayer is acceptable, cleaning the ecosystem or through participating in medical research and mobilizing it to get done quicker.



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02 Mar 2020, 7:58 am

Life is cruel and indifferent, how we deal with it is the manifestation of good or evil.


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The_Walrus
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02 Mar 2020, 11:29 am

funeralxempire wrote:
God can't be cruel. In order to be cruel God would need to exist but since no gods exist they can't possibly have traits or behaviours.

This is my personal belief, but I do think there is intellectual value in positing first that God exists and going from there (as long as you remember the big assumption you made when forming your conclusions).

If there is a god, it is either cruel, ignorant, or weak. All of which are incompatible with mainstream interpretations of the Christian God.