This is why I don't believe....?

Question

Ethiopia, murder, child molestation, and abduction, etc..
Why if God is so great and can do anything do these things happen? Who can explain a six month old baby getting gang raped? What did that baby do? What is God's plan for her? Or young kids who get beat by their parents and then eventually killed by them? Where is God when they need him? Maybe someone can explain why this almighty being who can do anything allows this stuff to happen to innocent people, and then nothing happens to some horrible people. It doesn't really make sense to me.

Answer 1

I am so glad that there are so many people who care so much about getting themselves into the next world that they can find exuses for God. The people that I love and trust and would want to spend an eternity with would not stand by and watch if they knew that someone was trying to hurt me or my children.

Answer 2

I don't buy the free will stuff. I mean sure we have free will to do things to other people, but what about somebody that gets struck by lightning or is in a freak accident?

I think it comes to whether or not you are spiritual. If there is more too you than just the physical world, then there is a part of you that cannot be molested, beaten, or killed. It is the only part of you that you have control over, and is the gift that God has given you that nobody else can take away. Whether or not you want to attribute spirituality to God is another thing though. But it explains how one can believe despite the horrible things you mentioned.

Answer 3

Gods ways are not our ways and more important then all the circumstances is a relationship with Him. Some things are difficult for us to understand, especially about some really grosse situations lke you listed here. I think that half of what you hear about may or may not be true, but the thing to remember is this. The acumilation of negative things in your mind are a trap of the devil to keep you off of the things of God. God cannot do the things you have mentioned because He is not the author of sin, satan is. Since all humans have free will, and God will not violate that, then that is why things happen. I have investigated many horrible things with the same questions that you have. I came to an understanding that it was somebody that did not listen ot act on a warning from God that opened the door to most atrosities. If you are not under the umbrella of faith you are walking on very hot coals. If you do not have the mind of Christ then you do not have the ears to hear if God was telling you to look out all day long. If you don't have ears to hear and eyes to see you might just walk right out in front of the devil. Children that get harmed can usually be traced back to parents that did not give them the spiritual tools to fight off the firey darts of the evil one.

Answer 4

Man uses his free will to do the wrong things ! If man were obeying Gods` laws , none of this would be happening ! You ask where is God when you need Him ? He is in the same place when you didn`t need Him . Just like most people that only call on God when they`re in trouble, or in a situation they can`t handle..People want to do their own thing without God involved , but when the way they chose with their "free will" turns out to be the wrong path to have taken , then all of a sudden it`s Gods` fault ?? ................................ 1 John 3 : 7 -10....Little children , let no man deceive you ; he that doeth righteousness is righteous , even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil ; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested , that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him : and he cannot sin , because he is born of God ..In this the children of God are manifest , and the children of the devil : whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God , neither he that loveth not his brother ............. If you say you don`t believe , then you should never expect anything from God , because if He doesn`t exist to you , then you don`t exsist to Him...Basically you are saying you have placed your faith in mans` ability to handle the world and not God !! You reap what you sow !!!! What have you done for God lately ?

Answer 5

Man that's a loaded question. Something that Yahoo Answers isn't going to help you with unless you just want to get a "your right" and move on. Awhile back ago I read Francis A Schaeffer's books "Escape From Reason" and "He is there and He is not silent." Sometimes it's a little difficult to read him but I think it was worth it.

Some of the things he points out though are things like if He doesn't exist then what makes something evil. If this all is just a cosmic mishap then there really is no difference from one action to another(even though we know there is), there is no final reckoning. But because God exists we are moral(know that there is such things as right and wrong) beings. And because God exists man will be held accountable, otherwise he would not.

Answer 6

I understand your question and the dilemma, pain, and how this could cause disbelief. As others have pointed out, since sin entered the world and screwed up Gods perfect creation (sin of Adam and Eve) the world has become a mess. Enter evil, enter satan. God gave man free will and free choice. God doesn't FORCE us to do things. God lets us make up our own minds. If God FORCED us to do things, we would be like puppets or robots with no self will or free choice. People, sinful, disrespectful, ungodly people, committed these acts. We don't understand everything but God does. Those kids? God has a perfect glorious plan for them. And that plan will not just last a given number of years like life on earth does. His magnificent plan will last FOREVER in heaven. As for the people that would cause such harm, if they never repent and turn from this sort of thing, God will give them what's coming to them. And it won't be good.

Answer 7

The simple fact that we recognize these acts to be horrific, is a testimony to God's existence. It is only because these acts are not commonplace that we acknowledge them as atrocities. Consider the animal world. Every type of baby animal is routinely killed by predators or natural events. I can't help but notice that your question did not include them. It is only mankind that is elevated to a higher level. It is only mankind that questions the existence of God because of tragedy. This is because mankind has received the greatest blessings. We notice when they are missing, but we take them for granted when we have them. It is only mankind that has a soul. Only we can go to heaven. We can spend eternity there. Or we can choose to spend it apart from God. If we want some idea of what each is like we can read the bible to learn of heaven. Or we can imagine an eternity spent in a place full of the horrible acts that you listed and more. You see the acts you blame God for were committed by Satan not God. They should serve as a reminder to us that Satan is real also. There is no third option. One cannot opt out of this by refusing to choose. Either we follow God or we follow Satan.
If we can recognize these acts for the horrible things they are, then we should also be able to recognize the blessings for what they are. Then it becomes a simple question. Who do you choose Satan or God?

Answer 8

God doesn't allow these things to happen. Man has free-will, these sick demented things are thought up in mans mind, not Gods. Man does these things, God hates it when bad things happen he cries when children gets hurt. You say you don't believe in Him, then you ask how he can allow these things to happen. If you don't believe in Him, then there is no Him to allow these things. If you do believe, then you would know that He doesn't step in and stop crimes from happening, He doesn't like it, but, He isn't hovering around waiting for someone to do something wrong so he can stop it. These criminals will be punished, imagine a huge bonfire, now imagine standing in that fire, your flesh burning but not burning off your body. It's burning but staying on you, imagine your entire body on fire, imagine the pain that would be. Now imagine people grabbing at you, screaming because they ar burning also. Imagine that for eternity, that's what all those criminals has to look foreword to, that's what God has planned.

Answer 9

You assume that God has planned and caused this to happen.

God does give blessings to all people, but for anything out of the ordinary, people have to askfor help. If they don't believe, they won't ask, and He won't answer. But those who do believe and ask receive what they need.

The whole earth was flooded because of the evil that was happening at the time, and it will get to that point again. Only, the next time it will be cleansed with fire.

Answer 10

It is hard to understand why bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad. Why does God the creator of man (whom He created in His image), the God that loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for our sins, the Master of the universe, allow these things to happen? I am not a bible scholar, nor am I great writer, so I am not going to attempt to explain. But I will give you a few things I know, and give you some links that you can look at, that hopefully can help explain things more clearly. when Adam and Eve ate the apple in the Garden of Eden, they disobeyed God and sin entered the world. because of their sin every man is born a sinner and we now live in a sinful fallen world. The evil in the world today is not from God it is from satan. God does not create evil things, but He brings good out of all bad things, the Bible says in Romans 8:28" And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.." God will punish evil, psalm 37:33But the LORD will not let the wicked succeed or let the godly be condemned when they are brought before the judge. I could go on and on showing you bible verses, but I know bad things happen and bad people get away with evil things. But what I trust in and have even more faith in is that God loves us, so much that even though we are sinners, He sent His Son to die for our sins, so that we may live with Him for eternity. Believing in this is not going to protect us from evil, and it does not insure that will never have bad things happen to us, but it does insure that God will be there to help us through the difficult times, and He will bring the good out of the bad, and He will punish those that do bad things. There time is coming.

Here are somes links of some articles I hope you will read

Psalm 37
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2037;&version=51;

http://www.nbc.org/WhenBadThingsHappen.html

http://www.explorefaith.org/world.html

http://www.explorefaith.org/findgod.html