How can you still believe?

Question

After studying philosophy of religion I have seriously thought on the existance of god.

My question is simple, the bible states that god is a loving father figure and yet the world is so full of famine, war, and disease. So how can you still believe in a benevolent god?

I've heard many theories on the existance of god (or lack of) and am simply interested in hearing all sides to the story.

Some interesting points so far but I would like to add this point:

The point of a father figure is to educate and be supportive, surely god has done neither and is in fact condemning mankind for simply being what we are.

Answer 1

Did you put this question on a church racetrack?

I see a lot of Christians running around in circles.

Answer 2

The problem is; most people who profess to believe in god have not studied philosophy in general. If they have studied anything, it will be a biased perspective authored by their own religious organization. They may well feel they are philosophically enlightened when, in reality, they are philosophically ignorant. If a compassionate, loving, all-powerful god existed, he would have no reason to let thousands of innocent children die of starvation and disease every single day. What harm could feeding starving children possibly do? An all-powerful god who wanted his children to live in peace and harmony would have a simple set of rules that everyone could understand, not a convoluted, painfully long, self contradictory collection of bronze age ramblings that allow man to interpret it to his own ends. The theists, no doubt, will invoke the "god is only following the rules" cop-out. The flaw in that argument is, being all-powerful by nature, if god existed he would make the rules and adjust them to the circumstances, not be a slave to them. It ends up being simply the twisted logic of an organization desperately trying to hold onto an absurd belief system.

Answer 3

Stay away from philosophy of religion (being only what the human-mind can perceive) and study the philosophy of God.

To understand your question of benevolent God, you need to know the whole story, not just bits and pieces of it. God is a lot of things, not limited to only benevolence. Famine war and disease are the ways of the world, not the ways of God.

Answer 4

Well Unfortunately I don't believe in this bible

I believe in the Quraan which simply proves God existence by a lot of ways one of them is the scientific way ( I bet you never heard that before ) here is one verse

God says in The Quraan : "And He it is Who has created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, each in an orbit floating."

Just reading this verse simply proves to you that the one who is talking is God

because as you see this verse is talking about the orbiting of the planets 1400 years ago

while the first one who discovered the planets orbits was Kepler which was just 400 years ago

I think that simply proves that there is a good

more proof just google a little and type "Quraan and Science"
or msg me [e-mail]

Answer 5

I believe that we were put here on earth to be tested. This means that we are to be tried and have to choose our own path. We are going to have trials and tribulations along the way. I think that people balme too much on God and religion instead of taking responsibliity for their own actions. We are free to choose what we think, say, and do. God is good. This doesn't mean that we don't deserve to be punished when we do something wrong. Simple cause and effect. The biggest problem with the world today, and evry day for that matter, is the lack of responsibility and accountability.

Answer 6

I believe in God, but I do not believe in the Bible (at least as the word of God). I, too, studied religion in college, but I was pretty close to this point beforehand (my area was more history of religion and the Bible than philosophy). I do not believe God interferes in the world.

Answer 7

I think you need to ask yourself not only whether anyone can believe in the existence of a god but whether anyone can believe that a god does not exist. We are minute particles in a seemingly endless universe and cannot comprehend what there may be except in this very limited place in which we live. Can we know anything about god? Can we know anything about there not being a god? Probably not.

Answer 8

All the "bad" in this world is because of us as the human race.

When we "fell", we moved from walking with GOD to acting like we don't need Him. and in that moment we were separated from God and that allows for everything not good to enter the picture.

Sure if God wanted everything to be Perfect, it would be and will be one day when we are reconciled to Him, But God wants true worshippers that worship in spirit and truth, not some programmed robots. Worship that is forced is tyranny.

i'm not sure of the gospel reference, but some people were complaining that a bunch of people were killed by a tower or something that fell on them and that they were basically "good" people, Jesus replied saying NO but unless YOU repent you will likewise perish

I believe in a predominately literal Bible, and like in the story of Noah and the flood. Noah and his predecessors lived for hundreds of years because if the life-giving light that filtered through the firmament.

the point is that if some people that live 80 years give or take can be so evil, how much more wicked and evil could that same person be if they could live 800 years without order! God had to destroy us.

Now we have all the technonogy and we can be just as wicked and not even leave our homes.

God is involved in the individual lives of people who want His Gift of salvation and want to try to live a good life. and some bad things happen to those "good" people.

alot of times it is because of our own choices (that's the freewill)
some times it is because we were in the path of one of those evil ones.sometimes we just don't know why

We need to ask the question why do good things happen to bad people- referring to the one in the mirror

I believe God is love. God can also have the emotions we have. He is a personal God He said "let us make man in our image"

On a personal note I was one of those bad people and left my family for an addiction. i don't ask the question why did God allow me to put my family through that? but i can answer that i needed to be so low to really see clearly who God is.
and i have been restored by a loving God

Answer 9

The link below is a study guide on why if there is a loving God is there so much pain and suffering in the world. You can look at all of them if you wish but the one that contains your answer is the one that starts "Did God create the Devil?"

Answer 10

i believe, that the"bible" god was made up by a power hungry person, i also believe "god" is actually an energy of some kind. although i don't have any proof, i suppose its more a theory i have than a belief. I think it is wise to question what you have questioned, although i don't really have a clear answer.

Answer 11

Are wars our fault or God's? Is famine humans fault or God's? Is the fact that many do not receive proper medical care God's fault or ours? I believe God put enough food on this earth for everybody so, why are some over weight while others are starving? Is it God's fault? No, it's not, it's our fault.