Complex question about GOD?

Question

I'm sure I won't be able to explain this well with the given space but here it goes.There are 2 things almost all relgions can agree on about god.One he is all knowing meaning he knows everything including past ,present,and future.Two he is the most mercyful.Wich means that before he created anyone he knew if they would go to heaven or hell.I'm not talking about predestination.I'm just saying he would know what you would choose to do.So dosen't it seem like it's impossiable to be those two things?With my mercy and compassion as a human.If I could see into the future and see that if I had a child it would go to hell. I wouldn't have the child because I wouldn't want it to suffer.This is with my mercy and god is suppose to be a trillion times more mercyful.How can this be?

I've struggled with questions like these my entire life.Nobody can seem to give me any logical answer.

I'm not talking about predestination.I'm not saying we don't have free will.

Forgive my spelling...

Answer 1

It's ''merciful''.

Answer 2

Easy:

God does not exist.

You can definitely say that this definition of god does not exist, in the same way that you can say a 5 sided triangle does not exist. It is just a contradiction in terms.

Even if God is not omnipotent, the existence of eternal hell means that he can not be a loving god. What possible finite sin, and given our finite lives we can only commit a finite sin, justifies an infinite torture and punishment? What sort of being can sentence someone that they allegedly love to such a punishment?

It is possible to have a Spinozian God that does not care about our existence. However, what is the point of worshiping such a deity?

If you accept that an Abrahamic God is not a possibility, Pascal's Wager suddenly says that you should be an atheist, because worshiping such a god is pointless and wasted effort.

Answer 3

In my humble opionion the answer is simple. God gave us free will. It is probably his greatest gift and our greatest burden. God gives us the choice of who we are and who we will become. Would you rather him controlling our every thought? I know I prefer to have my own mindset. But, you can't have it both ways. Either we are in control of our lives and our destiny or he is. Just as in life, we are given all the tools necessary to make the right decisions. But, just as in life, we don't always make do what is right. I hear people say all the time, if God is a loving and merciful God why did he allow such a bad thing to happen? The answer is free will. He is not a puppet master pulling our strings. The world is full of bad people doing bad things. It's the ripple effect. Sooner or later something bad happens to everyone. Bad things happen to good people. God was merciful enough to send us his son for salvation that we may not perish but have everlasting life. So even if we screw up this life we get another shot. How is that for mercy? We are all children learning how to grow up. The things we learn in this life will stay with us. How can you appreciate Heaven if that is all you have ever known? Even while we are here on this Earth we are never satisfied with what we have. We become complacent in everything. Maybe that is the lesson we are here to learn. How can you understand happiness if you have never been sad? The bible says that we are wiser than the angels in heaven. Why? Because angels have never had to suffer. Angels only know Heaven and the joy found there. We have had to struggle and survive in this life. Who are we to question him? I would just accept that he has a plan for us all. Pray for understanding. Good luck and God bless.

Answer 4

In the case of God knowing the future....He sees BEYOND just that one person or even a generation beyond that person....

How can we judge whom is to be eradicated before they are allowed to be born?

What if that person, though he would go to hell, was the reason that even one person sought out the Lord for forgiveness and salvation because they saw what the other had done? If that person hadn't been there, the other would have gone to hell...

What if, that person, if he had lived, would be the great great great grandfather of someone whom would be doing such great humanity acts that they saved a village of thousands from death?

What if from THAT action, many others went on to do good things for humanity?

You must be aware of that kind of theory... works the same in science as it does for humankind.

Diseases can create medical advances for other diseases...

Bacteria can lead to be used to create medicine... or even become yeast to raise bread dough or cheese or yogurt, etc.,.

My daughter had a child born whom is not "perfect" Yet he blesses us, his classmates, his teachers, and so on every year he is with us. Should he have been denied birth?

God has a complex duty...

He looks at more than 1 thing for 1 person....He looks at eternity...

May you find Truth and Peace and Joy in the finding :)

Answer 5

Good question. But see, here is where you have to throw out logic. Religion is based on faith, not logic. It's not science, so you don't need proof. In religion, logic does not really apply. The christian religion say that G-d is omnipotent (all powerful). So, if G-d is all powerful then can G-d create a mountain that G-d cannot move? What about this? If G-d is omnipotent, why did G-d have to rest on the seventh day of creation? The short answer is that this is religion, not science, as such, not all things will follow logic.

Maybe, it's like this: you have a test coming up, someone hands you the answer sheet, but you want to take the test with your own knowledge and see what happens. You have the answers, but you don't look at them. You take the test. Maybe that's what G-d is doing. G-d has the answers, but chooses not to know them, waiting in hope that the free-will granted to humans will manifest in a favorable choice.

Answer 6

The best formulation I heard was: God is omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful), omni-benevolent (all good.) Pick any two. Can't be all 3.

If God were omniscient and omni-benevolent and omnipotent then he'd have to stop a lot of terrible things.

Let's say there's a child about to burn to death by an accident. If he were all three, he'd stop it rather than see that horrible pain for all involved. So maybe he doesn't know about it. If he knows about it maybe he lacks the power to stop it. If he knows about it and has the power to stop it but doesn't then he isn't all good.

The same people who say he can't interfere to save the child because it would mess with free will turn around and claim that god leaves a five dollar bill on the sidewalk for them to find or believes that God intervenes in high school football games if you pray. That sounds like a shallow, fatuous god to me.

Answer 7

Many have struggled with such questions, which of course is where the heresy of predestination came from. Your problem is you are not thinking outside the box - that box being linear time, where we all exist. An expression like "if I could see into the future" has no relevance to God, because God exists outside of time, and therefore has no past, present, or future. God sees the fullness of time, and every event that occurs in time, continuously and eternally. It isn't that God knows what you are going to do "before you do it", because the concept "before" has no meaning outside of time. Rather, He eternally SEES everything that every human being does from Adam and Eve until the end of time! It isn't a matter of foresight, because again, fresight means seeing into the future, and God has no future. It is rather a matter of universal sight. From all eternity to all eternity God continuously sees the creation of the universe; the sin of Adam and Eve; the birth and death of Jesus; my birth and death; the births and deaths of my descendants in the 50th Century.

This is an important point to grasp, because saying "God knows what we will do before we do it" does suggest something like predestination. Even Augustine struggled with this. But saying "God eternally views every act that occurs in time" is an entirely different matter. If God knows my every decision and act because He actually sees those decisions from His viewpoint outside of time, then there is no reason to say that my decisions and acts are not totally free. Someone else passively observing me making a decision does not impact upon the freedom of my decision. That is equally true whether the observer is another person in linear time, or a divine observer outside of time.

Answer 8

This is the very question I asked my minister father as a young boy. He looked at me like satan had hopped into my body. All he had to say since he had no answer is " Do not question God" and " You have to have faith." You will get no real answers to this question. If someone really trys to answer this question they will make something up that is not written in the bible. Good luck in your search. My answer to you question is I DONT KNOW

Answer 9

It's because god knew that it was worth it have some of his children reach his kingdom and happiness. Even though not all of his children will make it, He knows that those who do qualify for eternal life is worth a lot.

Plus, even those who are evil will eventually live in a happy )content) and peaceful place after they have suffered for a time.

Its our free agency that makes up the rest of the answer to your question. Even though god know where we will go. we have our own choice before us.

Answer 10

First of all we came here to earth because we needed two things. First, we needed a body because our Heavenly father has a glorified body and we were only spirits. So we wanted so much to be just like Him and so we came here to earth to receive a body as housing (temple) of our spirits. Second, we came here to be tested. Living in Heaven we "understood" good and evil but we had to "experience" evil to value good. So we are here to be tested and we are given the agency to chose between good and evil a gift from God. Although God knows our capabilities and what glory we will receive at the end of his plan for us we must still undergo trial, we must still experience pain and suffering so that we may appreciate good. God can give us that without living life on earth as mortals, but its our trials that draw us nearer to him, so how else would we value the compassion and mercy of God towards us without these types of experiences? as a child towards his mother? God loves us so much that his plan is designed where we not only have equal opportunity to return and live with him again, but we all have the opportunity to become like him as we learn about him and his will for us. If God were to keep us in Heaven knowing our destiny we would not grow or progess we would have no experience just understanding. Just as a parent schools her child at home from infancy not truly know evil until leaving home, just as we all left our homes in Heaven. we also have the agency to choose right from wrong a free gift from God. I once heard a man say that he would rather make 4000 mistakes than have his name written on 100 successes handed to him because he would essentially come out a wiser and stronger man. We'd have no purpose being here on earth were it not to be tested. God's mercy is made available through the atonement of Jesus christ. Because of bad choices that we make we are imperfect- we sin. Someone had to come to help us overcome sin and so God sent his only begotten son to earth to die for our sins. That doesnt say that we will all return to live with God again- no. We must prove to God through our faith, works, and obedience that we are worthy of such a reward. But that is not the ultimate reward it is becoming as He is perfect in all glory. The ultimate reason why we left His presence and came to dwell on earth in the first place.

Answer 11

I wont pretend to konw for sure, but I have a few ideas.

Just because God could know anyones future, that does not mean He has to look. It could be that God might chose not to know someones ultimate fate until the end of his life.

Of it could be that God doesnt view the matter the sae way we do. A farmer knows that some of his animals will die. That does not stop him from caring for the rest of them.

Or it could be that we have free will, and that God does not know our thoughts until we think them.

Tough question, to be sure.