Where was God when that 11 year old girl in Florida was raped then buried alive?

Question

Since Logic doesn't seem to have any effect on the fundamentalist evangelical mind, perhaps some emotional appeals might?


I suggest a new line of questioning in thei section.. I will call it the "Where was God when" series...

Was God busy fixing the college football game you wanted your team to win?

if Christians claim prayer works in their lives,, why would good help christians in their mundane lives but refuse to help a little girl brutalized in this manner?

Answer 1

Check out the article below. David Hume developed the Arguement from Evil to show that since evil does exist, then one of three things is true:

(1) God is malevolent, or
(2) God is impotent, or
(3) God doesn't exist.

This murder and rape is a classic case of evil. Either God couldn't stop it, God liked it, or there is no God.

The only legitimate response to Hume that I've ever heard is from Leibniz who suggested that good and evil may be like sugar and salt - adding a pinch of salt to a cake makes it sweeter. In other words: God is a Utilitarian! God justifies evil (like this rape) because of the greater good (like free will). Thus, the free will of the rapist was of greater value. (Or, does anyone doubt that God couldn't just take away that one person's free will without taking away any others' freee will???)

Answer 2

I haven't heard about this case; however, sentencing for the Jessica Lunsford case was yesterday. Jessica was a 9-10 year old girl who was kidnapped from her bedroom in February 2005. She was raped and then buried alive and died. John Couey, a convicted sex offender, was captured, tried and convicted of the crime. Couey was illegally living close to Jessica's home. Yesterday the judge sentenced John Couey to death by lethal injection.

Answer 3

That was such a sad story, I kept thinking about what that little girl must have gone through (especially since I have a daughter the same age). She'd laid all of her school clothes out for the next day, no clue what was going to happen that night. Very sad. There are just some really sick people in the world. I imagine some people will say that God has a master plan, that things happen for a reason and we just don't know what that reason is. I just feel really bad for her and her poor family.

Answer 4

It's sad, tragic, and brutal but God is still in control. The "Where was God when" series questions is blaspheming God and you'll be held accountable for it. Some things we will never understand, but somehow God uses a situation for himself. It's fine to ask a reasonable question but "where was God when..." is a little old. God is always on His Throne governing the the world and all situations.

And we know that ALL THINGS work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Rom. 8:28

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Rom. 12:19

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Luke 17:2

Answer 5

God never wills that any child should die (Matthew 18:14).

The existence of pain is the hardest thing to deal with for Christians and atheists alike. When pain sets in, our faith often gets rocked. CS Lewis wrote The Problem of Pain to explain why pain exists (and I think he's largely right in his reasoning) but when he met late in life his true love and she died after only a few years he recorded his raging against God in his visceral journal, published as the book A Grief Observed.

I recall when the tsunami hit Indonesia, India, etc Barbara Ehrenreich wrote in The Progressive that Christians had a choice: God is either sadistic or he doesn't exist. I understand the problem we feel there. If God is a gigantic human male that has intentions and creates like I'd create a pplay doh sculpture then the existence of pain seems inherently cruel and immoral, because clearly God could have made a world without pain instead.

Christians traditionally accepted the Jewish explanation - Adam and Eve sinned and were cursed, and we inherit the curse, therefore pain is our own doing. I think that's pretty obviously a mythological throw-away idea that really explains nothing.

Rather, I think it is essential to see that thinking of God as a Huge Man that created the world like a science project is a metaphor. In reality, God IS and the universe IS. It is not necessary that God caused the universe to exist or that the universe and God are different or that time must have a beginning and end, etc. We impose those human constraints on the supernatural because if we didn't it would be so abstract most of us couldn't access it and we certainly couldn't share it amongst ourselves in a community.

My experience has been that the Divine Ground of Being, God, the Way of the Universe, The Tao is Love. This heinous crime inflicts pain on Love itself. That fact does not mean Love is really hate or that Love doesn't exist. On the contrary, our suffering, the suffering of the Ground of Being proves that Love is real for it is the evidence of Loving Others without even knowing them.

We care. That's God.

Answer 6

Horrible things wouldn't happen to Innocent people if there was a god. There is no plan for the human race. It's all a figment of our imaginations to get over the fact that we die and that's it. Nothing else. No one is controlling what we do, when we do it, or how we do it. No one likes to be controlled. Why would anyone ever think that some higher power is controlling the fate of us??

Answer 7

I am completely in shock at some of these answers. I was raised Christain, though I no longer follow that path. The answers that suggest God planned for that to happen, or that he was using that girl as an example to others, or that he used her to bring others to him make me sick!!
Christianity preaches that God allows man the free will to do such things. And that evil comes from Satan. This is not what I believe, but if you're going to be on here as a fundie, at least know what your faith says.
What happened to that girl happened to me - only someone saw something she thought was out of place and called the police. He would have killed me if the cops hadn't shown up when they did. The idea that some God was using that to draw me closer to him is horrifying and unimaginable. In fact, the response of the church is what helped me discover my current belief. Part of the problem is that Christianity doesn't allow for anomalies such as this, and doesn't know how to cope with it. Except, of course, to try and guess at the mind of god, and assure me that he loves me anyway. Whatever.

Answer 8

Same place he was when the Nazis killed 6 million people during the holocaust.

I think of God as a watchmaker. He manufactured the watch with all its intricate pieces, wound it up and then left. I do not believe God interferes in the daily lives of humans...kinda like an absentee landlord

Answer 9

My OWN personal opinion sometimes for instances like this would be maybe that girl would have grown up to be a huge stumbling block? Or at times of death people get saved, at funerals. God works in mysterious ways, but it is not God's fault it is the murder who did this. Could have God stopped this by using His power? Certaintly, but why didn't He? Don't know no one knows

Answer 10

Human hear is evil. There has been awful crimes against little girls in Florida alone.

Do not blame God. Free will of men chooses evil. God warns about crimes against innocent children