So by your logic parents who allow any harm to come to their children are also not benevolent. If you're anything like me you learned much more when you got hurt than when you didn't so in reality, is the parent who hovers over their child and never lets them touch something hot, and thereby learn that lesson, more or less benevolent than the one who allows some accidents to happen so the child will be prepared for life?

While there are many events across the world that cause great loss of life, no one forced anyone to live in the path of natural disasters, so anyone who pays attention or has lived through one, like a hurricane, either assumes the responsibility for the risk they take or they leave that area.

If I had complete faith in the existence of God then I would argue that any direct interference would violate his promise to let us make our own decisions. When we get to make our own decisions then we have to be responsible for the ramifications of those decisions, no matter how sad that may make God.

Now your next question may be "how can prayer accomplish anything if God does not intervene?" Again, if I was confident in God's existence, I'd say that prayer is an exercise of your free will and by asking for God's intercession you give him a window through which he may act without violating his promise. How do you know that if people didn't pray every day for people all over the world that the disaster you posted wouldn't have killed many more people?

I think Helemoto accurately described the Christian Hell in a post in another thread. As understood by the Christian faiths, Hell is not a place of fire and brimstone, it is simply spending an eternity outside the presence of God. So, if you don't believe in God then what difference does it make? FYI the folks who preach fire and brimstone are usually the same charlatans that say you're going to burn if you don't send me $1,000...

*edit
I'm not trying to convert you or convince you of anything, since I don't even know what I believe. I just thought, based on my knowledge of Christianity and my limited ability to make logical arguments, I could help bounce your questions around.

Last edited by Kaotic; 09/25/11 07:36 PM.
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