There is definitely no loving God. Fact.

"But Jesus halted the stoning of a woman caught in adultery by saying " Let he who is without sin cast the first stone".

Well no - he didn't. That story was tacked on centuries later - which is odd, because it's one of the most popular examples folks will cite when asked for an example of 'Christ's teaching'. In fact nobody knows what, if anything, the man said or did, given that he existed at all.

God gave us all free will. If he hadn't we would simply be puppets. Our faith & love for him would be meaningless because they would be programmed into us rather than our choice. (Would you want your kids to love you simply because they were UNABLE to do anything else? They didn't choose to, they just did so by rote?)

Sadly free will means that some people can choose to cause harm to other living creatures. And disease/disabilities can happen because evolution can get things wrong for us but right for viruses etc. That doesn't mean God is responsible or that He doesn't care ... God helps us to endure what we must and enjoy what we can in this life.

I believe that in the next, all will be well, and evil will be unable to touch good people and animals. (And by good, I don't mean perfect - just those who did the best they could with kindness as their guiding light.)

The story of the garden of Eden in Genesis is very effective in its explanation of our responsibility for our own behaviour . Humanity is capable of dreadful things but each individual has a god given power to control decisions . I interpret God as Love , which when you think about it has the potential to be more powerful in its purest form than any other force . Who knows whether it is an entity found in each person or an external force ? We don't need to know , we simply need to nurture it and act on it in our own lives . Wars over the wil and whims of god are destructive tragic and unnecessary and give god a bad name .

Third party cover, fire and theft

just hope that the tectonic plates have third party cover, I suppose.

Well, if there is no God as many people believe, how can insurance companies get out of paying out on claims because of an Act of God? If the insurer and the insured are both atheists where do they stand if a natural phenomenon such as a volcano occurs?

www.confused.com/home-insurance/articles/confused-com-explain-acts-of-god-in-home-insurance

I haven't got a clue where this thread is going. Or where it's at.

Throughout recorded history, and probably way before that, people and countries have helped themselves to what others have. That is NOT saying that the UK or any other country is snowy-white, it is just to point out that you can't select one set of countries to blame everything bad onto.

Things go in and out of fashion. Rome was once the in place, to have Roman citizenship was to have made it, then it was seen as the bane of other lesser nations. European nations were powerful and envied and copied, then condemned by the countries they colonised. The USA was a magnet for the "huddled masses, yearning to be free" now it is a dirty word in some mouths.

Sorry soup - welcome; and sorry soon!

"All the nastiness in the world is due to people not obeying the rules" - well! where to start!? - is viral meningitis caused by people not obeying the rules; or is it a god-given gift; or is it simply one species in the natural world seeking to survive and unfortunately killing its host?

Pity he didn't stop all the other stonings.

I believe that God gave Man free will to govern his own conduct and make his own decisions. But some men and women do not take responsibility for their own behaviour and some make wrong decisions. But Jesus halted the stoning of a woman caught in adultery by saying " Let he who is without sin
cast the first stone".

Oh, I wondered how long it would be before all the ills of the world were be blamed on the UK and countries like it!

As I see it, God has given us rules to live by, but also allowed us freewill. All the nastiness in the world is due to people not obeying the rules ( which come down to do unto others as you would be done by, or love your neighbour). Like children, we will only learn by making mistakes and seeing the consequences. A lot of what is going on today is the result of the actions in the past of Western countries like UK who helped themselves to the resources of others without recognising them as equal human beings same as ourselves. There can only be a God if there is life after death and if in that life God compensates those innocents who suffer. Consider that compared to eternity life on Earth is like a few flutters of your eyelashes, then you are gone, so whatever happens to you is not as important as what happens in the next life. Of course this is why Karl Marx called religion the opiate of the masses!

Oh right. Going round in circles here. Have to be careful or will get deleted.

I am sorry I was confusing Eloethan by hoping this thread would die a death. I would have thought my reason was quite obvious really. On reflection, I am uncomfortable with the title. That's all.

And the thread has strayed far from the original point.

No, I was replying to Luckygirl's post about the Dylan song. I know you didn't mean either of those posters jingl.

Soup has posted before. I do, momentarily, get her name confused with soop.

I didn't mean Wilma. Or Soup.

You mean soup, who seems to be a new poster. Welcome, soup, although your username is very smilar to that of another member!

I think you will find that Dylan was being ironic soon in order to point up the fact that every side in a war thinks god is on THEIR side.

jing do you mean me?

That Christ wasn't born on the 25th doesn't trouble me , it is a day when I know Christians are celebrating - he was born , and billions are sharing this joy with me . The Queen has two birthdays

Same with Easter, date doesn't matter , the joy I feel , a joy which cannot be put into words , again it is a joy shared .

. I understand what soon means by hearing others speak of moments in their lives.

I don't choose to believe God loves me, I know God loves me.

I wonder why some people come across as being totally devoid of any emotional intelligence at all.

Don't worry about it Eloethan. Do what you like.

"Why doesn’t God miraculously intervene to stop evil acts if He is all-loving and all-powerful? Why doesn’t He catch the drunk driver’s car that is going to crash into a bus? Why doesn’t He deflect the murderer’s bullets? The person asking doesn’t actually want God to stop all their evil acts. They don’t want to be invisibly gagged every time they’re about to say something hurtful; they don’t want to stub their toe when they try to kick the dog. They just think it would be good if God stopped certain evil acts or just the evil acts of others. But that would make life impossible. There would be no freedoms, no regularity and no personal responsibility."