Why does God let evil people do evil things to good people?

[AndrésC64]

[jennifer_bloom]

I believe protection from God is something you earn and God only saves your life if he has a special reason for keeping you alive. Like my cousin went to a day care and one day her dad took her out for a special event and the day she was not at her day care the day care got set on fire and all the children died, so God saved her life that day and now she is a professional religious teacher and has donated millions to build houses of worship in china that people can visit without paying for it.

[AndrésC64]

We have to earn God's protection/love? He doesn't love us and protect us simply for being his children? Do you think that that's the way all parents should treat their children? Don't protect them or love them unless they earn it? So rather than protect your children, you would simply stand by and watch as they got raped?

[Pleaznhim4me]

God doesn’t let evil people do things to good people. The people do the evil things. Everyone makes a choice in their life which effects themselves and other human beings. So then consequences ensue also known as karma. Good and bad. Sometimes it’s directly sometimes indirectly. Things can happen through a ripple effect. So all events are a culmination of choices that all people choose to make in this world. Our “god” is in charge of much larger things that are way beyond our control that we have yet been able to understand.

[jshm2]

He doesn't.

Evil people are exposed by their evils and turn in upon themselves. The good people recover, and move onto bigger and better things.

It's as daft a question as asking why deer don't gang up and try and eliminate predators. The world is more complex than your simple mind can comprehend, kiddo. It's why you're a simple minded atheist.

[AndrésC64]

He doesn't? Really? So I guess everybody's mistaken about all the child rape and murder and torture and abuse that happens in the world. Thanks for letting us all know that.

So the child that was raped and murdered is going to move on to better things? Really? Do tell how that works.

And again with the attempt at the condescending kiddo and name calling. 🙄

[AndrésC64]

Do you have children? What would you do if you saw one of them about to be raped or run over by a semi? Would you just stand back and say "Well, I did tell them not to go over there. But they have free will. So if they get raped or killed by a truck, that's their choice."

[Tyrael]

If god even exists, he's not micromanaging things. We've got free will, people make choices and sometimes those choices are bad for other people. And if god exists, those people who make bad choices and cause others to suffer will be judged for it some day.

[AndrésC64]

So God allows rapists to rape and torturers to torture and murderers to murder. He's got better things to do like making sure we don't masturbate. Don't you think he might have something better to do, like I don't know, stopping rapes? Stopping torture? Stopping murder? Just a thought from a lowly human that created by the way. And even I can see that his scheme is fucked up.

[Agape93]

God himself stated in the Bible that he created good AND evil. Why would he stop what he claims to have created?

[AndrésC64]

True. And yet somehow Christians love to blame all evil on Satan when it's God that created Satan and God that could stop satan. But of course, it's never God's fault. Nothing ever is. Even though he created everything.

[Agape93]

I'm not a good person. I've hurt people, and watched people be hurt. I have stunted empathy and I enjoy seeing pain in those I feel deserve it.

But even I'm not as callous or cruel as the god the Bible nuts preach about, even the few that actually read the damn book fully.

[Agape93]

I wouldn't kill someone for tripping, I wouldn't encourage people to rape and enslave, I wouldn't decimate a nation because the leader was a shit head, I wouldn't usurp peoples free will to make a point, so on and so on. If I am somehow more moral than your god, your god is truly a piece of shit.

[XHopelessRomanticX]

As hard as it is to acknowledge, we must remember that there are no “good” people, in the absolute sense of the word. All of us are tainted by and infected with sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8). As Jesus said, “No one is good—except God alone” (Luke 18:19). All of us feel the effects of sin in one way or another. Sometimes it’s our own personal sin; other times, it’s the sins of others. We live in a fallen world, and we experience the effects of the fall. One of those effects is injustice and seemingly senseless suffering.

[AndrésC64]

Stop quoting your holy book to support your claims. The Bible is not evidence, just like Dianetics is not evidence for Xenu and or what he does or wants or can do etc.

Would a good person stand by and watch as someone did something evil to another person? Would you do that?

Seemingly senseless suffering? Do tell.

[XHopelessRomanticX]

Let me ask you this: Did you ask the question to seek truth or discredit faith?

[AndrésC64]

I asked the question to see if someone could explain this to me. Can you?

[XHopelessRomanticX]

Thank you for responding, I would love to be able to discuss this! Can I first ask why you don't believe the Bible is a credible source?

[AndrésC64]

Why don't you believe the book of Mormon as a credible source? Dianetics? The Vedas? I don't consider your holy book is a credible source for the same reason you don't hold these books as credible sources. Because there's no reason to think that they are credible.

[XHopelessRomanticX]

Okay, I see where you're coming from. So let's take God and Scripture out of the equation for a moment. How do we define good and evil? What is morality, where does it come from, and why are human beings the only species on earth that have a morality problem of this magnitude?

Take toddlers for example. Have you ever been around toddlers before? Despite what any parent will tell you, little kids are not angels. They kick, scream, bite, throw tantrums, and... they lie. But no sane parent ever teaches their child to behave that way. No good parent ever teaches their child to lie, yet little kids know how to lie from the moment they know how to talk.

This brings me back to what I was saying before about there being no "good" people. If human beings are capable of doing evil from such a young age, then it's probably safe to say that humans are not naturally good.

[AndrésC64]

In a very basic sense, I would describe morality as the rules and guidelines that we as humans agreed to abide by. And humans aren't the only animals to display morality.

Yes, children can be dicks. And a good parent never stops correcting them and actually tries to intercede and prevent them from being dicks. Especially when it comes to things that are life and death.

Humans may or may not be naturally good, just like children. And no sane parent would stand by and watch as one child viciously beat and raped another child. I'm sure if you have or had children, you would be sane enough to try to protect your child from being beaten and raped, even from another one of your children. But God chooses not to. God chooses to sit by and watch as his children beat and rape each other. Why?

[XHopelessRomanticX]

Here's where our discussion comes to a standstill: you want me to leave the Bible out of it. I'm sure you believe that by leaving Scripture out of the conversation we'll be starting on neutral ground. However, this is not neutral ground. Christians stand on the Word of God—it is our foundation and everything we believe and how we live is based on what it says. I could easily turn this around and ask you to disprove God, but only after discarding your own ideas and using nothing but the Bible. I am in no way implying that Christians give up thinking when they believe the Bible; in fact, the opposite is true. We use the Bible because it is God’s Word and is our foundation. However, it seems as if your reasoning is based solely on your own intellect and not God’s Word. The argument isn't you against me and my reasoning, it's you against God and His reasoning.

[AndrésC64]

Well I'm glad you admit that you are biased and have your mind made up before you even start the discussion. That really makes discussion pointless.

I don't need to disprove your God any more than you need to disprove Zeus, Xenu, or my invisible pet dragon. The person who claims that something exists has the burden of providing evidence for that claim.

And you still haven't answered the original question. Are you ever going to try?

[XHopelessRomanticX]

Do I believe that life is unfair? Absolutely. Do I see evil people doing evil things to good people? Yes, every single day. Do I believe that God has the ability to stop those evil deeds from occurring? Absolutely. Do I believe that God choosing to allow the evil person to endure makes Him evil as well? No. Because I believe in a God who does not show partiality. I believe in a God who loves the evil person just as much as the good person, because they are His child too. I believe in a God who's kindness and love is made available to the evil person in the hope that the evil person may come to repentance. Because I believe in a merciful God. But I also believe this same God is a just God. I believe there will be glory, honor, and eternal life for the one who does good. I believe that there will be tribulation for the person who does not turn away from doing evil. Unless the evil man turns away from his wickedness and clings to what is good, I believe he stores up wrath for himself. I believe there will come a day when all must give an account for their lives, and God will deal with each one of His children accordingly.

If standing firm on the foundation of my beliefs and everything that I hold true makes me biased, then yes, I am very biased.

But you've proven yourself to be biased too. I see the replies you've made to other people's comments, both here and on other posts. Anyone who responds with an answer reminiscent of their faith, you've reacted with some form of anger or frustration. But anyone who answers along the lines of "God doesn't exist" or "God is not necessary" or "God is evil" you give them a high-five or a pat on the back. How come you don't ask any of those people how they came to their conclusions?

[sawno]

Free will is the highest regard, so they are allowed to do what they want to.
They do interfere or help heal, but they can't prevent evil beings from doing evil things since its also their universal right to excersise their own will (Of course with consequences).

[menina]

I know, right? I wondered about that several times. If God exists, that doesn't make any sense.

[anylolone]

Because there's no such thing as good if there's no such thing as evil.
And if there's no way to discern value then there's no such thing as consciousness.

If everything gets better, the bar of what makes evil is lowered.

It's essentially like asking "why don't we know everything?" well, because if we knew everything we wouldn't ask question which we know not the answer to, which means we would not need consciousness and self-awareness to make choices.

[call_me_scar]

Well in the midevil times you could buy your way into heaven and his business just expanded from that point to the point where you can just buy a get out of smite card all for God's greed

[jackohudson]

Sadly, there is no God. Just a human invention to try explain things that couldnt be explained prior to science. Religion has caused more misery and division in the world than just about anything else. We would be blessed if people realised this and just stopped believing in these religious fairytales

[SunnyCaliGirl]

Because God gave people a free will and is says he judges the just and unjust. Meaning everyone gets judgment

[AndrésC64]

So God just sits by and watch as children get raped. Cool. Is that what you would do if you have children? Let some of your children rape other children of yours, and then punish them afterwards? Wouldn't it be a better idea just to stop the rape in the first place? Do you think that the child being raped is able to exercise their free will? I don't think so. Yet God doesn't seem to mind that. He seems to care more about the free will of the rapist.

[XHopelessRomanticX]

Every human being on Earth has a choice; to trust and follow what God says is good, or to seize the opportunity to define what is good for ourselves. When you understand free will, the question isn't "Why does God allow child rape to happen?" But rather "Why do WE allow child rape to happen?" You know rape is evil, I know rape is evil. How come the rapist doesn't see it as evil? How come so many people know that rape is evil and yet do nothing about it?

[AndrésC64]

No. The question is not why do we allow child rape to happen. Because we are not always able to stop it. God on the other hand, is, and he chooses to simply let it happen. So my question again is why does God choose to allow people to rape children? Is that what you would do?

[all_hayl]

You might check out Isaiah 55:8-9. Doesn’t matter what we would do. We’re not God.

[XXblack88]

Cause he gave us free will. Not everyone is going to use it for good

[AndrésC64]

And if you not only knew that someone was going to use it for evil, but you actually saw them using it for evil, would you stop it? Would you stand by and watch as some of your children raped other children of yours? Would you just say "Well, I did give them free will. I'll let them go ahead and rape that child and then I'll punish them, rather than simply just stopping the rape in the first place."

[XXblack88]

Free will doesn't mean there no consequences. Personally if I had a kid that raped someone I would call the cops. I would try to stop it if I could.

[AndrésC64]

You would call the cops and or do your best to stop it from happening, but God doesn't. Why?

[XXblack88]

@AndrésC64 and. God can he's not a genie thou.

[AndrésC64]

Apparently he's less powerful than ingenie. A genie I can simply rub a lamp and there he is. God, although he's supposed to be omnipresent, which makes him present as his children rape and beat each other, does nothing to stop it.

[XXblack88]

You made it obvious you don't believe in God so why are you asking so many questions about him? I'm just curious

[AndrésC64]

Trying to see what other people think and how they can rationalize their beliefs.

[XXblack88]

@AndrésC64 ok I understand that. That's no different then a Christian wanting to understand someone's non beliefs.

[AndrésC64]

I can agree with that. But can you understand that from my point of view, Christianity is every bit as silly as Scientology and their belief in Xenu, the extraterrestrial ruler of a "Galactic Confederacy" who brought billions of his people to Earth (then known as "Teegeeack") in DC-8-like spacecraft 75 million years ago, stacked them around volcanoes, and killed them with hydrogen bombs?

Doesn't it actually blow your mind that people can believe this kind of absurd stuff? Now imagine living in a country where the vast majority of people believe this, and are constantly trying to force those beliefs on everyone else in the country.

[AndrésC64]

*hydrogen bombs

Isn't it really mind-boggling that people can believe such silly stuff as Xenu? Now imagine living in a country where the vast majority of people believe in Xenu, and people pass laws based on their beliefs in Xenu.

[XXblack88]

I can understand were someone such as yourself would see Christianity as silly/ wired.

[AndrésC64]

Thanks. It is truly mind-boggling for me that people believe it. They want to believe that there is a God and we are His children and he loves us, but all they have to do is look out the window to see that this can't be true. I could make this world a much better place in less than the blink of an eye, but God doesn't. That makes me better than God. God sits around and watches his children suffer. That is not the sign of a good parent. Hell, that's not even the sign of a good human let alone a god.

[XXblack88]

@AndrésC64 I'm stuck in my ways but I don't believe in forcing my beliefs down other people's throats. From a non believer pov I'm sure it's silly.

[Alexandrubaschet08]

Because God let evry person suffer the qonsecuences of theyr own action, the punishment will 100% come in this life and/or in to the afther life.

[all_hayl]

Do you think you’re a good person?

[Calenderagressive]

Because life is just a big joke

[MrJMM]

Because free will and doesn’t interact.

[MrJMM]

If he was real.

[msc545]

why not?

[AndrésC64]

Isn't he supposed to be our father? Isn't he supposed to be the good guy? Would you just watch as one of your children was raped by another one of your children?

[msc545]

It's the "supposed to be" part that makes your answer weak.

[AndrésC64]

Are parents supposed to care love for and protect their children? Do you have any children? Would you stand by and watch as one of your children beat and raped another one of your children?

[msc545]

You are simply creating improbably hypotheticals. This is a question about allowing or not allowing certain things.