Theology discussion with a 4 year old.
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I haven’t found that religious scholars have much more insight into the theodicy question than the average 4 year old.
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@jon-nyc I told D1 that this is a question that theologians have been asking for at least a millennium and a half: "Why does God allow bad things to happen." Nevertheless, I found it fascinating that my 4 ½ year old granddaughter asked that exact question. This is not something which would have entered my mind at that age.
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@Larry said in Theology discussion with a 4 year old.:
I don't know why anyone would think theologians have any trouble with that question, because the answer is very simple, and you don't need to be a theologian to explain it. Crack open a bible to the book of Genesis and start reading.
She responded with the story of Noah.
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OT's God's not very nice, IMHO. Insecure. Anybody who gave him insufficient amounts of worship tends to end up biting the big one in a myriad of extremely unpleasant ways.
He gives us free will, and the instant we elect to use it, pillar of salt time.
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What is the nature of evil according to the Bible?
Did god create evil? Satan, Lucifer? (Can angels choose evil)
How is god not implicated in the original sin - since he created the beings capable of being corrupted?
Genuinely curious about the theological explanation.
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@Larry said in Theology discussion with a 4 year old.:
That was like a man blind from birth describing the color of the sky....
No, I'm just joking around.
I could give genuine examples of things that have happened to make people that I know lose their faith, but in all seriousness I tend to get angry about them, so I kind of like to keep things light-hearted.
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@xenon said in Theology discussion with a 4 year old.:
What is the nature of evil according to the Bible?
Did god create evil? Satan, Lucifer? (Can angels choose evil)
How is god not implicated in the original sin - since he created the beings capable of being corrupted?
Genuinely curious about the theological explanation.
Read a good discussion on Job and get back to me.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Theology discussion with a 4 year old.:
@Larry said in Theology discussion with a 4 year old.:
That was like a man blind from birth describing the color of the sky....
No, I'm just joking around.
I could give genuine examples of things that have happened to make people that I know lose their faith, but in all seriousness I tend to get angry about them, so I kind of like to keep things light-hearted.
It's common for people to blame God or to lose their faith when things don't go the way they think they should go. "Why did God take my loved one?" "Why did God let ______ happen?" But God didn't do it. God doesn't go around killing people, or causing bad things to happen, or just allowing things to happen. One can either blame God, or take the time to learn why bad things happen.
The answer: one of the most beautiful things about the bible is that many books, written over thousands of years by lots of different people, each book dealing with completely different things - all fit together to create one common thread of truth - Why we are here, what happened to separate man from God, and what the plan is to reconcile man with God again.
So when I hear people talking about how this or that terrible thing happened so they lost their faith, I don't blame God. I see it for what it is - people of weak faith using it as an excuse.