Questioning God? Think life is unfair?

[Emily~Anne]

Some of these questions being asked seemed to neglect the fact that God is above us and that we will never be God, therefore we can never understand ALL of his ways. When something bad happens, I do not curse God for it. I KNOW God is a WONDERFUL & VERY LOVING God though I may not understand all his ways. He wouldn't be God if he had to check with us first on everything. His ways are beyond our ways. I do not feel a need to "approve" of God's ways. That is not my place. I am so glad HE is God and not me! (There's a scary thought! lol) And when I do suffer on this earth because of certain people who are cold and callous and greedy, I just thank God that we have such an amazing and wonderful God, and that none of us are God. We are faillible, unknowing, mortal beings, how silly for any of us to think we are above Him and demand an answer!

Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.", declares the lord. As heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Now, when something good happens, I praise God!!!!! Every good and perfect gift is from God himself. Surely Satan is not capable of any good (only what is DECEPTIVELY good) We all depend on God in one way or another.

John 1:3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made.

James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Look at every single good thing you have and PRAISE GOD FOR IT! Can you walk? Can you make yourself a meal? Do you have food in the house? Do you have a computer to sit at and read this? Do you have any children? Do you have a roof over your head? Do you have clean air to breathe? Surely there is SOMETHING in your life to be grateful for, well PRAISE GOD for that!

My life used to be so messed up. I did not put my faith in God. Tried to do it all myself. And it was a mess and I was hurting and in such agony. Out of desperation, I cried out to God and devoted my whole heart and soul to him and made it my new goal to do my very best to do what God wanted me to do. And you know what? By aiming to please God, he was able to bless me to the fullest. All those boring 'rules' that we may not like are what really is best for us. He is our FATHER. We are his CHILDREN. I can do so much more for my children if they are obedient. The same applies to our Heavenly Father.

God does not 'force' us to be obedient though. We have free will and so yes, we may not have justice here on earth. But that wonderful glorious day God calls me home to heaven it will all even out.

By the way, all the suffering I have endured, I praise God so much for that, because through those difficult times, the Lord brought me close to him. And close to him I shall remain!

Edited November 6, 2006 by Emily Anne

[elkieDannsa' Air An Drochaid]

AMEN!!!

[Ovedya]

Atheists, by definition, cannot believe life is unfair.

"Fairness" is a judgment of intelligent decisions and purposeful actions. For instance, the ruling of a court can be unfair. Any human decision can. But we do not call the climate "unfairly" cold; that would imply that someone or something decided the temperature. And atheists don't believe in such things.

I do not think life is unfair. Of course life is differentially pleasurable for different people but, as an agnostic, I don't seek to blame this discrepancy on any kind of intelligent authority. It's just the way it is. The natural world has no innate idea of fairness, so it would be foolish for me to impose that idea on the natural world.

However, if we do think the qualities of the world are purposefully determined by an intelligent being, let's say God, then fairness comes into play. Then, taking life and the world for face value, things certainly do seem unfair. However, as Ayin Jade said, we do not know how God plans to rectify (or justify) these inequities in the end.

The "qualities of the world" are the natural consequences of the fall of man. They are the result of the incurable human condition. So if anything determined to be "fair" or "unfair" it should be inherently flawed and subject to personal interpretation. For example, for someone to call God "evil" because he ordered the deaths of what are perceived as "innocents" should be erroneous, because he is subjecting God to his own standard of "fairness."

[allmylove4ugrowsdeeper]

AMEN!!!

Double Amen!

[sweetycakes]

Of course life seems unfair to us sometimes. It happens to all of us. Even when we are well blessed we think we should have more.

But, as I often say to my daughter, who is in almost constant pain with her spine:

You will never be top of the pile, but you will never be bottom of the pile, either.

There are always many more people in a worse condition than we are. I think we easily become too complacent, and are too ready to murmer.

St. Paul said that we should seek to be content in all circumstances, since our confidence rests on God, not on what we have, in terms of material possessions or friends, etc.

We all have our troubles and problems, but I think that we have become so blind to how well we are actually blessed, that we often fail to take into account the things that we should be thankful for.

And these are many.

Remember the saying, "Count your blessings"?

I truly believe that if we were to count our blessings, we would have no time left within our day to moan and complain about the things we are dissatisfied with in our lives.

Try it.

It is not without reason that God tells us in His word that His will for us is to be thankful in all circumstances.

[sweetycakes]

As I said before:

Try it.

Try from now to start counting your blessings.

You will still be counting them when you fall asleep tonight!

Something I've found: There is ALWAYS something to thank God for. Even in our darkest hour.

I admit that I don't myself always adhere to this principle, but whenever I do, I find it to be true.

Amazing, eh???

[sweetycakes]

I think, considering my depraved sinful self, that it is quite unfair that I am still alive and ticking, when by all reasonable accounts, I should be roasting in hell like a marshmallow right now.

Speaking for myself, I can certainly identify with you on that, WSB.

[stitchy]

Amen, Emily!

I have a good friend at the moment who suffers horribly from depression. Seeing his attitude, and hearing the way he talks and thinks about the world, reminds me of how far I have come. I used to be exactly like him. He thinks the entire world is against him. It's very sad. He focuses only on the negative and never the positive things in his life. It's as if those things don't matter. I try to explain that he is thinking in the wrong way, and I always use myself as an example when I'm talking to him, but he just does not understand. He can't comprehend what I'm saying. It's frustrating and upsetting at the same time.

However, after years of being in the darkness, God has brought me into the light and is fixing my life every day. I've realised now that bad things DO happen, but it is for a reason, and there is no way I can ever expect to understand God's ways. I'm not even worthy of that.

I am trying to lead my friend back to God, but he still doesn't seem to be listening. I know that God has plans for him though. I believe God will save him.

[Ovedya]

The "qualities of the world" are the natural consequences of the fall of man. They are the result of the incurable human condition. So if anything determined to be "fair" or "unfair" it should be inherently flawed and subject to personal interpretation. For example, for someone to call God "evil" because he ordered the deaths of what are perceived as "innocents" should be erroneous, because he is subjecting God to his own standard of "fairness."

And that is exactly why I believe secular morality is more meaningful than theistic morality. Let's just say, hypothetically, God was one nasty dude. He created us, but he also enjoyed hurting us. But because this nasty God would determine "fairness", we could not call him nasty. Secular morality, on the other hand, sees acts as being moral and immoral based on their intentions or their effects, not the ex cathedra pronunciations of a creator God.

This, to me, is more honest than simply obeying (a book's claims about) a celestial dictator.

Secular morality is purely subject to the individual's determination of what is right/wrong; fair/unfair; there is no standard to follow. Plus, being flawed int he first place, human morality can never be the basis by which humans can judge God. So either God is the standard or flawed humanity is the standard.

[Guest mapletechie]

The "qualities of the world" are the natural consequences of the fall of man. They are the result of the incurable human condition. So if anything determined to be "fair" or "unfair" it should be inherently flawed and subject to personal interpretation. For example, for someone to call God "evil" because he ordered the deaths of what are perceived as "innocents" should be erroneous, because he is subjecting God to his own standard of "fairness."

And that is exactly why I believe secular morality is more meaningful than theistic morality. Let's just say, hypothetically, God was one nasty dude. He created us, but he also enjoyed hurting us. But because this nasty God would determine "fairness", we could not call him nasty. Secular morality, on the other hand, sees acts as being moral and immoral based on their intentions or their effects, not the ex cathedra pronunciations of a creator God.

This, to me, is more honest than simply obeying (a book's claims about) a celestial dictator.

Secular morality is purely subject to the individual's determination of what is right/wrong; fair/unfair; there is no standard to follow. Plus, being flawed int he first place, human morality can never be the basis by which humans can judge God. So either God is the standard or flawed humanity is the standard.

Does reality care about human desire?

If you accidently spill hot water on yourself, will it appeal to your desire not to burn?

Reality has no emotion and is not always what is ideal to humans.

Just because objective morality and eternal justice and fairness in the end are ideal to you as a human, doesn't mean that reality conforms to it. The same way when someone jumps out of a high-rise because of a fire, gravity doesn't conform to their desire to live.

Edited November 7, 2006 by mapletechie