This is an interesting discussion. I'll add more of my take...
What kind of God lets you suffer and say wulp, something good will come out of this.
I don't know. The worlds best minds have tried to answer this question for ages. I'm not sure anyone knows.
What I do know is that God, the God that the bible talks about, is a God who decided to join us in it. The God of the bible is the story of a God who gave up heaven, was born to the poorest of the poor, to sleep in a feeding trough, as a baby, was reliant on humans to care for him. Then his family had to run and be refugees in another country... He grew into a man who had a pretty ordinary job. He was surrounded by death and despair. He was misunderstood and hated. He was despised and abandoned by his family, friends, and the religious elites of his day. He hung out with the people of his day who were most despised and downtrodden. He touched leapers. That's a little like touching an Ebola victim. He touched them. He hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors and the lowest of the low. He hung out with women who couldn't even testify in court. He died a really brutal death...
...and He conquered death itself. He didn't make death and pain and suffering go away. He conquered it.
It's the most important thing about Christianity. Without it, I don't think Christianity makes a whole lot of sense.
If your version of faith was preventing you from going out and enjoying the world, hells bells, I'd dump it too.
The bible agrees with you. 1 Corinthians states: "If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied" and "what value was there in fighting wild beasts--those people of Ephesus--if there will be no resurrection from the dead? And if there is no resurrection, "Let's feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!" The whole book of Ephesians talks about how "life is meaningless..." (It's a really depressing book.)
But that's not where the story ends.
I've known more than a few people of faith- if you will- who love to talk about how God gave us free will, but then decline to use that gift of free will by attributing bad things to God testing them and good things to being blessed. Why do they not choose to use their gift of free will to try to reduce some of the world's ills and suffering or even choose to reduce some of their own? I've wondered about this... I've asked too, but my question was not well received.
I think it's a great question. I lot of people of faith are doing a lot of good in the world, and I will say, many are not. Some people who claim to be people of faith are doing evil things... (doubt they realy believe but instead maybe just find religion/self-righteousness as a salve for their very twisted souls.)
I have been really hurt by the church and people who fail... so badly. (I screw up quite often myself. I don't know that I do anything good in the world myself... but that's a whole other topic... ) One thing that I have heard it said is that the church is like a hospital - it is for the sick. the broken. the weary. the f*ck-ups and failures. In fact, throughout the bible, God picks people who are really the lowest of the low.... but He uses them to accomplish good things. Not that the bad stuff is good or that the bad stuff is worth it - maybe it is. I don't know. What I do know is that God's really super into redemption and using broken people and making them better than they were if they had never been broken in the first place. God doesn't really answer why have all this pain and suffering and brokenness and stupid people who don't try to do anything good in life... but God does deal with it all from a long term redemption perspective.
The God of the bible actually really agrees that religious people seem to sometimes do the worst things. In fact, Christ's strongest words of condemnation were for the religious elites of his day who talked a good talk, but by their actions showed no faith. They were hypocrites. To Christ, that was the WORST thing. (uh, yeah, not the whole homosexuality thing - which many believe isn't even in the bible at all - but yeah. it wasn't that, even though some wrongfully try to make it out like it was.) Christ didn't start overturn tables until he got into the temple and saw people screwing around with the poor.
It gives me a little comfort to know God is a God who gets it, like really gets it. He's been there.
To me, the only thing that makes faith in God make sense is an eternal perspective.
Don't get me wrong, I don't believe in God just because the bible says so. It's not that simple for me. I have studied science to a high level, and I have studied a lot about the overlap between science and religion. It's part of what brought me to faith. Yeah, science. Go figure.
@Sonic - if what is leading you to this existential questioning right now is that believing in God and pursuing a life of drug use and abuse
without trying to quit are not consistent with each other... then yeah, I would say you probably have to choose one or the other. But, it's not because God only likes people who are sober or people who can manage to win the really serious battle against addiction. God doesn't see you as the failure you described yourself as in another thread in your prayer to God. You are not a horrible person. Even if you keep battling addiction and keep failing, that's really ok. God hasn't left you. You have been trying to cope with seriously deep pain and trauma. You can choose to leave him, and frankly there are lots of times where I really struggle with deep doubts myself. I hope you keep reaching out though, to God and here and other places where there are safe people who can help you deal with some of what you are battling with right now. I hope you are doing alright. :hug:
Those are some of my thoughts. Take them for what they may be worth (which may not be much! lol)
