I have often heard people say that they don’t believe in a God because He didn’t come to help them in a certain tragic situation. It’s like they personify God and expect Him to appear out of nowhere to save them every time they’re in trouble.
“My mum died of cancer, I prayed but He didn’t listen. How could He?!”
“I was raped and God wasn’t there to help, God isn’t real”
“How could a loving God let so many innocent people die in natural disasters?”
etc etc…
How do you respond to these arguments? Surely no one deserves to be raped, so why does God allow it to happen?
Life's tragedies and mishaps are what make life, LIFE. I know that when a person hits some downtime, its hard for them to think straight but questioning the existence of God because he did not show up when so many people died is not a valid argument against the existence of God.
Why God did not show up to save when all of his prophet's were dying? In fact some of them, like Jesus died a pretty injustice death. Jesus's death brought more people closer to God and formed one of the biggest (in fact the biggest) religion of all times.
In fact some of them, like Jesus died a pretty injustice death. Jesus's death brought more people closer to God and formed one of the biggest (in fact the biggest) religion of all times.
Extremely Wrong Example for the Right Answer.
Jesus has not died yet. He is alive and will return back at the end of time. This is one of the fundamental beliefs of Muslims that differentiates them from certain non-Muslim groups who claimed to be Muslim such as Qadyanis/Ahmedis.
well... the way most religions play this card is - this is a reminder of how unreliable this world you enjoy is, none of this is permanent or real. your loved one and you have been through suffering, and so have you. this tests and cleanses your souls/earns you extra rewards in afterlife where you will be reunited with said person.
Jesus has not died yet. He is alive and will return back at the end of time. This is one of the fundamental beliefs of Muslims that differentiates them from certain non-Muslim groups who claimed to be Muslim such as Qadyanis/Ahmedis.
I guess what TLK meant was Jesus AS didn't die but the people who formed the religion believed he did.
I meant 'died' in worldly sense and at least to the people who were there to attend his execution, that was a death. Supporters of jesus at that time did not turn away from God after seeing that injustice.
well... the way most religions play this card is - this is a reminder of how unreliable this world you enjoy is, none of this is permanent or real. your loved one and you have been through suffering, and so have you. this tests and cleanses your souls/earns you extra rewards in afterlife where you will be reunited with said person.
its not a card that they play. its a mental peace people get from the thought of 'judgment day'. What is wrong in believing that justice will be served one day even if that day comes after you die. And just because there is a 'judgment day' does not mean that you are not allowed to seek worldly justice for all the crimes that you may be victim of. Judgment day provides an extra layer of peace.
The way to answer this should be done from a number of different angles:
a) If God is Perfect and He has Promised to give us freedom of choice then we should be aware that there will be people out there who will exercise that freedom which may breach the rights of others. If God intervened then where is the freedom? And in times when destiny had to be played out it did and there was nothing that people could do about it.
b) We need God not the other way round. If we protest against our fate by declaring disbelief in God it will not help our situation.
c) After every difficulty there is ease - show people how God answers people by making the aftermath of their trials easy to bear and how He sends "time" to heal their wounds.
d) Yes - also the argument that queer is familiar with - this life is but a test - true suffering will only be experienced in the hereafter by those who were not fortunate enough to be with God.
e) Everyone dies whether they die of cancer or not is irrelevant. People are time bombs waiting to go off. To get cancer ones death is brought close to their mind in that time they can devote themselves to sincere worship and have their sins forgiven and their close ones can psychologically come to terms with it. The only shortfall is that this life may be shorter than expected. But then how long are each of us supposed to live?
f) By definition God is more loving to us than a mother to her child, He would do a lot to save us from Hellfire which is a horrible abode indeed. So horrible that if you had the worst possible affliction in this life we would choose it 1000 times over spending an iota in that place.
g) Why do we ask from God when we are need of Him, if we were not helped when in danger we should ask ourselves were we sincere with Him when we were in relative safety? Did we seek protection from Satan in every action we took and in every place we ventured?