Religion makes itself feel better about innocent suffering by condoning it - the tendency to condone suffering is universal

 

Religion fools people by making out that though it is hard to fit God and evil together the fact remains that God opposes evil totally and has nothing at all to do with it.  God makes all things but they say this does not mean that God creates evil.

During the Covid 19 pandemic, it was found that horror film fans who had a regular dose of their favourite viewing felt less fear and stress. The horror story of Jesus' death, the horror story of Hell, the horror story of Satan, probably did the same thing in Christian circles.  And does.  But as we are not islands, the Christians are spreading a dangerous lack of fear.  Fear warns and sometimes it is needed.  Christians have always done that and then innocents suffered.

 

Christians who see the terrible things that happen such as famine and plague and dying children and who see it is not possible to blame humans for it except in some cases may be treating this as a horror film and using it to feel less fear and stress.  The miracle of how you can feel that good about something that could happen to you can be explained by thinking, "God has been great so far to me so why should that not continue?  I'm safe."

Christians say that evil is not a thing or power but a lack.  It is good not being good enough.  But if good can be bad that is far worse than evil being a power.  Poison that looks good is worse than poison that looks like excrement.  Good being bad is worse than evil being a power.  Thus belief in God is inherently immoral because it denies that God being good can create evil.  Eradicating evil matters more than what you think evil is and it is the truth that seeing evil as a power is the best to drive people to battle evil.

 

It is bad in itself to condone the evil of God or religion or whatever.  The bigger the evil the worse your condoning is.  As God is the maker of all, it follows that it is better to risk condoning what Hitler did than what God did.  You need a good long complex explanation as to why you should not condone.  The risk of condoning is bad in itself too.  If you take a chance that is wrong as well.

Why are we drawn emotionally and other ways to helping a baby that falls down a well while if we had the power of magic to go to starving children in Africa and feed them for a week we would not use it?  This shows that even acts that are labelled as altruistic and other-interested in fact are more selfish than one lets on.  It shows how rare real other-interest is.  The inconsistency of human nature is a bigger trait than anything else.  We can ask about that and then ask if human nature is generally other-regarding or selfish.

 

Freud showed that if human nature wants to do something that is considered unacceptable and suppresses it will lead to them doing worse perhaps before they realise it.  If people want to see others suffer and repress that it will come out as wanting a God to hurt others.  The more they say it is justified the more they are showing their repression.

 

Many defenders of the existence of a loving God in the face of evil have been caught lying.  Christian apologist Timothy Keller for example altered and misquoted a philosophy paper (Alston) to make it look like any argument against God from evil was bankrupt.  Even believers would have to admit that somebody using such tactics is very callous for suffering is very real and he will condone it even if it is definitive proof that a loving God does not exist. 

 

Keller wrote, "Just because you can’t see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn’t mean there can’t be one” (page 23, The Reason for God).  So he admits that if he became God or got God's powers that he would send rabid dogs to devour human babies just like God would.  The "can't be one" is not the issue - the question is does the evidence favour the possibility?  That shows Keller is just regurgitating a chimera!!

  

Believers in God deny that God is to blame for the evil and suffering in the world and lay the blame with human beings misusing the free will that God gave them. To say anything different would be to say that God is evil or at least has no concept of morality for evil by definition is that which should not exist or be tolerated. If God uses evil for a purpose he uses it because we force him to need it. To imagine that we create evil and force God to have a plan to deal with it that can be a very painful plan is pure misanthropism. It is a very very serious accusation and needs to be seen as such. People who would accuse you would just as easily pretend to care when they think God is letting evil befall you.

 

PEOPLE GET BLAMED JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT TO BELIEVE IN GOD

 

Religion says when evil and suffering happen they are permitted by God.  What does permitted mean?  It means that God does not miraculously intervene to stop the evil and suffering.  They happen not because the fault is in him so the fault is in us.  Religion does not reason what a God would or wouldn't allow.  No it looks at evil and suffering and it cannot deny they exist.  So it ends up thinking, "Evil and suffering exist and are brute facts so we must make them fit our God theory."  The cart is before the horse and that would be laughable only it is real people who suffer and die and who are degraded by religion's nonsense.  The cart before the horse is simply condoning.

 

Belief is not the same as trust.  To condone evil so you can believe in God is dreadful and worse than doing it because you want to trust.  It is turning people's real pain into ammunition for a theory.

 

TRANSLATION

 

Is to say God has a plan when people suffer, no matter how much,  to say:

 

+ I am so good as a person that I choose to see the good in all that happens. (Arrogance and refusing to look at the picture realistically - you cannot just push the evil into the background)

 

+ I am so good I am in a position to judge what is good. (Arrogance)

 

+ I am better than the person who does not see the good. (Arrogant and judgmental)

 

+ The person who sees no good in their suffering is making it worse by not seeing and looking for the hand of God. (Arrogant and judgmental)

 

+ They are at risk of misleading or not guiding others. (Arrogant and judgmental)

 

+ If they cannot see the good then I can. (Arrogant and judgmental)

 

It is saying one or any number of these things.  Human nature can say one thing but you need to see into their minds to know exactly what they mean!!

 

THE BRAIN PLAYS TRICKS WITH PAIN

 

People can suffer something terrible. The seemingly same thing can happen.  It may in many ways actually be worse.  And yet they don’t seem to be in as much agony this time. They are not.  Their psychological state is not as devastated as you would expect or as would be natural. The reason is that the brain has ways of learning to enjoy enough of it of it enough. There is no pain. Pain is a collective word for pains. So it is very complicated.

 

There is something deceptive in how pain is a warning sign and the brain does that with it.

 

That is one issue.

 

The other issue is that when your pain is down to the pain others suffer, you hate to see them suffer and it hurts you, the same enjoyment is going to creep in. It definitely creeps in quicker.

 

God designed this if he exists so how against evil is he?

 

People may feel that God uses the suffering.  That comes across as an effort then to enjoy it in some way.

 

OTHERS NOT ME

 

The way we all feel that bad things happen to others not us is a form of condoning. You are telling the illnesses and miseries to go to other people and thus that you have nothing to fear from them.  You talk as if you believe God gives you protection he will not give to others.  An atheist doing this may not realise she is doing God-talk.

 

CONCLUSION

 

Faithful people have no right to ask us to think they don't care enough about evil which allows them to think it reconciles with God's love.  The dark side of human nature always gets an outlet.  Believers can work hard for suffering people.  They will not be able to help them all.  Caring about those who you can help and downgrading the suffering of others just because you cannot help them is ugly.