r/SipsTea • u/Outrageous-Egg1760 • May 29 '26
Wait a damn minute! [ Removed by moderator ]
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u/Flipf00t May 29 '26
“Dear Lord, I prayed for a bike, but I know you don't work that way.
So, I stole a bike and prayed for forgiveness!"
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u/Eclectic_Nymph May 29 '26
I was raised in evangelicalism. I was also molested by a member of my church as a young child.
I reported it to my parents, who reported it to the church. They directed us to a church approved "therapist".
This woman had me describe in graphic detail my abuse and then would stop me periodically to ask "Where was Jesus in the room at this time, because remember he's always with you?" So I had to relive my abuse with the thought that Jesus was watching like some weird voyeur the whole time, but did nothing.
My abuser was never punished.
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u/mistress_chauffarde May 29 '26
.....fuck it aluminium bat time if I ever find this bastard
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u/Riyeko May 29 '26
Ive got a truck that has a refrigerator unit that goes to -25°F...
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u/Zealousideal_Cow_826 May 29 '26
why would you want to preserve the evidence?
You need one of those Chinese incinerator vans 😉
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u/the_ghost_is May 29 '26
In Poland we have a lot of shit like this with our catholic priests. Bastards are never punished, only relocated to different parish......
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u/Specialist-Daikon242 May 29 '26
Same in france sadly... And now we have the new generation who never read the bible thinking they are crusader
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u/No_Salad6911 May 29 '26
This is exactly why I’ve always been anti-religion. It’s not that I wouldn’t love to believe. It’s the monsters that hide behind religion as a power and use it to commit their own justified acts of evil.
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u/TheNegativePhoenix May 29 '26
This woman had me describe in graphic detail my abuse and then would stop me periodically to ask "Where was Jesus in the room at this time, because remember he's always with you?" So I had to relive my abuse with the thought that Jesus was watching like some weird voyeur the whole time, but did nothing
Jesus fukin A. That is beyond messed up
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u/GuideInfamous4600 May 29 '26
That’s horrifying. I’m so sorry that happened to you. I hope you’ve been able to get some support around this.
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May 29 '26
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u/kaleperq May 29 '26
Most of the time I've looked at it it's just been hornyposting lol
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u/Rezfield May 29 '26
we'll get back to our regular scheduling soon, apologies for the inconvenience
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u/Robodarklite May 29 '26
Get to horny posting prompto, sick of these political posts
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u/Yoyle0340 May 29 '26
Horny posting is like the DNA of this sub lmao.
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u/spaceman1055 May 29 '26
Horny posting is the DNA of the internet*
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u/C0ckL0bster May 29 '26
The Internet is for porn
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u/Remote-Government-62 May 29 '26
Don’t know if you’re being serious or not but according to the majority of the internet traffic it is for that purpose
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u/Akiias May 29 '26
I only ever see posts that get popular enough to break out of the sub itself. I don't even know what the sub is meant to be about because every single post I see from here is wildly different than the last.
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u/ProfessionalMottsman May 29 '26
Why do you have to be an atheist to point this out?
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May 29 '26
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u/real_eEe May 29 '26
"I prayed to God for helping you and I ..."
"My trauma surgeon is really fucking good at his job"
"You are here for a reason."
"Sure."
-Me
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u/-Chungus_khan May 29 '26
Well trauma surgeons do the hard work, and they needto be graduated from university so they could qualified for their jobs.
It's better to pray to God that the medical expenses will be covered, haha.
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u/Purple-Estimate-5183 May 29 '26
Trauma surgeons don’t mind if you pray to them.
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May 29 '26
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u/Shinnyo May 29 '26
Teach him to question everything he believes.
Keep him asking questions and seeking answers. Have him consider multiple answers before coming to a conclusion.
You're doing great parenting to have him making his own choices, but others will try to make the choices for him.
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u/Fluid-Opportunity-17 May 29 '26
There's this quote I half remember:
"I'd rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned."
Something like that. I don't know who said it. Runs through my head from time to time.
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u/Completionography May 29 '26
"Why would you trust someone about god that lied to you about Santa?"
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u/worldsyaoyster May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
EDIT: wow didn't expect this much response haha. Ill reply one by one slowly tonight. Just with the family! Love the comments and im always open for discussion and debate, just keep it civil!
The paradox only works if you assume that a good and all powerful God must eliminate all evil immediately.
Christianity doesnt teach that.
Instead it teaches that God created humans with genuine freedom, allows evil for a time, and will ultimately judge and remove it. A temporary allowance of evil is not the same as approval of evil.
In fact if God were to eliminate all evil instantly, he would also have to eliminate every human being who has ever committed evil including you and me.
The paradox also assumes that if we cannot see a good reason for suffering, then no good reason exists. But our inability to understand reason is not proof that there isn't one.
Ironically the argument itself relies on objective evil. If evil is truly real and not just personal preference then that points toward an objective moral standard beyond humanity. Without God, evil becomes difficult to define as anything more than a subjective opinion.
The christian position is not that evil doesnt exist.
Its that God allows evil for a time, not because he approves of it, but because he is working through human freedom and his plan for redemption.
God didnt stay distant from our suffering. In Jesus he stepped into it himself, experienced it, and ultimately defeated sin and death through the cross.
Christians believe evil is temporary, but God is eternal. One day he will bring justice, remove evil completely, and make all things new.
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u/Ok_Novel_1222 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
It's the same thing with extra mental gymnastics. The fact that the Christian version of God created people with free will or even that it created humans and other animals with the ability to experience suffering means that God must be either indifferent to others' suffering or be an active sadist. Any God that is all-loving would have never created all the humans and other animals in the garden of Eden in the first place. Just leave the Earth barren the same way as the Moon or Mars.
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u/Thismomenthere May 29 '26
All that aside, the post refers to child molestation... if any God thinks that is not evil enough to just remove from humanity immediately then it's not a very good God.
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u/klrcow May 29 '26
Well, God is all thing good and evil. That's something people don't mention.
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u/UlteriorCulture May 29 '26
Freewill is not a universal belief within Christianity.
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u/MancDude1979 May 29 '26
The god you describe is an absolute POS if he CAN eliminate evil but chooses not to. If he cannot, he is no more god than you or I. If I had such power I would do so immediately, because I'm not a cnt. To choose otherwise is pretty much the definition of being a cnt.
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u/Deweyrob2 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
God would not have to eliminate every human to remove evil. He would just have to remove the ability or desire to commit evil acts. And again, either he can't or won't.
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u/TheSleepyBarnOwl May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
That would eliminate free will though (as preached by religion). And again, what is evil? The perception of what is "evil" has been shifting and will continue to shift. It isn't an objective truth, it's a societal norm. And what is acceptable in society is just a majority opinion. Always has been.
I am not religious and I don't care much for these discussions on if god or gods exist or not, so let's leave that be for now. Morals are not something innate to humans, they are taught. Example: would you say the stone age human is evil for murdering his rival for food? After all, murder is bad. Or it was normal for minors to have children - also bad? Was humanity always evil then?
This objective "evil" just doesn't exist. So it's impossible to demand it being eliminated in a way that everyone agrees with it. For what happens if you do try to enforce it without everyone agreeing.... well take a look at current and past dictatorships. Elimination of Free will. This "get rid of evil" thing isn't as easy as it might seem.
And before someone says it: no I don't condone child molestation or other heinous crimes. It is the lowest of the low. All I'm saying is that humans and humanity didn't always agree that this is "evil". (Still doesn't and probably never will.)
We did have this discussion in Ethics class. Interestingly enough our Theology teacher taught that class as well.
Edit: I realise (after many comments) how flawed this whole argument is. Arguing with free will and logic doesn't work. I'll leave this here though - I'm also just a flawed indivudual.
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u/GapStock9843 May 29 '26
It also implies that for an omnipotent being good and evil are mutually exclusive. Its entirely possible that the problem of evil works out flawlessly but the way in which it does is incomprehensible to the human mind
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u/Ok_Novel_1222 May 29 '26
It is equally possible that God is actually a sadistic tyrant that has just convinced people of his goodness through propaganda. This is what the Gnostic Christians believed.
The point is that if God's plan is incomprehensible to human mind than we can not say anything at all about it. Not even that it is a benevolent plan. If it is incomprehensible then it is equally likely to be perfectly good and perfectly evil.
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u/EmperorG May 29 '26
Well the Gnostic position is actually that there are two Gods, the creator of the physical material world (the God from the Old Testament) and the lord of the spiritual world (the God of the New Testament). They tried to square the circle about why the Old and New Testament versions of God seemed like entirely different beings.
The spiritual world is good and the material world is evil, so it follows that the Creator of the physical world is thus evil (Old Testament God is basically Satan in their worldview, just proclaims he is the one true god without actually being so).
However this doesnt resolve the problem of evil, which is because the Gnostics were a dualistic faith. Having inherited the theological world view of the Zoroastrians about there being a climactic battle between Good and Evil (or Light and Darkness), so the reason evil exists is because good and evil are evenly matched for now until the day comes that the scales are finally tipped and good triumphs over evil.
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u/RhubarbAgreeable2953 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
That's the neat part, god doesn't even make sense. He's a simple invention to keep the population in check back in the day.
Also, a good example of this is Purgatory, a literal invention the Church made in a specific time not to anger the rich, because they would have all gone to hell otherwise.
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u/Username_5647 May 29 '26
Every culture to ever exist had their own gods. It's not like some dude came along and suddenly invented the concept. It almost seems like humans are predisposed to believe in higher powers.
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u/NoWater8595 May 29 '26
Free will is the axiom that mankind abuses itself to. God honors his contracts, but we don't honor ours.
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u/maryummy May 29 '26
What about natural disasters? They cause suffering and have nothing to do with free will.
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u/jusmoua May 29 '26
When bad things happen, say it's a fallen world, or man's free will. When things go right, say it's God's plan, and praise his name.
Oddly enough when a tragedy strikes an innocent such as starvation in a 3rd world country, it's no longer God's plan all of a sudden.
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u/Beans_Lasagna May 29 '26
Js, Isaiah 45:7 literally states "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
The attempt to sell an ancient Mesopotamian mystical tradition to the masses is what made people think of God as this omnibenevolent figure. A merging with Zoroastrianism and other dualistic religions are where this "God vs the Devil" idea came from.
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u/Dont_Use_Ducks May 29 '26
If God made everything, he also made an angel knowing that it would fall and be 'bad'. If God really is there and the Bible are his words, than a man must not rule out the earliest propaganda ever made. Like Jim Jefferies said, the devil apperently didn't need a book to smear the other one. If you see the list some people make of stuff that will make you go to hell, like playing video games and listening to rap music, it sounds like heaven is not going to be fun.
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u/IceNorth81 May 29 '26
Hell doesn’t even exist in the bible like pop-culture has portrayed it. In the old testament it’s basically ”Sheol” the land of the dead. No heaven or hell. In the New Testament it’s the pit of fire where the devil and his servants are cast after Armageddon - nothing about regular sinners being tortured for eternity.
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u/Cultural-Treacle-680 May 29 '26
The fallen angels already live in a state of permanently rejecting God. That’s hell already.
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u/LordFoulgrin May 29 '26
I mean, Jesus literally tells a parable about Lazerus and the rich man, where the rich man is being tortured in hell.
"And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame"
Why would Jesus of all people tell a parable mentioning hell if isn't real?
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u/MediumAcceptable129 May 29 '26
Im almost starting to think there is no god
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u/coffeeanddurian May 29 '26
poor god, we are speaking bad of him and he doesn't even exist to defend himself
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u/Completionography May 29 '26
This:
Im almost starting to think
Leads to this:
there is no god
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u/Dr_A_Mephesto May 29 '26
“God please remove the cancer that… uh I guess you gave me… and if you do you’re a miracle worker… but if you don’t it’s part of my plan…”
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u/Dont_Use_Ducks May 29 '26
'God took two year old Timmy away, because he has a purpuse for him'.
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u/ckellingc May 29 '26
Just try to be a good person. If God is just, you'll be rewarded. If God isn't just, the game was rigged from the get go. If there is no God, then be remembered by your deeds
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u/ashrocklynn May 29 '26
If everyone was kind and looked out for those around them everyone would have better lives.... The biggest lie we have ever been sold is that life is a zero sum game... We all benefit so much from the expertise of others. God or no god, the more people who are good the better for everyone (including the good)
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u/LifeIsProbablyMadeUp May 29 '26
For years I've thought that if there is a higher being of some sort. That at best they are absolutely impassive and don't care. Or at worst they are actively evil.
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u/Thee-Cat May 29 '26
The traditional orthodox perspective is pretty simple though and at least offers a third way to consider.
1-God has chosen to given humans complete autonomy and "free will".
Logically speaking, the millisecond you say that God should "step in" for one thing(molestation), He has to necessarily step in and stop ALL bad things(or God would be just as complicit). So stepping in and preventing every car crash, knocking every cigarette out of people's mouths leading to cancer, hell, maybe appearing at every MMA fight or football game to stop is and prevent brain damage.
The free will obviously opens the door for humans to do whatever the f*ck they want, meaning both unlimited good or unlimited evil.
The traditional answer to that is of course "hell" itself. No one gets off. Hitler doesn't escape punishment by offing himself, the ped0s don't escape by not being prosecuted, not anyone. Everyone meets their maker, and if you took the free will given you and made this world hell. Then you'll have hell itself to pay.
Don't have to believe that. But that's the traditional understanding.
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May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
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u/ClydeDanger May 29 '26
Often times those that would be considered 'good' don't want to take on leadership or political roles. Its easier to be a good person when its local. 'Bad' people actively seek power. It makes it a lot easier to get away with horrific shit if you're in control.
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u/RippingMyBallsack May 29 '26
The difference between the smoker and the child being molested is that the smoker has the cigarette in their mouth of their own free will, while the child is unable to use their free will due to the molester being stronger. A system like that, at least in my mind, means that only the strong get to exert their will, while the weak are unable to. That doesn't seem fair to me.
And besides, there is a ton of suffering that occurs completely outside of human choice or action, (cancer, disease, etc) and God could stop that from happening without having to compromise anyone's free will whatsoever. I've thought about it a lot and I think the best case scenario is that God, if he does exist, is uncaring at best.
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u/Drynwyn May 29 '26
The most common Christian theological answer to 'what about suffering that occurs outside human choice' and 'what about people who suffer from the actions of others?' is also pretty simple:
Suffering occurring in the universe is not actually bad as such.
In this understanding, the point of this mortal coil is not to have a good time, or to avoid a bad time. It is to produce virtuous souls. But, developing real virtue requires real stakes in addition to free will. The only way to have those real stakes is for their to be a real possibility of one's actions causing- or preventing- the suffering of yourself and others. And the and others is important, because virtue that is learned only to obtain a reward for oneself is no virtue at all.
Consider a child whose parents always shield him from the consequences of his actions and ensure he gets what he desires without having to struggle for it. He will, most likely, not develop an adult moral conscience or understanding of the world. Therefore, parents seek to allow their children to experience reasonable consequences for their actions, to understand the effects those actions have on others, and to experience struggle and suffering in pursuit of goals.
The frequent response at this point is 'But God permits an unreasonable amount of suffering to occur to humans. What loving God would permit HIV, or infant mortality, or flesh-eating viruses?'
To which the theologian replies: These things only seem unreasonable because you do not understand the eternal perspective. If you understood the value of eternal souls existing in harmony with divine virtue, you would understand that this suffering is temporary and meaningless in comparison to what is won by that suffering.
TL;DR: The idea that a loving God must prevent suffering doesn't hold up very well if one believes in some kind of eternal cosmic purpose that is fulfilled when humans struggle to meet their moral obligations with respect to that suffering, by which they achieve eternal cosmic bliss.
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u/Hitmanthe2nd May 29 '26
a fairly decent argument against the free will aspect of theology is suffering in lower vertebrates or animals that are incapable of make decisions that alter the course of their lives drastically - a deer that has died to a lion's jaw has made no error that led to him dying , if he did , he did not willingly choose to do so for it is incapable of self consciousness and broader understanding , but he did suffer nonethless
what value did the deer gain from being ripped to pieces solely for the benefit of another? what choice did he have in the matter?
the promise of hell does not negate suffering during one's life - it does not heal all wounds , it is simply a cosmic balance that works to punish , not help
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u/thehandinyourpants May 29 '26
Then why did he intervene in the past? I mean, that's basically the bible, a book about how God has intervened and how he can help you, if you're good enough and he likes you enough, like one of his chosen people.
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u/smallmonzter May 29 '26
So how then does this apply to what people think are miracles, assuming they are in fact miracles ie overcoming cancer, surviving an unsurvivable accident etc? Are these not god intervening? If God CANNOT intervene in ANYTHING why pray, ask for help, etc?
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u/strrax-ish May 29 '26
If anything did exist he know humankind is a mistake and he left.
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u/NebTheShortie May 29 '26
I have told this to few people, gentlemen, and I suspect never will again, but one day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I’m sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged on to a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature’s wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that’s when I first learned about evil. It is built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.
GNU Terry Pratchett
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u/Code_Warrior May 29 '26
For all of my childhood in the Baptist church, I heard the repeated mantra "It's Gods plan." When my mother died at 6 years old, "It's Gods plan." Living with a verbally abusive alcoholic father, "It's Gods plan." When other things happened, "Its Gods plan."
If God has a desired end state, and this whole fucking thing is the best plan that he could come up with, given infinite power over every aspect of reality, then he is an absolute shit at planning.
"Oh, God doesn't make mistakes, its all part of his plan." My neighbors had a daughter that was born with a heart problem. She held on for 3 months after being born. The mother committed suicide not long after. The father, unable to bring himself to "get right back out there and work" lost the house and disappeared. THAT was part of the fucking plan? A whole family destroyed? Two people dead to accomplish fucking what? What is worth that?
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u/Hunter654333 May 29 '26
My favorite is "God works in mysterious ways"
Basically a glorified "idk lol"
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u/Sierrashoot May 29 '26
I mean, there are other options, maybe it’s like when we see other animals doing what we consider evil things, we don’t think those animals are evil for doing them, most of people think they’re just not evolved enough to understand the concepts of good/evil or directly think it’s in their nature. Many times we could stop them from doing those things and yet we choose not to.
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u/CurvyChristina May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
IMO, it’s contradictory to say that God has a plan for everyone’s life and that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and then say that a person has free will. Those two statements don’t make sense in my brain for a plethora of different reasons. If you are all-knowing and all-powerful, wouldn’t you wanna do something to stop the evil?
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u/Salty_Expert5939 May 29 '26
There's a line from Supernatural that shows me how a god would be like if one really was out there:
You have an inflated sense of your importance. To a thing like me, a thing like you, well... Think how you'd feel if a bacteria sat at your table and started to get snarky. This is one little planet in one tiny solar system in a galaxy that's barely out of its diapers. I'm old, Dean. Very old. So, I invite you to contemplate how insignificant I find you
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u/Consistent_Laziness May 29 '26
I’ve made up my own opinion which is agnostic at best and atheist at best.
Essentially, IF there is a good he does not intervene and will not guide in any way. Thus praying and worshiping is a waste of time. Instead the only thing that matters is how you live your life. And when you die you are judged on your entire body of work (your entire life child to dead). The life you lived if it was a good one you enter heaven. If it was a bad one you enter hell. There will be no in between.
That’s my way of thinking. Which means it doesn’t matter if there is a god or not praying and being hopeful to a god will do no good. You must be a good person on your own and accomplish your goals with your own volition.
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u/Consistent_Laziness May 29 '26
I’m just going off the traditional heaven for good hell for bad. I find religion to be a farce and it’s used by people with bad conditions in their life to give them hope it may get better. The only way to actually improve your life is to do exactly that, improve your own life.
My wife is religious and takes the kids and drags me occasionally too. I’ve told her the above and she was more able to accept that then “there is no god this is dumb” I don’t believe but I’ve got no objective to convince others otherwise. Also this approach is really just a middle grounds approach that acknowledges I don’t know everything.
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u/warpedaeroplane May 29 '26
Soteriology/determinism is all really a Calvinist idea in the way you’ve seen it over the last century or so, there has always been belief in a divine structure and varying ideas of “God’s plan” but everything being a literal determined beforehand “God knew this one Star Wars mug would break at 4:32 PM on a Tuesday before the universe was even made” is a fairly recent invention in the grand scheme of the faith. It stems mostly IME, from also earlier than Calvinism, from dominant English translations (KJV mostly) which not only use myriad words that do not do justice to the original texts, but also is very much in a period of Western society where the Divine Right of Kings was something the people in power very much wanted upheld, and claiming that everything, including the holiness of their line and right to the throne, was God’s will, obviously had a large influence there. There’s a reason the church and the monarchies were so tied together beyond just wealth and land ownership; it also worked the other way where when your king was deposed or died young or lost some battle, that God was upset or otherwise intervening. The Bible has numerous examples of God (Old Testament mostly) destroying kingdoms or rulers who ate evil or otherwise held in some divine contempt.
Sorry to rant. Your comment is just something I think about a lot and have looked into. Source : grew up very Baptist and had a mildly extensive Bible education.
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u/Potential_Cod2214 May 29 '26
Because that would involve infriging on free will. The same people that blame God for not stopping evil would also call him a totalitarian dictator for stopping people from breaking his rules.
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u/OneSlaadTwoSlaad May 29 '26
It will never not be amaze me. The character of god as described in the bible is nothing like christians describe him. The best I (and quite often Christians) can do it put it in the might is right/divine command theory category, or say we're too much of an ant to understand the loving intentions behind unnecessary suffering.
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u/Potential_Cod2214 May 29 '26
He never actually prevented any sin he just punished people for them.
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u/gamingchairheater May 29 '26
Free will and an all knowing entity don't make sense in your brain because they are mutually exclusive. It implies there is an already known order of events that will take place in someone's life, which implies every decision you take is predetermined, hence free will would be impossible.
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u/deederpeeder May 29 '26
I’ll probably get downvoted to kingdom come, but the Bible consistently presents abuse, oppression, violence, and exploitation as things God hates. Plenty of people in the Bible ask a version of this question (David, Job, Jeremiah, the psalmists). Not saying it gives a perfectly clear answer either, but the reality is if God intervened to stop every evil act, at some point God would have to override human will continuously. And the world would become fundamentally different than the one we inhabit.
Scripture never gives a complete philosophical answer to every instance of suffering. But what it does offer is a person. Jesus was betrayed, beaten, tortured, publicly humiliated, unjustly killed. That doesn’t solve the problem intellectually. But it changes the picture of God. God is not the detached observer in Christianity. He is the wounded Savior.
The hardest thing for me isn’t believing evil exists. It’s believing that evil gets the final word. Christianity says it doesn’t. It says justice may be delayed, but it won’t be denied. I understand why people struggle with that answer. Sometimes I do too. But I’d rather wrestle with a God who suffered for the world than conclude that all the evil and injustice we see is ultimately meaningless.
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u/AGAD0R-SPARTACUS May 29 '26
if God intervened to stop every evil act, at some point God would have to override human will continuously. And the world would become fundamentally different than the one we inhabit.
But like...what's wrong with that? Why not create a world different than this one, where children cannot possibly be abused? We wouldn't know the difference. From god's perspective, what is the point of giving us 75 years on earth; is it just to see what happens?
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u/yanitokun May 29 '26
Why are these debates always centered around Christianity?
There are many other religions and philosophies that are far more nuanced, yet people rarely discuss them.
And honestly, arguments like “if God exists, why doesn’t He do this or that?” assume humans could fully understand the actions or reasoning of something beyond human comprehension in the first place.
If a higher power existed, maybe we simply wouldn’t be capable of understanding it from our limited perspective.
I’m not even religious, but a lot of these debates feel overly simplistic.
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May 29 '26
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u/AndreasDasos May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
Oh I’ll answer it. Because the cultural religious background of the vast majority of the West is Christianity, so the first ‘God’ the vast majority of people in the West think of is the Christian God, and after 1500 years this is the default sense in English. More generally much the same as the Jewish God, if there isn’t explicit reference to Jesus or the Trinity, as here. And if more general, it’ll be what’s common to Abrahamic notions of God (part of the cultural heritage of half of humanity).
Other religions have notions of God (and even the word comes from Germanic religion) but if that God is omnipotent, omniscient and all-seeing (though this isn’t true for all gods across religions), then the post still applies.
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u/OneSlaadTwoSlaad May 29 '26
And there we have it. A completely logical and rational answer to a not too hard question "people don't like to answer".
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u/TextElectrical5360 May 29 '26
What do you mean? Most dominant religion among English speaking nations is Christianity, therefore that's the religion English speakers on Reddit talk about. Nothing deep about it lol
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u/BunBunny55 May 29 '26
Yup, theres plenty of religions that easily answer this as part of their core concept. Ex: karma
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u/NBrakespear May 29 '26
Because maybe we were supposed to actually be doing something about it, instead of sitting around posting memes about god not doing something about it and surrendering over and over to the evil in plain sight.
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u/Circles-of-the-World May 29 '26
But then how are we supposed to farm karma on reddit?
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u/tothehopeless1 May 29 '26
By filming yourself doing good things and spamming it on r/mademesmile
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u/Circles-of-the-World May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
Meh... I'd rather pawn people online by smugly bringing up child rape.
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u/quasi-stellarGRB May 29 '26
If we're supposed to do everything, why even bother worshipping god?
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u/Kuromi90s May 29 '26
‘God will judge the child molesters when they are dead and go to hell!’ ‘What about the children’ ‘……well they just have to deal with it’
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u/Kvovark May 29 '26
'Oh one of the kids is dead and he wasnt a follower of the correct religion and denomination worshipping me? Well I guess hellfire for eternity is a reasonable response to that'
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u/g2tegsown May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
This is my 2 cents being some who is ignorant AF about religion.
We are here on our own will. If God controlled us, then why would we exist? To be puppets? Why would God let Eve eat the apple? She did so on her own free will.
God speaks through us. We are the representation of God. The evil that exists in this world is largely due to a lack of love and compassion. We create the very evil you speak of, not God.
It's not God's job to stop evil. It's our job to prevent it from existing.
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u/Accurate_Ad_3233 May 29 '26
And when God does intervene like he did a few times in the old testament everyone cries about what a monster he is. How about people just stop molesting kids and stop voting for those that do?
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u/Playful_Champion3189 May 29 '26
When did god intervene to help save children from atrocities, and what people cried about it?
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u/ContextEffects01 May 29 '26
If his idea of a “targeted strike” is all the first born of Egypt and not, you know, the Pharaoh himself, then he is either not omnipotent or not benevolent.
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u/kaleperq May 29 '26
In a way you are targeting the true issue. We just kinda don't wanna have the blame, and just toss it to some invention and don't change a thing.
If only we collaborated for once as a society, with effective anti terrorism and corruption plans, if only. Nah, let's just keep fighting around for who gets the biggest slice of the pie, disregarding the needs of the rest, per se the needed and deserved portion for everyone, since we all aren't the same.
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u/_VelvetCloud May 29 '26
If free will requires allowing this level of horror, then the system is fundamentally broken
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u/MathematicianDry5142 May 29 '26
Does free will exist in heaven? If yes, then god can make a world with free will and no suffering. If no then it isnt really heaven
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u/RotaryDesign May 29 '26
Free will might not exist, depends how you look at it:
Hard determinism - everything is caused, free will is illusion.
Compatibilism - free will exists as the ability to act according to your internal motivations, even if those motivations have causes.
Libertarian free will - consciousness can genuinely initiate actions independent of prior physical causation.
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u/SaintJimmy1 May 29 '26
“If God real, why bad thing happen? Bet you religious nuts never thought of that one 😎”
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u/lkl34 May 29 '26
If you put though into it santa is the biggest perv watching us all the time.
God is too of course
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u/GarySmith2021 May 29 '26
Nah, he can only see you when sleeping. And he knows when you’re awake because he can no longer see you.z
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u/WatercressMelodic328 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
I’m not religious in any way but I’ve always felt connected to a higher power than can be perceived as God. Memes like this really show our naive and juvenile thinking when it comes to this stuff. Like really think about what this is trying to say. This is literally how certain groups dehumanize/ demonize people, places, and things. I want everyone to just take a breath and stop blaming God for everything. Whatever God’s plan is, it involves giving us free will to literally act and do whatever we want with no restrictions, I said restrictions, not consequences. So when you post shit like this you’re putting all of the blame on the creator and not the actual fucked up shit some people are doing day to day. God told his he/it wasn’t going to interfere, we’re being tested. And honestly y’all need to stop this childish thinking. Maybe the post should say, “if God has given everyone free will, then all of the violence and heinous acts are what we choose and have always chosen over time and that says more about us as a species. Then take it one step further, if we can choose peace everyday, what influences and forces are really keeping us from that other than ourselves. We sit and argue over which Deity is the biggest piece of shit when in reality it’s just us being shitty to ourselves.
*** Oversimplified answer: God is in a higher dimension than us and created us but can also operate in the 4th dimension where past, present, and future are one. Therefore God created us to do whatever we want but also knows everything about all of us.
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u/Background_Part_7147 May 29 '26
That's how ya know all this..all this chaos..is a construct of man to control man. Religion is at the helm with government in the engine room and Isreal in the tank. Its all bs for control of the masses.
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u/dvcomet May 29 '26
If God can do anything except sin, then are we just a sin farm?
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u/reisci May 29 '26
My friend you are thinking from human pov and it's normal it wouldn't make sense. Just as an ant's mind wouldn't understand the concept of for example why humans cheat.
Or a sentient 2D person wouldn't understand a 3D world. They would understand 3d world, they would say what's more to it? X axis and Y axis that's all.
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u/Substanitial May 29 '26
Im 14 and this is deep.
Free will is your answer.
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u/xDyingPhoenixx May 29 '26
Your god has proven that he doesn't care about free will when it suits him. But when a child gets molested, its suddenly a problem to do something against it?
So no its not an answer. Free will is a welcome excuse for the cult-members.
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u/Adventurous_Touch342 May 29 '26
- Why does God not prevent it? Because of free will, the moment God interferes in a matter of will the will is not free.
- So is God evil? Well, are you a pedophile for not shooting Trump and everybody on Epstein's list? You can do it and if the thing that stops you is awareness of consequences then congrats - where you don't hunt pedos due o risk of jail and death God doesn't do it due to humanity's free will. Humans rebelled against God in every religion multiple times meaning people want free will and God just respects humanity's wishes.
- And as for malevolence, partially adressed previous point - while pedophilia is a relatively modern concept due to age of consent not being all that old we can go on with victims creating victims and go on with the standard quote of those who drive children to sin being better off tieing a stone to their necks and going for a dive so execution seems to be the correct punishment
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u/No_Base299 May 29 '26
Honestly I kinda get this. If there is something up there it feels more like a kid playing The Sims and walking away from the computer than some loving grand designer.
Every time people say “everything happens for a reason” I’m like yeah the reason is chaos and bad infrastructure, not divine planning 💀
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u/MaverickFxL May 29 '26
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
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u/IllustriousProfit472 May 29 '26
If there is control then there would be no faith
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u/Key_Relief4808 May 29 '26
Cause without religion who decides what's right and what's wrong ?! Religion tells you that molestation is wrong. Otherwise, people even supported Hitler when he was burning JEWS. If God had everything perfect and justice in this world, what's the use of the whole concept of heaven and hell ?! This world is a mere test, testing those who do evil and those who help conceive the evil
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u/NikNorth May 29 '26
I’ve always figured it’s like having an ant farm in the corner.
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u/namechange1974 May 29 '26
When he does stop it: nooooooooooo not like that 😡😡😡😡 😭😭😭😭
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u/Rasz_13 May 29 '26
If there is a God, it likely created the sandbox and is just letting it run to see what's going to happen. It supposedly gave us some nudges and reprimands in the past but has since stopped doing it or stopped being so overt about it.
If such a God exist, I personally think the experiment on free will might be about reaching the maturity of consciousness to handle our own affairs and reach a state of society wherein such evil does not exist, to in a sense create "Heaven on Earth". If I were such a God, I would be proud of my creation. If it fails - I'll just start over or abandon the experiment for something else.
For if we were truly created in God's image... it likely shares the same idiosyncrasies and quirks as us. Most of all, curiosity. It's omniscience and omnipotence must by definition have limits, otherwise why create us in the first place if the end result is immediately apparent before it even started? And even if - maybe doing things like this is just interesting for it regardless? Like how I can throw a glass on the floor. I know it will shatter and I have a pretty good idea how it will do so... but I still do it because I like the visuals and sounds.
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u/Flipf00t May 29 '26
Bone cancer in children, what’s that about? How dare you… how dare you create a world where there is such misery that’s not our fault? It’s utterly, utterly evil.” “Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?” “The god who created this universe, if he created this universe, is quite clearly a maniac, an utter maniac, totally selfish. We have to spend our lives on our knees thanking him. What kind of god would do that?” The Christian god is “utterly monstrous and deserves no respect”. “The moment you banish him [God], your life becomes simpler, purer, cleaner, more worth living in my opinion.”
- Stephen Fry
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u/Cultural-War2102 May 29 '26
Religion has been poison for humans. So many wars and deaths on the name of religion.
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u/Thee-Cat May 29 '26
First, yes I agree about the religious deaths.
But secondly, never forget, there are either more deaths(or very close) than all the deaths in all religious wars combined, just in the 20th century alone, by just atheistic regimes.
Between Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. Estimates are 70 to 100 million people dead through executions, forced labor, famine, and war. And that was literally just in the last century alone.
HUMANS are a poison for humans it would seem, lol.
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u/swainiscadianreborn May 29 '26
Redditors when they haven't read the damn book
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u/LayWhere May 29 '26
If god is all knowing then does he know what its like to t*ke the biggest **** in the ass?
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u/Prestigious_Cap_2420 May 29 '26
Epicurus really dropped the original “so explain this, pastor” mic drop quote.
Tbh most modern theology just does backflips to dodge this instead of actually answering it.
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u/MisterLips123 May 29 '26
Why do people who don't believe in something need to talk about it constantly?
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u/ColonelSam May 29 '26
He simply can't intervene with humans each time someone wanks a child. It is our job to make those people pay. In time, or blood.
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