And the “answer” to that is often “it’s God’s plan”. Which I don’t understand. I know this is an incredibly basic question, but I don’t have anyone to ask.
If its God’s plan for children to suffer then I don’t really like or respect him.
However, amazing as we are here on lemmy, we are not the first people to ask this question or similar. There’s tonnes of discussion on the ‘problem of evil’ from all sides, and it makes for interesting reading ng matter how athiest/agnostic/Pagan you are.
Irenaeus claimed that we were underdeveloped to face good, and had to be exposed to evil to mature (which I don’t hate as a concept because sometimes you do have to experience suffering to understand it, but it doesn’t work if god is all powerful and created us). The free will argument puts blame back on us horrid humans and off the Shiney happy god that created the…horrid humans. There’s the concept of natural evil, of evil being a lack of good, of trickster Satan etc. Worth a deep dive if you have time.
And I recommend Dostoyevski ‘The brothers Karamazov’. I butched that spelling. However, a monk brother and an athiest brother have a great conversation about the horrific things that have happened to innocent children and how god allowed it to happen. The whole books a mission, but the recommended chapter is…seven I think? It’s near the beginning.
And the “answer” to that is often “it’s God’s plan”. Which I don’t understand. I know this is an incredibly basic question, but I don’t have anyone to ask.
If its God’s plan for children to suffer then I don’t really like or respect him.
However, amazing as we are here on lemmy, we are not the first people to ask this question or similar. There’s tonnes of discussion on the ‘problem of evil’ from all sides, and it makes for interesting reading ng matter how athiest/agnostic/Pagan you are.
Irenaeus claimed that we were underdeveloped to face good, and had to be exposed to evil to mature (which I don’t hate as a concept because sometimes you do have to experience suffering to understand it, but it doesn’t work if god is all powerful and created us). The free will argument puts blame back on us horrid humans and off the Shiney happy god that created the…horrid humans. There’s the concept of natural evil, of evil being a lack of good, of trickster Satan etc. Worth a deep dive if you have time.
And I recommend Dostoyevski ‘The brothers Karamazov’. I butched that spelling. However, a monk brother and an athiest brother have a great conversation about the horrific things that have happened to innocent children and how god allowed it to happen. The whole books a mission, but the recommended chapter is…seven I think? It’s near the beginning.
I’ve heard of that book, but never knew that’s what it was about. Sounds interesting. Thanks!
Enjoy!