Do you believe in God? Why/Why not?

[Torillian]

mZuzek said:

Flilix said:

It's indeed hard to imagine what the best world would be like, but for God that shouldn't be a problem. I can definitely think of some (minor) things that he could have done better, without any possible negative consequences.

Actually, why did he even bother to create a world? Why doesn't he just let us into his paradise immediately?

Maybe he doesn't have a paradise. Maybe he doesn't care. Maybe he's not even entirely all-powerful and can only do things under certain restraints or conditions. And maybe, just maybe, he isn't a "he". The Bible explanation isn't the only possible belief one could have.

For example, what if God was just messing around and one day was like "I'm gonna make a planet, that'd be fun"? Then he made it, and then just left and went do something else. Everything that happened to our planet since would be left up to time, so evolution was still a natural process in the way we know it, maybe stuff like earthquakes and tornados are results of physics "engines" God didn't think much about, etc.

I don't necessarily believe that's how things happened, but there is no proof it either was or wasn't. I just keep an open mind.

The issue with evil or "bad things happen to good people" as is being discussed is only an issue for a god that is defined as "all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful". Take out any one of those three and you no longer have conflict as he either doesn't know bad things are happening, doesn't give a shit, or can't fix it even though he wants to. Other arguments would have to be made for gods that don't have those three qualifiers, but then most Christians define their god with those qualities so it's a reasonable argument to be put forth to someone who believes in Christianity.