07-09-2023, 08:15 PM
(07-09-2023, 07:27 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: I wanted to touch on this and clarify what you are saying in your analogy. I don't think that responsibility is a binary flag but rather a spectrum. If you knew that a person was going to commit a mass shooting and you supplied them with the gun to do so, then I would argue that you absolutely have culpability for what occurred. Are you directly responsible for the shooting? No, but you played are a responsible party and you should face repercussions. Are you saying that in this scenario, you don't believe the weapon supplier should be found responsible in any way for the shooting?
This is the struggle that I face. If the argument is that god is omniscient, then he has foreknowledge of everything. He knew that by giving his creations free will, it would lead to the vast majority of them suffering for eternity and that there would be rape, murder, pillaging, betrayal, all committed by his creations. What follows is more questions about his creations, such as disease. Why did he create them with the foreknowledge that people would suffer from them and die early, miserable, painful deaths? This is why that, even if god existed, I am skeptical that he has an endless amount of love for us. He has created an impressive number of ways for us to suffer - potentially for eternity - with the foreknowledge that we would indeed do so.
See what's interesting here is I think you have to separate God's "culpability" from the culpability of man. Something God can do that man 100% cannot do is offer salvation from suffering. Mathematically, any suffering we endure is negated by the fact that God offers us salvation which is infinitely more positive than any negatives you will suffer here on earth. Man cannot do this, therefore man would be much more responsible in these types of scenarios than God will ever be, because man cannot offer eternal peace to anyone.
If you believe God exists and his promise of salvation, then any suffering we endure here is actually quite minimal in the grand scheme of things. I understand that people experience terrible things in their life such as rape, murder, disease, war, disaters etc.... but these things are all finite with God. Why should God face repurcussions when he's already offered to take the suffering away, and infiitely so?
