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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   30730 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 3, 2023

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I’m, uh, pretty sure that the problem is all the suffering. The infinity of suffering. Squaring that circle with a loving God has led to far more contortions than mere earthly disagreements.

Yeah, no, that's a big problem too. It's sad, I genuinely want to believe in Christianity and/or God, but good lord is it difficult to square the mythos with the modern world in any logical or rational manner.

Under a Christian understanding of hell, that suffering is earned, and so carrying it out is just. The real difficulty is why God would create humans who would do so grievous a thing as sin. There's the "free-will" response, but I'm convinced that Calvinism is correct. I'll just go with Romans 9:

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

That is, a hearty dose of "who am I to judge God" (see Job), while recognizing that that is indeed within God's righteous judgment—here giving the possibility that at least some is intended to highlight the his mercy, where it does exist. And, of course, Genesis 50:20's "you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good" (referring to Joseph's brothers selling him) is relevant.

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