God and COVID-19

[Age]

What would be the reason for allowing a little bit of evil?

None, perhaps. But I just want to check so I know how far your accusation against God would be likely to go. It seems now that you are (probably rightly) rejecting the idea that a truly good God could allow even a little bit of evil, right?

Well, what about the evil Gary has done? It might not be much. He's probably a waaaaay better person than IC. But even the best of us isn't always all that good; and which one of us doesn't look back on something in life and say, "That was bad...I shouldn't have done that...if I had the chance again, I wouldn't have.."?

God could make me better too. Then maybe I wouldn't go to hell or whatever for my "evils". BTW, I'm sure God has killed more people in a single plague than I've ever killed (0). So that makes God a bit more bloodthirsty than me, I would think. But sure, make me a better person too if I have faults I'm unaware of.

Why is it human beings only that is thought about in relation to 'evil'?

If you are still unaware of your faults, then you are not at all looking.

EDIT: And while God is at it, maybe work on him or herself too.

What has God done wrong, to you?

[Age]

COVID-19 was created by human beings

Really? I thought it was just a lil virus that jumped species cuz commies eat garbage animals.

You sayin' wu-flu was manufactured?

No.

I'm saying its existence, and the present plague which Gary so deplores, is attributable to human action. It would never have existed if (depending on which story one believes) a man had not created it in a lab, or a Chinese person had not eaten something in a wet market in China. Whichever it was, it was somebody's decision that precipitated the present crisis...whether he knew it or not.

It was commies eatin' garbage animals: raw bat brain soup, raw snake intestine tar-tar, pangolin toenail sammiches.

Is this an absolute and irrefutable fact, or just more like what you believe is true?

[Age]

God could make me better too.

How much better? How much better than you are now, would a truly good God make you?

I mean, if He were a truly good God...

Pretty sad when most people I know are better moral beings than God.

Who and/or what is this God thing, which you say people are better moral beings than?

[Age]

Pretty sad when most people I know are better moral beings than God.

That was not my question, Gary. You don't need to prove you're better than God. But in your belief that God is not being good enough, I just want to see what it entails.

Does a good God have to deal with whatever propensity for evil is inside Gary Childress, or could a good God eliminate it from everyone else, and give Gary an exception?

I may not need to be better than God but I still have a smaller body count than this God of yours. What more do I need to say?

How many do you think is your so called "body count"?

[Age]

It was commies eatin' garbage animals: raw bat brain soup, raw snake intestine tar-tar, pangolin toenail sammiches.

I've heard that. I don't know quite what to believe, though, since fake news is all the rage these days.

There's another theory that it was created in a lab in Canada, then shipped to China, where it was accidentally released. I think that's hokey, but what do I know about it?

Nobody -- least of all the Chinese government -- seems to be at all forthcoming.

Parsimony, when in doubt: simplest explanation is a common virus jumped species, the means of the jump bein' wet market sales.

Is it at all possible that the virus jumped to human beings in any other way than a wet market sale?

[Age]

Parsimony, when in doubt: simplest explanation is a common virus jumped species, the means of the jump bein' wet market sales.

Well, whatever the truth is, those wet markets are super nasty, and they shouldn't exist at all. That much we can safely say.

Why are those wet markets supposedly so called "super nasty"? And, why should they supposedly not exist at all?

[Age]

Parsimony, when in doubt: simplest explanation is a common virus jumped species, the means of the jump bein' wet market sales.

Well, whatever the truth is, those wet markets are super nasty, and they shouldn't exist at all. That much we can safely say.

If Fu Manflu coulda stay confined to China, I'd encourage all that garbage-eatin'.

Dead commies are always a plus.

Well that is one truly separate racist view.

A lot of people also believe a dead yankee is a much bigger bonus, and a lot wish for far more 9/11's.

Some also wish if bombs and ammunition could stay in usa, they would encourage there being more mass shootings and explosions.

[Age]

Why wouldn't it be good for me?

mebbe cuz in removin' all challenge, removin' all choice, you're rendered impotent, useless, and turned into a freakin' robot, or worse, a pet

Is that really what you think of good people-people without evil in them? That's a very depressing view.

Do you think or believe there are people without evil in them?

[Age]

Is that really what you think of good people-people without evil in them? That's a very depressing view.

people choosin' a noble path (the way it is) is way different than your suggestion of god eradicatin' evil, cuz in the eradicatin ' of evil he eliminates choice...if a man chooses to do good, he must be able to choose good's opposite or he has no choice from the start

Who wants there to be bad choices? Why not only good choices?

There would only be good choices, if you chose to only have good to choose from.

If you were living in Syria during the height of the bombs dropping, wouldn't you rather that there be no such choice as to rain bombs on you? Would you care all that much about Putin and Assad having the "free will" to "choose" to bomb you?

[Immanuel Can]

Who was the human/s that created this virus, where was it created exactly, and what for? Also, how do you know that this virus was created by humans?

Already answered upstream.

[Age]

people choosin' a noble path (the way it is) is way different than your suggestion of god eradicatin' evil, cuz in the eradicatin ' of evil he eliminates choice...if a man chooses to do good, he must be able to choose good's opposite or he has no choice from the start

Who wants there to be bad choices? Why not only good choices? If you were living in Syria during the height of the bombs dropping, wouldn't you rather that there be no such choice as to rain bombs on you? Would you care all that much about Putin and Assad having the "free will" to "choose" to bomb you?

thing is: most folks makin' bad choices don't see those choices as bad.

and, no, I don't want bombs droppin' on me, so I do what I can to defend against that, or avoid that...what I don't do is pray for large-scale lobotomies of all the bad guys (just kill 'em...actually kinder to end a mad dog than fix it)

So, when you are the "bad and mad dog", which is far more often than you believe, is it then okay to just kill you as well? After all, it is actually kinder to end you than fix you. Or, does it not work the other way around?

I care about bein' a free will...I value my autonomy...I value my capacity to choose...I accept that if I get to choose then so do others, and I accept that others will choose shit I find disagreeable or flat-out wrong

I wouldn't part with my autonomy to live in utopia...

But it is because of autonomy that human beings will live in utopia.

I wouldn't give up my capacity to choose to eliminate evil

on this scale...

security-------------------------------------------------------free*dom

...I'm the red asterisk between e & d

most folks are probably plunked down in the middle ground

you sound like you might be huggin' the security side of things

if that's your choice: you're welcome to it

[Age]

Who wants there to be bad choices? Why not only good choices? If you were living in Syria during the height of the bombs dropping, wouldn't you rather that there be no such choice as to rain bombs on you? Would you care all that much about Putin and Assad having the "free will" to "choose" to bomb you?

thing is: most folks makin' bad choices don't see those choices as bad.

and, no, I don't want bombs droppin' on me, so I do what I can to defend against that, or avoid that...what I don't do is pray for large-scale lobotomies of all the bad guys (just kill 'em...actually kinder to end a mad dog than fix it)

I care about bein' a free will...I value my autonomy...I value my capacity to choose...I accept that if I get to choose then so do others, and I accept that others will choose shit I find disagreeable or flat-out wrong

I wouldn't part with my autonomy to live in utopia...I wouldn't give up my capacity to choose to eliminate evil

on this scale...

security-------------------------------------------------------free*dom

...I'm the red asterisk between e & d

most folks are probably plunked down in the middle ground

you sound like you might be huggin' the security side of things

if that's your choice: you're welcome to it

OK. If you want bad choices among the things available to choose from I guess that's your business. I'd rather not have evil things to choose from. I can still have a "free will" even when there are only good choices. I can choose from the good choices.

But it is you who makes the evil list, from which you then choose from.

[Age]

OK. If you want bad choices among the things available to choose from I guess that's your business. I'd rather not have evil things to choose from. I can still have a "free will" even when there are only good choices. I can choose from the good choices.

Henry's actually caught the problem, Gary.

If you can only do good, then you are not allowed to choose good.

You would still have a list of choices to choose from, so there is NO problem here at all.

Are you saying that it is God that keeps providing you will a list of bad or evil things, from which to choose from? Sounds like a rather very contradictory and ridiculous thing to provide to those that that One wants to do good and right.

There is, quite simply, not alternative.

So, are you saying that there is absolutely no alternative for you other to do all the evil and wrong things that you do do?

Your "goodness" then, would be no achievement on your part at all...you would have no hand in it. For it was inevitable. predetermined, absolutely certain before you began. You had no choice between doing the right thing, and doing something not right.

But, if as you started in this post that you can only do good, then you could not do something not right anyway. You could only do good, which is what is right in Life.

So blame is eliminated, but so is praise.

Both blame and praise are a completely unnecessary part of Life.

But there are three additional problems, at least...maybe more. And that first one isn't the biggest.

That so called "problem" has already been resolved.

Secondly, what happens to identity. Part of who we are is composed of the ethical choices we learn to make. That's now eliminated.

This is only in some hypothetical scenario, which you just made up, and which is not real nor true anyway.

Thirdly, although we may make you free from choice today, you weren't yesterday. So if God is good, what does He do about all the things you've already done? What would any good God do?

God does what God does, and God is NOT a "he", by the way. But because you only look at and see things based on your already gained and held views, assumptions, and beliefs you are incapable of seeing and understanding this fact.

And there are more problems...

Really? What do you propose they are? They, like every other so called "problem" of yours, can be very quickly and very simply answered and solved, very easily too I might add.

[Age]

your government masters will decide what your "good" choices are.

rejoice in your citizenship

-Imp

A possible silver linin' from all this commie flu nonsense is more folks will see how truly incompetent the gov is.

Which "government" are you talking about here?

Would you now be trying to suggest that if this virus started, or the next virus starts, in a country, let us imagine one like usa, then that current government would have it sorted out any quicker?

Every government, other than the chinese government, had at least a one or two month warning and head start to prepare for what was coming. So, one could easily then imagine all of those governments would have been far more competent than the first government. But what appears to be the case is not so at all.

Surely a government with a pre-warning of what is coming would be far more competent than one with absolutely no warning at all.

Disillusioned, such folks may be less inclined to take orders and more inclined to give them.

[Immanuel Can]

Sorry, IC. I was in a bad way yesterday. After more sleep, I'm thinking differently.

Are you feeling content to leave it there, Gary? Or do you still have concerns?

I'm happy to roll with your preference.