Christ’s Kingdom is not of this World as He said, that’s why We can become a Misotheist. I look forward to His Kingdom and believe my behavior belongs there and I will be Put there when I leave this World.
It’s not uncommon for thread topics to meander. And while staying “on-topic” is an enforceable option, it doesn’t mean we expend a lot of energy trying to enforce it. Generally when stuff veers into problematic directions enough for people (especially the ‘OP’ - opening poster) to start being bothered and start flagging posts do we attend to it. Discussions can branch into other productive directions as well. I’m often an off-topic culprit myself.
Not entirely sure what you meant by that.
I’m not sure what you meant by that either. You seem to be using the quote function just fine in your prior posts. If it’s an inquiry about how to incorporate multiple quotes in the same post, all you need to do is scroll up (which you can still do using the light blue elevator bar on the side - even while you have an existing reply already started), highlight other portions of texts anywhere else in the thread, and then click the "quote” option again just as you did for the opening quote, and it will insert the additional quote wherever your cursor was in your reply - just as I did with multiple bits and pieces of your post here.
Edited here to add: in case you haven’t figured it out already, you can also edit your own already-posted posts by clicking the grey pencil icon tool beneath that post. Like I did here just now to add this last bit.
1 Like
I feel uncomfortable sharing my thoughts here because so many others here are better explainers and more spiritually mature than I am, but there are some things that help me think through this. I hope that some of the thoughts from me or everyone on the forum help you, or at least give you good things to chew on.
There is always going to be aspects of God that are alien, I think. I once heard something along the lines of “If you can completely understand God, that is not God.” He is the highest being, and as limited beings created by Him in a limited space, there will always be unfathomable parts of Him. Rather than taking this to mean He is unobtainable (and I do think that in some context), I’ve been trying to see it as a never-ending opportunity to learn, use the brain He gave me to think, and practice humility, recognizing that I do not understand all and that He invites our wrestling.
There are many ways we could critique God and wish He was different. But were He different, I doubt the accusations would stop. Seeing as we have been given the ability to have various preferences, one person would like God to be more “in control”, and another would like him to let us be more involved, and on and on the opinions could come. I think, however, it is good that God is different than we prefer—it means, like I said, we are supposed to change to be like Him, and not Him to be like us. It means we are to be active.
Suffering… man, it’s always a hard thing. We all suffer to different degrees, from the sickly child to the parent that lives with their child’s ailments. Easy answers are never sufficient to talk about pain, and I don’t have any. @Randy quoted an apologist named Randal Rouser once, and he said something similar to, “If an apologist gives you an easy answer for pain and suffering and doesn’t show anguish over the topic, you need to find a better apologist.” (I couldn’t find the quote, sorry 
)
I have seen the testimonies of people that have suffered—those born with defects, those with traumas, those with mental health conditions, and so on indefinitely. They are capable of living lives of joy and peace even with their limitations, and many have even found such hope in faith! We also sense in our culture that we have responsibilities to create such spaces for the struggling to thrive, and I’d argue that concept is woven all throughout Christian theology. In the parable where Jesus famously emphasizes love to our neighbors, the Samaritan helped a suffering man. What greater way is there to show love than to help the innocent? What better way is there to feel love from others than to be the recipient of help in dire need? Perhaps we can take God’s perceived “inaction” as God’s invitation to be part of the solution. Maybe that’s what Jesus’ talk of the Kingdom of Heaven was all about. Maybe what He wanted all along was for a free creation to become aware, to see that there is hurt, and to be moved to help. How could that be done if our universe were created with padding on every corner and caps on every exposed outlet? Of course, that still doesn’t invalidate the pain, and it shouldn’t. But it shows us (or me, at least) that pain isn’t something God finds pleasure in. He wants us to share His desire for goodness to abound, and gives us the freedom to participate. Understanding Him better can actually make pain more real and important to us.
I’ll give a little testimony myself: When I first realized I was having a faith crisis, I had a very bad panic attack. Ever since then, I’ve struggled from time to time with anxiety and dissociation—the feeling that I’m just a spectator. It makes things around me feel intangible, and it makes me feel like I’m not present. I do often wish that God would intervene and takes the doubts and stress (and their physical side effects) away. But I’ve also learned so much about faith and God because of the crisis, and I’ve found people here that have been helping me toward a more sturdy, nuanced faith that is (gradually, slowly) more at peace with things I don’t understand.
5 Likes
There are threads on this forum touching on the Old Testament and how God is perceived. Have you looked at any of those yet? I’ve seen answers ranging from “God’s commands were justified in some way” to “People gradually understood better who God was, and the warrior God presentation was a projection of culture,” and other views in between. Those may provide some perspective. Biologos has resources on Biblical inerrancy and history, too. Would anyone else here have good insight on those questions of the Old Testament in particular?
3 Likes
Fear and shame are not the motivators God wants for you.
I love this picture in Isaiah 42:3
A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
You can ask God to be gentle with you. His grace is certainly wide enough and deep enough to handle all your negative emotions and all your doubts and misgivings. God won’t judge or shame you for being a human who was wrong about some things. Be kind to yourself.
4 Likes
Christians have been wrestling with the “texts of terror” in the Bible for centuries, you are not alone in being disturbed by them.
The two most helpful books I have personally read in thinking through how to approach these issues are:
Christopher Wright The God I Don’t Understand
Kenton Sparks Sacred Word, Broken Word
There is also a lot of interesting theological work being done right now at the intersection of attachment theory (from cognitive psychology) and theology. Since you seem to be interested in neuroscience and faith, it might be an area you could investigate to see if it helps you with what you are wrestling with.
3 Likes
I very much agree with you. God transcends any hope of our knowing Him on our terms. That makes me think God cannot be contained by any propositional representation. There are propositions in the Bible but it is its story which alone can convey the Christian mythos. The point of faith is to put you in the state of mind to recognize the truth of that mythos by way of the heart. To dwell instead on what facts scripture can be understood as informing us of misses the point, turning it instead into an exercise of intellect.
1 Like
First, I have to say that this cry for help sounds as much like a mental health crisis as a theological crisis. No shade. I just think you should get a second opinion beyond your therapist’s in that respect. Can’t offer you any help there. On the theological stuff …
The parable of the Lost Son in Luke 15 tells us how God feels as a father. He lets us walk away from him if that’s what we choose.
This is just you thinking that you could have created a better universe than the one that exists. The fact is that “natural evil” such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes are necessary to life. If God intervened to stop such natural disasters, life on Earth would become impossible to sustain. Similarly, cancers and deformities are necessary consequences of DNA, and death has been built into the system from the beginning. Without death, life itself would be impossible. Death has never been the consequence of sin.
It’s only black and white in your previous understanding.
1 Like
Welcome!
I am so sorry for the difficulty. I will have to ask God, some day, why there is so much suffering.
I really found George Macdonald helpful. He would say you have no reason to fear. It’s a mistake of people to accidentally put a devil’s face on God, who would punish someone for earnest questions (not you).
In fact, he wrote that God blesses those who, through honest questioning, come to the atheist’s conclusion. I do believe that that is more honorable than many who, in the words of Lewis (who greatly admired MacDonald), wrote,
“The dangers of believing in a God whom we cannot but regard as evil, and then, in mere terrified flattery calling Him ‘good’ and worshiping Him, is still greater.”
Randal Rauser (@seamitchell , thanks for the reminder) wrote
“If you want a simple and effective way to identify a Christian apologist worth listening to, ask them to share their thoughts on the problem of evil. If they keep their discussion of the problem in the abstract and if they suggest that it is a problem easily solved, you should keep looking. But if they instead take the time to describe the agonizing depth and breadth of the problem, and if they recognize that the problem is such that some people reasonably find their way to non-belief, then that is likely an apologist worth heeding in other matters.”
Rauser: Coming to Terms With the Problem of Evil - Faith & Science Conversation - The BioLogos Forum
I think that the child who cries, or who spurns a vision of God that can be nothing other than a devil, is closer to God than the others.
Thank you for helping me to think.
3 Likes
Look! The prostitutes and tax collectors (and atheists and doubters today?) are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you! While the religious leaders find themselves outside looking in. I love it, though that Jesus’ teaching here is also paired with “the last will be first and the first will be last…”; not that “you religious leaders will never get in”, but just that you will suffer the necessary humiliation of seeing mere “infants” and all those whom you looked down on gathering closer around the throne than you have managed to get to so far with all your high-minded piety!
Edited to add … I’m not implying that doubters are simple minded or infantile. Only that presumption almost never seems to end well when it comes to God.
2 Likes
You seem to read scripture in a woodenly literal way. This puts your idea of God in a rather small box. But scripture can help you out if you let it. Genesis 2-3 is not actual history, but it tells us why we are here. We once walked with God “in the cool of the morning.” But we decided that we wanted to do things our own way, we wanted to be God ourselves. So God put us in the physical realm, away from him, away from the blissful place we had once been. Now we need to find our own way through all the difficulties that this physical world presents. This world is not, and was never meant to be, some sort of paradise where no baby is ever sick, where no one suffers. This life is not a holiday. It’s a rigorous class. We have to work to learn to deal with life, sometimes at its worst. You seem to believe that God should make everything right and beautiful for us. Not so. We will have that bliss again when we leave this life. For now, we suffer and learn. And don’t be so demoralized by the death and suffering of babies and children. Though it’s not part of Christian teaching, we do live more than once. That baby who dies at its parents hands may be an old soul who volunteered to live the life of that child so that the parents could learn from what they have done. Life is quite a bit more complex that you think. Just trust that God is good. He is.
It’s strange to me to find someone on the complete opposite end of the stick than me. You emotionally hate God and believe he’s real because of whatever you’re finding intellectualism. When I use reason, I see absolutely no concrete evidence for God. I see no proof of miracles or the supernatural. But emotionally, or mentally “delusional-ly” I love God. However I don’t expect supernatural blessings from God. I don’t expect God to do anything like that. I think God operates as a force. The Holy Spirit is a power, not a being, that encourages goodness and justice.
What gets me through is two things.
-
I’m perfectly at peace if it’s fake. It makes no difference to me if it’s all real or if it’s all fake. What gives me hope is knowing this body is just housing the energy that makes me up now. When I die my body will return to the earth. The energy that makes me up will become energy that makes up fruit, mushrooms, leaves , caterpillars and so on. Same as with my cats. The energy that has become me was previously reptiles, dinosaurs, American chestnuts and so on. All the way back to the energy making waves crash and some single cell organism moving around in a water world. It was the energy in the stars. One day this whole planet will be blown apart or absorbed into a star. All life will end on it. Over billions of years it will become a new planet. A new star. A new world where new life will evolve. This will happen until all energy is made void in maximum entropy. Maybe we will be ghosts or something supernatural. Probably not but maybe we move to another universe or land of experience and existence.
-
The other thing is that despite seeing no proof for anything supernatural, we hear stories around the world from all faiths of people who experience something unexplainable. Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, pagans and so on. I have faith that this happens to other lifeforms on other planets and even that other animals like dogs, pigs, chickens and so on all experience this.
Luke 13:34
34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
God is love. It’s love that drives him to want to gather us up. It’s love that drives a hen to want to protect her kids. Same love all mothers feel. When one loving mother is feeding her child a grilled cheese sandwich there is another mother feeling anger, grief and pain over her baby being dragged away to become veal so that another being can use her milk instead of own. That same love is the love God feels for us.
I believe that we see this love through very personal miracles. Miracles, that while are not proof individually and can always be broken down statistically into coincidences. But when he hear of these beautiful short stories from throughout the world from people of every tribe, race, the multitudes of gender and orientations I think collectively it peals back the cover of reality showcasing something special underneath of an loving god.
This is a story and it’s true but I don’t care if you accept it or not or how you break it down. Same as the truths that keep your faiths tangled up that you never share also won’t be weakened just because I won’t see it as solid proof.
I’ve always been a horror nerd since I was a kid. I was also an avid reader. Because of this I loved the horror section of bookstores and seen a tarot deck in one called “deviant moon tarot deck.” The deck was beautiful , cosmic and horror driven. Very colorful. The wands were full of plants . This was part of the drive that lead me wanting to create gothic gardens as a young teen. Led me to being interested in landscaping and plants. My love of science lead me to ecology and environmentalism. This lead me to native plants which is full of examples of coevolution. This fit perfectly in tune with my compassion towards insects and animals in general. It’s why I don’t eat them or wear them. Since it helped me develop an even stronger love for crawlers like spiders I would capture and release any spider that is supposed to be outside. Southern House spiders that can’t survive outside my house, I keep them inside. I have cavities built into my walls and floors for example that spiders live in. Anyways this all lead towards me awakening one night to something crawling on my face. I sleep in complete darkness and assumed it was a spider and so I cupped my hand around it. But felt little wings flittering and felt a tiny hairy body and so I knew it was a moth. Because I know moths have a short life I knew I wanted to set it free outside. It was like 1am. I stepped out onto my back porch in complete darkness and thought this moth needs the moon, and so I stepped off my back porch that is enclosed and went out into the backyard to release it.
I then turned around and saw a man inside my house with a kitchen knife just like Mr. Meyers. He was holding the tip towards my cat Uhyre who was sniffing it. So I screamed at them and and ran towards the back door as they were turning around and catching a glimpse of me. I ran into my back room and grabbed my machete , just like Mr. Voorhees and was 100% prepared to come inside and try to kill this invader. But by the time I got back he was gone. “ though later on i realized creepily he hid under a spare bed in a bedroom and later snuck out through a bathroom window.
So it could just be a series of coincidences all dependent upon one another since childhood or it could be what I feel in my heart or delusional mind, it’s the love of God. A loving god who begin putting this puzzle piece together potentially back in my childhood or maybe just a loving god who used those random experiences to gently awaken me at night and led me outside to my deck. Who knows what would have happened otherwise.
This god did not stop me from having two of my fingers crushed off into goo though a few years later. But the world is full of these potential personal unverifiable experiences. It is statistically more likely that it’s all just misunderstandings, coincidences, lies and trickery…. Maybe or it’s people telling stories of the unexplainable.
2 Likes
One last thing. You mentioned make of fire. Black and white. You seem to believe in a god who sends souls to burn in pain for all eternity. I use to believe that too.
I suggest listening to this podcast.
“Rethinking Hell” hosted by Chris Date. It’s over 400 hours long.
The book “ The Fire that Consukes” by Edward Fudge.
You believe in eternal conscious torment. I did too. Then I studied it and believed in conditional immortality/ annihilationism which over time lead to me accepting a universalist position. Though it’s like 51% universalism and 49% conditional immortality debating in my head.
Suffering an evil were long before Adam and Eve.
Suffering will always be with us and it is not a choice by God to inflict suffering. It just happens. It is part of life. What really counts in God’s eyes is how one handles it.
2 Likes
Many years ago I read a science fiction novel “Needle”. The plot was a rogue alien crashed on earth while fleeing from its own kind. It had the ability to ooze into human bodies and reside there as a parasite. An alien cop came to earth looking for it but needed another human as a host in order to be mobile and have vision. The rogue’s host was a man who was observed being unusually careless with dangerous objects. Turns out that, like any good parasite, the resident alien was protecting its host and causing deep cuts to heal instantly. Its host had unconsciously adapted to the lack of consequential suffering.
Now imagine a child protected in that way who crosses the threshold into adulthood and loses that internal protection. (Yes, I can also imagine more magic that would instantaneously alter the child’s brain to a cautious adult brain, but there would be even more unintended consequences that would have to be dealt with.)
My point is that perhaps babies need to risk suffering in order to function as adults in this physical world.
1 Like
This ALMOST helps. Almost. Thank you. I understand this. I just feel a loving God could never look upon CERTAIN things and tolerate them. I am a terrible creature, and there are things I CANNOT tolerate. Does this make me more loving than God? Apparently not even close. Yet, there is the problem of His lack of action.
I’m sorry, this is a disgusting take. Similar to the idea of God taking babies away so they don’t become Hitler.
That is strange. Is your idea of God based on the Judeo/Christian God? I believe the ONLY way to learn about that God is through the Bible, and I find the character of this God monstrous. It’s amazing you can feel anything other than hate. We all want to love God. But is the one that exists someone we CAN love? Or in your case, even believe in?
Bad take. Sorry. This cannot move me as I do not see animals the way you seem to.
I have never seen one. Only read about them. And unfortunately, I do not believe in personal testimony regarding experiencing them.
I think in your case, yes. No offense.
To give it a label, I am a staunch “annihilationist”.
The infinite variety and the fact not even an infant is spared even the worst is the problem here. Not suffering in general.
I’m not talking about not looking both way when crossing the road. I’m talking about not even having a chance to experience what it is to be a normal Human. To experience those situations and choices. To suffer for the entirety of your brief existence and then die in pain. Often not even understanding what is happening. There is no lesson in that. No benefit. This is PURE cruelty. How can it be anything else?
Hello. I can’t do justice to your full post but wanted to jump in and point out a different direction you could take I can relate to what you wrote in a lot of ways. I struggled with thinking I could make a better world than God. And I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some doubt deep down or anger at the way things are. But is this a proper response to corruption that I mistake as God’s doing?
I remember in Bible study when talking about the plagues always being the guy that kept saying “God
murdered a bunch of children here.” I couldn’t get anything out of the story because that was impassable for me at the time. I struggle with natural evil, human suffering and God ordering or killing/murdering children in the Bible. Natural evil seems to be a big problem for you as it is me. But I have begun to exit that storm. For me, the problem was theistic personalism and modern theological conceptions of God. And this is definitely your perspective or where you are coming from:
God exists in a state of perfection in an eternal now as a triune-deity. Nothing we say or do can add to or take away from God’s goodness or perfection. God doesn’t cry when we do, doesn’t pine for our approval and gets nothing from us. This is theistic personalism and from a classical perspective it’s pure nonsense. From my perspective God doesn’t even want you to believe in him. God doesn’t want things. God wills things.
*Wanting implies a lack — a desire to acquire something one does not possess.
*Willing, in the classical sense, is the active ordering of things toward their proper ends.
Since God’s not some Mesopotamian (or modern evangelical) deity pining for our approval or worship, but a perfect being, or rather the source of all being and goodness itself, all creation is an act of gratuitous love or love overflowing.
Prayer isn’t about changing God’s mind (that doesn’t happen) nor about giving tribute to him. It is medicine for your soul and the way to achieve our highest end or telos. Prayer does nothing for God. Prayer is solely an act of overflowing love and grace for humans as is all of creation. It is a means for us to achieve flourishing.
God’s happiness or perfection does not depends on our beliefs. That seems to be the most extremely egotistical thing imaginable from the classical perspective. We use a lot of anthropomorphic language and there is nothing wrong with it since God became flesh but modern Christians seem to have lost sight of what we are actually engaged in: communicatio idiomatum. God is the play’s author, not a character within it.
Classical theism views evil as a privation of good. Cancer isn’t really a thing or being in and of itself. My understanding is it is cell division that lost its breaks. In a physical universe things are going to break and their will be competing telos. In order for a lion to live, a gazelle has to die. While God wills the good of the entire universe to constantly suspend those natural laws to prevent any physical corruption would mean overriding the very nature of the universe He willed into existence. Cancer is a breakdown of the good, biological processes that God ordered.
If God were another being like us, just a super being, which is how you treat him, then I suspect most of your criticisms would be intellectually valid as well as emotionally devastating. I don’t expect privation to be emotionally satisfying against evil. Nothing is when dealing with cancer even in adults, let alone children. But God is the very source of the goodness you are longing for. I would recommend you get away from all the modern evangelical conceptions of God, their poor defenses and take a look at classical theism. You can’t even spite God by telling Him you no longer love Him. You only spite yourself and your own flourishing and that of those around you.
Vinnie
1 Like
It was not an opinion. Just a fact of what is happening. To me it makes you just as cruel as the cruelty you see in God.
You would have to elaborate because your comment makes no sense to me in light of the context about my comment.
I’ll also be honest. I don’t think you’re a sincere person. I think you’re a biblical literalist who has repeatedly read angry specific interpretation into the Bible and you’re angry God is not a genie and that somehow you’re this elevated human being of goodness and it’s your own goodness that makes you “shriek”’at the cruelty of God. Maybe others in here can help you.
You say the Bible is the only way to know god…. Well which bible….. there are dozens of bibles….. which of the dozens of collections of scripture are you referring to? Which edits to which books in those various collections? Is this all based off of your own understanding? An echo chamber? Are you looking biblical criticism to even know if the way you’re reading the bible is even a healthy understanding to it?
To me it seems you’ve created this typical monsterous God based off of the typical bad theology clung to by people.
If you’re an annihilationist then surely you see that as merciful. A lot of people seem to only care about suffering when that suffering is happening to something dear to them. They ignore it for others and get shocked when their genie does not grant their wish and take it as a personal attack.
Why should God eliminate human suffering? Why should God stop some kid from a horrible disease? Perhaps he’s moved because he does not see humans like that. Why should God care more about suffering than you?
Like what do you think you’re entitled to from god concerning life?
I disagree. He only spends half the OT killing for it and demanding it…
But the Bible states that people have changed God’s mind.
This kind of phenomenon was never my objection.
He has done so in several cases before, even trivial cases like turning back the Sun to prove Himself to a man. He did it all the time through Jesus. He could absolutely be doing it here and there to eliminate at least cancer in babies.
That’s fine. I am not demanding you love me or burn. Though people who ascribe the same meaning to animals as people concern me greatly. But you do know God isn’t exactly animal-safe either, right? It’s pretty bad how He treats them too.
I got it from the Bible itself. We are talking about the general translation of all editions of the Holy Bible. They’re all more or less the same. You ever read the thing front to back? It’s horrific. And a roller coaster of a ride. You start out in wonder, then move to horror. Then Jesus comes and you relax a bit, though you start getting confused about how different Jesus is to God, considering they’re one and the same. THEN you get to Revelation and you realize you’re totally screwed no matter what you do and lose all heart.
Not in my case. But you don’t believe I am sincere.
To use a metaphor you may understand based on your post. Basic animal Husbandry 101 teaches to do no harm to your pet, to meet it’s needs and prevent it’s suffering. You treat a Moth better than God treats Humanity.
Giving us free will then punishing us when we don’t choose Him… That’s really pathetic, like a jilted lover. It’s not really free if it comes with threats and punishments.
Anyway. I’m starting to feel a little attacked here personally, rather than my ideas. Can we chill a bit. I’m not here to fight anyone.
You are correct in that if you read the OT like a biography, God comes off as a narcissistic warlord at times. If the definition of God comes with Biblical literalism, atheism is a better alternative than misotheism. But are we also to think a pair of penguins waddled down the Armenian mountains and swam 9,000 miles to repopulate Antarctica? Or that God created the sabbath so he could rest and literally get refreshed? Did all the “let there bes” get Him tired? Do we have to be literalists or can we leave the children’s section and read the Bible like grown-ups? If you dislike the God of Biblical literalism then hop in, I’ll give you a ride.
When the OT describes God as jealous or angry it is using human psychological states to express divine justice. It is accommodated language and speaks of God anthropomorphically so we can try to grasp the gravity of our relationship with him. God (who is perfect and immutable) doesn’t actually have blood pressure spikes that lead to Him smiting people in temper tantrums. Ancient people understood God and their gods in a primitive fashion. We should be reading this material analogically. God is actus purus (pure act lacking potentiality) and does not change. Any perceived change is solely on our end. You don’t explain Ipsum Esse Subsistens to Bronze Age nomadic shepherds anymore than you try to explain the big bang to them.
The OT is a pedagogical journey of a group people towards truth, not some diary of a Mesopotamian superhero. Ancient Israelites, like their surrounding cultures, thought the gods needed to be fed, appeased and housed. God institutes a sacrificial system not because He’s hungry or needs tribute, but to slowly break the Israelites of their idolatry. The system is better seen as physical rituals that order their minds toward the ultimate Good which showed up later in the belly of the virgin mother. God in the flesh fulfills all of this.
Even within the OT, God tells us in anthromophorphic terms that sacrifice is not what he really wants. God wills mercy and he pulls the curtain back at times on this accommodation. In Psalm 50, God explicitly mocks the idea of theistic personalism: *“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?” Also in numbers: “God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind.” The Old Testament is simply not univocal in how it presents God. Which is why you can say, “But the Bible states that people have changed God’s mind.” The change occurs on our end. I’m not sure how anyone could get past chapter two of Genesis and not already realize this lack of univocality. Given the Bible depicts a pedagogical journey over thousands of years, this is expected. So while the Canaanites, Babylonians, and Egyptians believed the gods literally needed to be fed, appeased, and housed, the Bible accommodates parts of these beliefs and works from within that system to eventually overturn it.
I would point out two things here: 1) God is not a moral agent and thus has no moral obligation to do what you feel humans are entitled to. 2) Miracles are not generally done for harm reduction or maintenance, but given as signs. Your Jesus example demonstrates this in spades. Jesus performed local healings but he did not end cancer, blindness or disease. He didn’t heal everyone in Judea, not to mention Rome or the rest of the world. We Christians believe that everyone Jesus healed eventually aged, suffered, and died. If Jesus’s goal was physical harm reduction, his mission was a catastrophic failure. We might as well quote Metallica: “Healing hand held back by deepened nail . . . follow there god that failed.”
If God suspends the reality of cell division to stop baby cancer, should He not also suspend gravity to catch a falling toddler? Alter thermodynamics to stop a house fire? Alter neurochemistry to prevent a drunk driver from starting a car? God is supposed to step in an stop all tragedies? You say just baby cancer but anyone losing a child to a house fire would want thermodynamics altered there as well. Or anyone with a child who committed suicide, or anyone with a relative or loved one killed by a drunk driver. Where does the line drawn? We would no longer live in a physical universe, this would be a padded simulation. You want squares to be round. Science, physics, and human agency exist in a physical world where secondary causes run autonomously (through their operation, not sustained existence), even when those natural processes break down (which is what cancer is). We don’t live in a magical realm where actions and physical laws lack reliable consequences. The ultimate answer to suffering isn’t to put a temporary patch on it in this life, but to completely overcome it in the next.
Vinnie