I’m not trying to “have fun”, these are serious questions I have about the Bible that I guess I worded wrong. But either way, I’m just looking for answers here. “If the Bible preaches love and a God of love and mercy, why do so many bad things happen in it?”
That’s the primary question I have
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My main issue though is how there are a few verses and parts where it implied that God ordered or at least allowed it to happen.
I think
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As I said:
I don’t expect you to understand my view on the matter or to agree with my view, but here’s my view:
- The marvel is not that so many bad things happen in the Bible, but that such a powerful good thing is described in it, that good thing having its origin in what many agree is fragile, i.e. trust in God against enormous odds.
- Mathematically, the Russian V.I. Arnold, explains “the Principle of the Fragility of Good Things” a brief chapter of a 1984 collection of papers on Catastrophe Theory.
- In a system containing a stable domain and an unstable domain separated by a boundary, the boundary is jagged with the jagged points exposed on both sides. The probability that the stability domain will become unstable is far greater than the probability that the instability domain will become stable. [Experience shows that things fall apart more easily than they come into being: e.g. it’s easier to break a beautiful vase than to make one; to make a beautiful thing ugly is easier than making a beautiful thing or making an ugly thing beautiful.] That fact is the basis for "the Principle of the Fragility of the Good. It only takes one little thing going wrong to ruin everything; but it takes a myriad of things going right to make everything good.
- Mathematically, the Russian V.I. Arnold, explains “the Principle of the Fragility of Good Things” a brief chapter of a 1984 collection of papers on Catastrophe Theory.
- The Old Testament contains stories about a nation called to become beautiful in an ugly world and failing. Some of what makes us uncomfortable is the fact that nation-building in this world appears to be doomed to fail. The rest of what makes us uncomfortable is the fact that ugliness is so common, so easily attainable, and envies the beautiful.
- Personally, I recommend that you start elsewhere, on the next to the last page of the whole story: i.e. with the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus of Nazareth. Why? Because that, according to 1 Corinthians 15 is the Good News: i.e. the cause for Hope in this world.
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Oh? Do you have a passage where God orders rape? slavery?
Or are you talking about atrocities like D-day when the allies invaded Normandy and attacked the Germans?
No. When you next google, omit the ‘rules’. Unless the ‘AI’ is smart enough to pick it up as a verb. And then discount it as a figure of speech and concentrate on ‘contingency’.
If you mean everything is contingent, then you have accepted something that cannot possibly be true.
How could I possibly mean that?
Because you said there are an infinite number of past (not future) events.
I had similar thoughts. Imagine if Bible was all sweetness and light, rainbows and cupcakes. Would that be favourable evidence for God? Or would anti theists say things to the contrary? Because let’s not forget ancient times were BRUTAL and life was REALLY HARD. So if somebody came up with “hey! God loves you and everything is good, don’t worry about anything!” in the world of hardship and pain unimaginable to most of modern humans, could this be taken seriously? Or would it be dismissed simply as fantasy and wishful thinking?
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There are; and there will be an infinite number of future events, too. An infinite past and infinite future are possibilities that just take some getting used to.
If you see the past like the future as yet to occur, then you are least considering the sense in which the world does not have it’s beginning in time.
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True, and I do.
Are you a Christian?
Absolutely yes. And I believe in the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus of Nazareth.
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I think you confused the possibility of a series proceeding to infinity, with the impossibility of the series becoming quantifiably infinite.
God’s perfect knowledge of the future may be considered separately from the logical impossibility of him creating an infinite number of planets.
And while I’m unfamiliar with the passage, I have appreciated how Aquinas said by way of revelation is how we know when the world begins.
I should say, and do so here, that I personally find the word “world” ambiguous", and prefer the word “universe” to the word “world” and, moreover, prefer the word “cosmos” [i.e. all that there is and orderly] to the word “universe”. “Worlds”–as in the Earth, a solar system, or a galaxy–do have relatively brief existences; “the Cosmos”, however, doesn’t. The Cosmos that I have in mind–there’s only one–has always existed and always will; worlds–of which there are many–come and go. There’s room and time enough in a Cosmos for infinitely many worlds.
I confess to being easily confused, especially when multi-tasking in a hurry, but given my belief in the Cosmos, you’ll need to show me more slowly and carefully why it’s impossible.
P.S. Trivia: the notion of an infinite and eternal Cosmos is not new. Anaximander was, I believe, an early proponent. He called it “the apeiron”, i.e. “the Boundless”.
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That’s not contingent.
I can’t show you, but you can see for yourself how an infinite set cannot be formed through successive addition.
Kind of like imagining nothing, and seeing it necessarily from your own point of view or being.
Imagining an infinite quantity is like that. Now to be honest, I have had a couple people tell me they can imagine an infinite number of things…
Deuteronomy 22:25-29
“But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.
Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Rape“ this one doesn’t command or order it, but it is about rape. Just though I’d put it there.
Another one that I think says more about rape:
“If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days.
Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Rape”
Why should a girl who is raped have to marry the man who raped her? This doesn’t command or order it, but it sounds like it’s not giving the oppressor a good punishment.
Ephesians 6:5-8 Paul states, “Slaves, be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ” which is Paul instructing slaves to obey their master. Similar statements regarding obedient slaves can be found in Colossians 3:22-24, 1 Timothy 6:1-2, and Titus 2:9-10.
It is saying for slaves to be obedient. But I’m not too sure on what this means.
And lastly, while this isn’t about slavery, many, from my experience, have claimed it to be justifying the government or system oppressing those below.
Romans 13 1
The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong.
All I’m looking for here is basically an explanation to what these specific verses mean. I never saw God order it, which is why I said “or at least allow”, but some of these give off the impression of it not being too “serious”.
Basically, the slave must be obedient to their master, and the authority mustn’t be questioned. These are the impressions from those two verses.
And in the verse I mentioned about the man raping a virgin who isn’t engaged, it Said he must marry her. Doesn’t sound too good.
I don’t think everything is contingent.