hbomb said:
Moral authority is a terrible thing - I refuse to believe in a Universe where I can sit around all day posting on The Escapist while hundreds of innocent children die every single day, some of them from the most disastrously painful and horrifying of bone cancers, that there is such a thing as a just and loving God. It's just plain wrong, if not morally reprehensible.
*facepalms*
Oh, not this tired old saw.
What you want is a universe in which God and/or Jesus remove all suffering, regardless of what kind it is. Bone cancer or a traffic accident, doesn't matter.
Not for one moment do you bother to actually think about what kind of world that would have to be.
Free will?
Belief in God would be replaced instantly by
knowledge that He's watching everything you do. Who needs cameras in your bedroom; GOD IS WATCHING YOU SCREW. Unless, of course, you're free to disbelieve in Him. Or at least to believe that His attention isn't on you 24/7. Oh, but that means if He's NOT watching everyone, 24/7, little innocent children will die painful deaths every day because of accidents.
So I guess your rights to privacy and free will mean kids are gonna die.
Bone cancer? Yeah, let's just eliminate all nasty diseases
OH WAIT THEY'RE PART OF THE ECOSYSTEM. The ecosystem which allows for evolution, so that species around the world can continue to develop and not stagnate into a mass die-off. Bone cancer's an example of biology developing to take advantage of a niche...but if it's inconvenient to humanity, God should just stomp it out, right?
Please. You don't want a Loving Father --- you want the Ultimate Nanny State.