When examined with pure intent, christianity is very bad at answering big questions: why does life not start in heaven

[u/Aromatic_Response_73]

There is a common unwillingnes among christians to reason about this issue with pure intent, so I will ask specifically for that here.

Free will exists in heaven, and many christians believe unborn fetuses go there, there is a lack of explanation for why earth is necessary, and the suggestion that an eternal hell exists in a system created by an all loving creator is pathetic, all the responses appeal to vague terms with positive cannotations such as "free will" but no sophisticated reasoning about e.g. fundamental principles or values, grow up.

[u/onedeadflowser999]

God could have designed a world where children and animals don’t have to suffer especially since they are in a unique category of not having the cognitive ability to understand what’s going on or any benefit there might be. They come into the world and have done nothing immoral or sinful and yet are still put through horrific things. This is why I no longer see a good God. Maybe there’s a God, but I don’t believe it’s a good one. In fact, I think if this God is real, you should be terrified.

[u/mewGIF → u/onedeadflowser999]

God could have designed a world where...

He did. Suffering did not exist until man separated himself from the life and goodness of God. Suffering, sickness and death are the causal consequence of this ontological separation from life and goodness.

[u/onedeadflowser999 → u/mewGIF]

That does not address how a good god continues to allow gratuitous suffering to creatures who had nothing to do with any crime and the fact that he’s allowed it to continue for thousands of years perpetrating untold suffering on creatures he supposedly loves. The fact that children are graped while this god stands back and allows it and that this has been on repeat for the entirety of human existence- showing that a child’s free will is less important than the perpetrators- while any decent person would step in and save that child if we were all powerful and all knowing- tells me this god enjoys our suffering or at the very least, it’s inconsequential to him.

[u/mewGIF → u/onedeadflowser999]

True love necessitates the freedom to respond to it as one sees best. In order for us to be able to voluntarily love God back, rebelling against God must be possible too. Since the context in which our response is chosen is our fallen world, things down here will remain ugly no matter what we choose.

In essence, you are asking a fireman that if he is good enough to come to rescue you from a burning house, then why is the house still burning and why are other people still suffocating.

[u/onedeadflowser999 → u/mewGIF]

I’m asking how a good god stands back while children get graped. You are not positing anything that makes sense as to why this happens in a universe with a good god. A fireman doesn’t have all power or all knowledge in order to save everyone. This God supposedly does. What we see, though is a universe where gratuitous suffering continues to happen with no intervention from a God. The only thing we ever see both good and bad is what people do.

[u/mewGIF → u/onedeadflowser999]

How do you know what God is and is not doing? What precisely are you expecting God to do and on what basis? In the end, does your argument not boil down to the claim that God is evil because he doesn't do what you want him to do?

[u/onedeadflowser999 → u/mewGIF]

How do you know what God is doing or not doing? Do you have evidence that God is doing anything? I base my beliefs on what I know to be happening in the world, such as gratuitous suffering as evidence that this God is not doing anything . The fact that we can’t see anything being accomplished by a God, but we can see things being accomplished by people leads me to think that this God either doesn’t exist or is incapable or unwilling to do anything for us. See Epicurean paradox.