There is definitely no loving God. Fact.

Oh, I wondered how long it would be before all the ills of the world were be blamed on the UK and countries like it!

I believe that God gave Man free will to govern his own conduct and make his own decisions. But some men and women do not take responsibility for their own behaviour and some make wrong decisions. But Jesus halted the stoning of a woman caught in adultery by saying " Let he who is without sin
cast the first stone".

Pity he didn't stop all the other stonings.

Sorry soup - welcome; and sorry soon!

"All the nastiness in the world is due to people not obeying the rules" - well! where to start!? - is viral meningitis caused by people not obeying the rules; or is it a god-given gift; or is it simply one species in the natural world seeking to survive and unfortunately killing its host?

Throughout recorded history, and probably way before that, people and countries have helped themselves to what others have. That is NOT saying that the UK or any other country is snowy-white, it is just to point out that you can't select one set of countries to blame everything bad onto.

Things go in and out of fashion. Rome was once the in place, to have Roman citizenship was to have made it, then it was seen as the bane of other lesser nations. European nations were powerful and envied and copied, then condemned by the countries they colonised. The USA was a magnet for the "huddled masses, yearning to be free" now it is a dirty word in some mouths.

I haven't got a clue where this thread is going. Or where it's at.

Well, if there is no God as many people believe, how can insurance companies get out of paying out on claims because of an Act of God? If the insurer and the insured are both atheists where do they stand if a natural phenomenon such as a volcano occurs?

www.confused.com/home-insurance/articles/confused-com-explain-acts-of-god-in-home-insurance

just hope that the tectonic plates have third party cover, I suppose.

Third party cover, fire and theft

The story of the garden of Eden in Genesis is very effective in its explanation of our responsibility for our own behaviour . Humanity is capable of dreadful things but each individual has a god given power to control decisions . I interpret God as Love , which when you think about it has the potential to be more powerful in its purest form than any other force . Who knows whether it is an entity found in each person or an external force ? We don't need to know , we simply need to nurture it and act on it in our own lives . Wars over the wil and whims of god are destructive tragic and unnecessary and give god a bad name .

God gave us all free will. If he hadn't we would simply be puppets. Our faith & love for him would be meaningless because they would be programmed into us rather than our choice. (Would you want your kids to love you simply because they were UNABLE to do anything else? They didn't choose to, they just did so by rote?)

Sadly free will means that some people can choose to cause harm to other living creatures. And disease/disabilities can happen because evolution can get things wrong for us but right for viruses etc. That doesn't mean God is responsible or that He doesn't care ... God helps us to endure what we must and enjoy what we can in this life.

I believe that in the next, all will be well, and evil will be unable to touch good people and animals. (And by good, I don't mean perfect - just those who did the best they could with kindness as their guiding light.)

"But Jesus halted the stoning of a woman caught in adultery by saying " Let he who is without sin cast the first stone".

Well no - he didn't. That story was tacked on centuries later - which is odd, because it's one of the most popular examples folks will cite when asked for an example of 'Christ's teaching'. In fact nobody knows what, if anything, the man said or did, given that he existed at all.

So if nobody knows what be said or did. Nobody can say - well no, be didn't say that

But it is hard for many to understand how people can base a lifetime of belief on things that might have been said or might not.

I accept that Luckygirl, but people have and do believe , this too is a fact.

Yes Anniebach, that's the key, 'people have and do believe'.

It doesn't matter whether they believe in Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha or the Greek Gods, or take a humanist/agnostic/athiest approach to their lives. The key is that people need to believe in something.

I've read about the so called "god gene' which exists in people who have faith and not in those who don't have religious faith. I believe it's part of humanity to believe in something. One of my children is a Pagan, one believes in living a good life and another has recently returned to Christianity. It takes all sorts doesn't it. Thankfully

Yes Iam, it does take all sorts and so I respect almost all faiths and non faith .

I cannot respect faith in the dark side of an occult , human sacrifice etc

Neither could I Anniebach, I've had the misfortune to listen to children describe their experiences in that dark world.

Iam, that must have been horrific

We shouldn't blame God for what man at his most cruel, does
to man (small children) as happened/happening in Syria and Libya,
as heart rending and vile as it is.

Whatever the religion, I believe all dictators such as the North Korean despot will receive all - they so richly deserve, once dead.

Once dead they won't know anything will they... they'll be... dead.

Indeed so - but wouldn't it be nice to think that Hitler had got his comeuppance?!

Hitler took his own life, do we know, and I mean know not guess , what was his state of mind those last days of his life.

We know that he was a sick man, kept heavily medicated by his rather evil doctor... also that he was manifesting Parkinson's (?) with a tremor in his left arm. He refused to understand that the troops he was issuing orders to were no longer available to carry the out - in other words he was manoeuvring imaginary armies... Whoever's side you were on, that must have been a nightmare time...

Thank you feetlebaum, so he was in hell