There is definitely no loving God. Fact.

I can't believe you need to ask Annie.

Maybe Allah should sort out Yemen

Sad things ? Murder, illness, accidents, war, still births, struck by lighting, drunk driver mounting a pavement , so yes I asked

A lovely little boy called Bradley Lowrey (google him) an avid Sunderland supporter just like my grandson, (my little grandson was mascot with him at a home game) a lovely little boy who has never said or done a thing wrong in his whole 6 years of life.

Where is God in his life? In fact I will go a step further and say if you're there God, you should be bloody well ashamed of yourself doesn't begin to cover it.

Brave little Bradley Lowery pictured with his hero Jermaine Defoe.

The two have struck of a close friendship.

Gilly, poor little chap.

No one can answer your question , you are hurting and angry and want the child healed so he can live his life

I am hurt and very angry Anniebach my little grandson (I have a lovely video of them playing together at Sunderlands ground) is so fit and healthy, whereas this poor little innocent boy.... I can't finish the sentence just too upsetting .

I do understand Gilly and understand your question. I still remember how I felt in the maternity wing, could faintly hear the babies crying in the nursery , mine was in the mortuary , this happened twice.

It's a cruel world Anniebach and I can't get my head around the whole "god thing". Why would a loving god let someone go through the heartache and agony of having a baby and then cruelly snatch it away in the most awful way? When vile people ( too many to name ) get to live long lives.
I'm so sincerely sorry to hear of the loss of your 2 babies. I can't begin to imagine how you coped through something like that.

Gilly, two babies and my husband in four years , I coped because I had my faith, didn't mean I didn't get angry, Welsh mountains are a good place to voice anger aloud . For me, perhaps my babies may have had serious health problems had they lived, I don't know but it was a possibility, if my husband had survived the car crash and been severely disabled that would have been hell on earth for him.

When he died I would have been left with a 7,5,3,1 year old, I don't mean it was easier because two died, I accepted there was no clear answer to some of my questions, this is my definition of faith. I just knew they were safe in the 'ever open arms, No help to you I know.

'God' is a concept, just like 'Father Christmas'. The word 'God' represents all that is good in humankind. It is not an actual person.

For me God is real; my spiritual father, a mentor, teacher and a friend.

Same for me Smileless

Anniebach

So if god is real smileless and annie why did he allow poor little Bradley Lowery to suffer for so long and then die aged only 6 years old? When so many evil people get to live long lives? Surely a god that has this sort of power must be quite sick to play around as he does . Does he have s kind of wand that enables him ( or her to be fair) to cast spells " I grant you s long happy life" " I grant you pain and misery"
I do wish I had done kind if faith but can't help feeling as I do .

This is why 'God' exists, Smileless, because people need Him!

We return to the basic questions:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

― Epicurus

Sums it up for me. I find it rather tiresome that these unanswerable questions are usually answered with such as: his ways are mysterious; we are like children to his parent role and we cannot always understand; you just have to have faith (for me that means switching off my brain)- all "answers" which do not address the questions at all.

But, I am fully aware that the belief in a god is a huge comfort to many and that has to be good for many. But that belief can also be bad - as god can be used to justify evil.

So, I just try to live by the rule of kindness.

I can't answer that Gilly, God doesn't do favourites . some who have done evil things may live long lives but we don't know if their lives are a living hell . Let's say God will decide to save the lives of children, what's the cut off age?

We want a God who does our will, he doesn't . I suppose if one doesn't believe in God the promises of Christ mean nothing , just empty words printed in a boring old book.

For those who believe in God the words of Christ give hope, strength, love, support , comfort.

And I have done my share of ranting at God ?, he still loves me ,I love him, I have had dark times, probably more to come, he has always been there , Christ promised - I will not fail you or forsake you.

All I know, after 30+ years of practising Christianity in church, winning RE prizes at school and theology prizes at uni, a BA hons in Theology, several years spent married to a vicar (divorced, but that's a whole other story...) and the death of a child in an accident ... then subsequently becoming an RE lead-teacher in primary schools, ...all I know for me is that whatever God is or isn't, there has been a constant 'something' in my life - and the life of others that is about realising the potential if not the actuality of good rather than evil, for compassion rather than self-interest, for hope rather than despair. Religious doctrine has often-times been of little comfort to me. When Christian people told me to put my faith in Jesus and hold onto the belief that I will see my daughter in heaven one day - all I could feel and see was the gap and the waiting of some forty years ... I have grown away from organised religion and the idea of a 'father' God, but towards the idea of an accompanying God - not interventionist, but present and transoformative ... I do not see / feel this as a prop, but rather a sense-making. Maybe it is more philosophical / spiritual than religious, but whatever it is that leads to the positive is what God is for me.

Sounds like the rule of kindness to me; and I am glad that your belief has been a strength to you over the years and many trials.

I am happy to accept that there is no real "point" to life - I know that others find that impossible. And to accept that we are alone in this and have to fettle for ourselves as best we may. But I can pick what I see as the good things from the various religions without the need to believe in a deity: the prime principle of loving others from Christianity; the seeking quiet and inner peace from Buddhism etc.

We none of us know the answer to these questions - and I always feel that if there were answers, any deity worth its salt would make that much clearer. It is no good saying that the various religious books do give guidance, because unfortunately they do not give the same guidance!

You could waste a lifetime looking for answers where there are none - better to just concentrate on kindness. The value of that is very clear.

The rule of kindness is the word of Christ

And it's my word too!!

He got there first

For what it's worth ... I think it is adult and healthy to question, to explore and to accept that actually we cannot be certain.

IF there is a loving 'parental' God I like to think he/she/it would enjoy the fact that we question ... To my mind, faith is not blind acceptance, but belief that openly faces and considers what may contradict or challenge or apparently dispel and yet still believes. In my experience, faith that is insistent because it will brook no contradiction is usually underpinned by fear and is in danger of becoming bigotry.

I forget who wrote the sharpest socio / theological arguments about us needing to create God for ourselves and in our own image, (there are several and Freud was among them), but to me they can add to our understanding of ourselves and what we consider to be of a divine nature.

I just don't think anyone has the right to insist that they are right. Wars were fought and blood shed to create 'holy' doctrine and the very tenets of Christian belief that underpin Roman Catholic and Anglican practice. Religious interpretations worked out within and against these ideas and teachings continue to give rise to great conflicts and misery today.

I do not believe in Father Christmas because he is not real. Jesus Christ is real and is the reason for my faith. I have felt him with me when I've been in circumstances of great distress. The point of faith is that you don't have to prove it, it is part of your life. Malcolm Muggeridge once said on television many years ago when an interviewer said did he believe, " No I don't believe I know" That sums up Christian faith for me.