if god is so loving

Gosh, red1, your post has raised questions I've been turning over in my mind for years.
If this Almighty God entity is all-powerful why did he (automatically male, of course!) create such a badly flawed creature as a human being? Are we the end result of a cruel and sadistic whim?
And why does the bible (origins uncertain at best) dictate repeatedly that this supreme entity demands our undivided worship? It's almost egotistical.
And, the ultimate question, why is the world mired in so much misery? We are led to believe that anything good in our lives is due to the generosity of this mythical entity but anything negative is all our fault. Religion is,generally, appallingly one-sided, to be sure.

I don't have all the answers red1.
But my faith keeps me going.
When I think of the universe and beauty and love, I find it hard not to believe in God.

My suggestion is that you read the Bible. It’s all in there recorded by a loving God who wants to be a Father to us, for us to read and believe or not, it’s up to us. It says we are made in Gods image so he gave us free will to choose.
He doesn’t want robots, He wants people who love His son Jesus, who gave his life at around 33 years of age so that we could be forgiven and live forever with Him.
I know it sound strange and a bit far fetched but for the last 40 years I have had a wonderful relationship with the Lord Jesus and I think I’m a well balanced and sane person 😁

GrandtanteJE65
Your post doesn’t explain anything except what you believe.

I don’t live according to any religious teaching but by certain rules of how I would like others to treat me and using the same rules in my treatment of others. The same rules that my parents used.

I'm a Christian, though don't follow a religion as such, I believe snippets of many faiths.
I have to believe there's a God, I there's heaven, I can't think of the alternative...
Losing my granddaughter 18months ago made me hope and pray even more that there was a god holding her close, while I couldn't 😔

My “gods” are Odin,Thor and Mother Nature….⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️

Farzanah No idea, I usually use 'they', but old habits die hard.

On two occasions I have placed myself in God’s hands and felt comforted. When my ds was diagnosed with a life limiting disease I shouted and ranted that I hated God and called him all sorts of names, I blasphemed but in so doing I realised I did believe in God. Every experience I had ever had equipped me to deal with my son’s illness. It made sense of my existence.

I’m sorry about your sister.

Has God a gender then MOnica?

E173 God loving or not, gives us free will and does not interfere in how we live. if he interfered for one, he would have to interfere for all and often have two competing sides expecting him to interfere on their behalf.

It is humans who have decided he should always interfere in their individual affairs.

My sister died in a car accident. It was nothing to do with God. It was how free will plays out. I didn't blame him. It was nothing to do with him.

Yes that is so sad E173 and must be unbelievably painful for you.
mumofmadboys I am always impressed by your kind and thoughtful posts, you are an impressive ambassador for Christianity.

I'm very sorry to hear you have lost your daughter, E 173.

There are many scientists and philosophers who argue that we do not have free will.

Watch The Truman Story. It gives a good explanation of what life would be like without free will. We are allowed to make choices and what matters if that we are forgiven for making wrong choices.

I'm an atheist and life has done nothing to prove I should be anything else.

Among a lot of other things, a loving god wouldn't have let my daughter slowly destroy herself and everything around her from the age of 14 until her death last September at the age of 26.

Sounds a great priest farview. When the time comes as to all of us, I think it will be normal to be anxious, but I like to think of it as similar before I was born. I wasn’t aware that I wasn’t alive then, and that’s how I imagine it will be.
Who knows?

I think because I do not believe in any afterlife or “heaven”, the transience of my existence gives more meaning and spurs me to live the best life that I can.

My brother in law,on end of life care in a hospice has accepted the inevitable calmly, but a little frightened...his parish priest on one of his visits asked "are you angry with God...I would be"..
very honest of him,hes a wonderful man who has made time for b.i.l over the last seven years...

As both a believer and a historian of religion, I shall try to answer a few of your questions. The world was created because God, or the gods, depending on which religion's texts you read, because God wanted to do so.

According to the Christian and Jewish scriptures God gave mankind free will, which basically means that there is little point in blaming God for the state of the world, now or at any time in history.

Having free will means we can CHOOSE to be as good as possible and do only good as far as that is possible, or we can choose to be selfish, wicked, evil etc.

If we lived as various religious texts, both Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Sihk, Muslim and Buddhist say we ought to the world would be a far nicer, happier place.

Unfortumately, a lot of people are only concerned with grabbing as much power, money, food, land etc for themselves and don't bother to try and live acording to any religious teaching.

The afterlife in Heaven is something we earn by at least trying to believe in God - if the world had never been created we would be nowhere. We would never have existed and therefore could not be in Heaven, or whatever you want to call the afterlife.

I used to be an evangelical Christian in my 20s/30s.. I was really attracted to the love and warmth and friendship offered. However, gradually I came to see that scientific explanations about the world, imperfect and evolving as they are, made more sense to me than supernatural ones.

I have now found my “spiritual” home as a humanist, and do not yearn for a faith, but am happy for those who do if it helps them negotiate life and gives them hope.

I think kindness and compassion are not restricted to those of faith, and I believe, very important qualities to have. On the “free will” question, I’m not sure, after studying neuroscience, that we have as much as we think we do!

I was sent to Sunday School but never 'got' the faith thing. I did however fancy Jesus like mad which is probably why I went out with long haired hippies when I was a teenager (mother was appalled, the music, the patchouli 😁).
I believe in Christopher Hitchens.

I have a strong faith albeit I fell out with God some years ago - and made up again. I think part of the problem is believing that god is perfect . Everything in the universe is not perfect .
I remember once seeing a film where people were starving as they could only eat with 3 feet chopsticks. they could not reach the end of the chopsticks. Then the person was taken to heaven where well fed people were also given the same chopsticks. The difference was they were feeding other people so everyone had a chance to eat. our role is to help each other . so if we see somebody that is suffering we should help - but as we are not all perfect then we forget that at times.

Who or rather is God ?
I can’t imagine ‘God’ but scared not to try

I'm all for love - indeed my religion is kindness - I do all I can to treat everyone with kindness. I make a pig's ear of it sometimes, but it seems to me a good enough way to strive to live one's life. It might stop the odd war here and there if everyone tried it.

But we cannot get away from the fact that cruelty is built in to the world - kill or be killed - testosterone-fuelled territorial defences. No-one asked to be born with these instincts that blight the world - they are just a given. Given by god I guess if you believe in such a being.

Our is not to reason why. We are lumbered with this and have to just get on with it.

Now if a supreme being had set up a world where killing was not a necessity for survival I guess everyone might have been happier. But that being decided to set the place up with the potential for misery - why I wonder? Or could it be that there is no Great Intention, but simply a random big bang?