I haven't stopped believing in G-d. However, I realized at least a decade ago that it can't be accurate that the world is a good place where sometimes things happen that are wrong; the world is a bad place where sometimes things happen that are right. All of the right things that happen are because of G-d, and everything else isn't.
G-d has never stopped a war that people wanted to have. S/he has never saved people who didn't want to die from illnesses. I don't think that there's ever been something really bad that anyone ever wanted to do that G-d has prevented that person from doing.
I'm sure that many people pray to G-d before they die, hoping that they won't.
One of the most difficult things for me to understand as having any spiritual value at all is physical pain that people have when they're born or when they're children. What could be the reason for the birth of a sentient being into a world where he or she knows nothing other than pain? What could be transcendent about that sort of suffering?
It is always presumptuous to tell other people that G-d has a reason for their pain, and I'm not saying that about anyone; if G-d has a reason for anyone's pain, s/he hasn't told me about it.
During the past few weeks, I have thought about the Syrian crisis, about all of the people who have died, and everyone who is homeless. G-d did not stop those deaths, and has not stopped the pain of the living. There is no reason for me to think that G-d will stop my being evicted, or have someone remove the hidden, illegal cameras from my apartment, or stop my being victimized by voyeurism again, or stop my phone from being hacked, or stop my being bullied for the rest of my life, or stop other bad things from happening to me even though so many bad things have already happened.
That's a quote from The Screwtape Letters. People who haven't read that book should read it.
Copyright, with noted exceptions, L. Kochman, March 2, 2017 @ 11:25 a.m./I don't choose excerpts or supporting information for code purposes.
