So, I was talking with a friend of mine last week about all the wars, killings and bad things happening all over the world. I was of the opinion God will definitely intervene but he told me God is not around. His exact words was - "God is on a sabbatical leave". I asked him why he said so? He told me that he believe in God but right now, he's sure God is not around because if he were, he wouldn't allow all the horrors happening now to go on.
What do you think about his assessment on God's availability?
It's sometimes easy to see why people adopt variations on the theme that there is some kind of creator god, but a creator god who pretty much created stuff and then left it alone. Years ago a friend of mine likened it to the watch I was wearing - it had a creator in a factory somewhere who created the watch, put it in a box, shipped it to a distributor, and has no further interest in the future of the watch. Whether it ended up on my wrist, someone else's wrist, or in the landfill, the person who made it really doesn't care.
Part of the issue is that it requires us to assume that we have all the answers and that if something doesn't make sense to us then it doesn't make sense period. A loving God wouldn't allow suffering, suffering exists, therefore God either doesn't love us or doesn't care about us, end of discussion. Except this argument assumes that if we don't see a purpose there is no purpose. When I was a small child I hated broccoli. Truth be told I hated most green things, but my parents made me eat them anyway. Why would they inflict that suffering on me - if they truly loved me why didn't they let me eat ice cream instead of broccoli? My child's mind didn't understand that I needed the nutrients, and eating ice cream all the time would set me up for all sorts of problems later.
In this situation, perhaps we are the child and God is the parent who knows things we don't yet understand.
