If all we do is dwell on the problem of evil we will run mad. Take a breath and step back a bit.

Sure.... Estimates on how many children die of starvation range from 1 every 10 seconds, to 1 every 15 seconds on average.

Tell me more about how god made your tire flat to stop you playing poker. Then keep talking about it until it finally dawns on you how sounds.

There is room in the world for a bit of fun even in the midst of horror.

So now you're trying to turn your self absorbed egocentric triviality about how god cares so much about you that he made your tire flat to save you from your desire to play poker, a 'bit of fun'....

Whatever you have to tell yourself I suppose...

As far as I am aware, Howard is an atheist?

This, coming from the guy who blamed Christians for things that happened in 600 BC and can barely get any facts right about Billy Graham to support his disdain.

Not quite. I don't believe in the gods of any religion that I've ever learned of but I don't rule out a 'god' defined other ways than those religions do.

Down goes Frazier, down goes Frazier, down goes Frazier!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZEIMQ42-oU

Good story.

The point I'm making is not that we shouldn't find humour or levity in adverse situations, not only do I think that's healthy but it's desirable and a perfectly normal human response, but that is very different from imagining that a universe creating all-powerful deity cares whether or not you play poker, or someone else finds their car keys, or gets a promotion at work, whilst this deity allows (causes?) the truly awful suffering of many millions of people, including innocent children, on a daily basis.

It's the hubris, callousness and egocentricity of that type of thinking that I find utterly appalling.

The offering of 'he has loving reasons that we simply don't understand' (that I call the 'mysterious ways' defence) is totally unsatisfactory and doesn't excuse it. Far more likely is that there is no god, or that god is a monster. There's nothing funny or fun about this.

Shame god doesn't intervene for the nearly 1300 children that are killed every year in the USA by guns.

But otherwise, yeah, great story about nearly shooting his little sister in the head.

Thank God I'm NOT atheist.

Where I am grateful that I don't believe in a god that murders innocent children. That would cause significant problems for me and I certainly wouldn't be as blasé about as you seem to be.

For some, a coincidence is like a mistress. Everybody wants to have one but nobody wants to be seen in public with her.

Myself, I can talk all day about coincidences. I already have written a book on this subject. However, this thread has taken a different direction., not bad but off-track from the intended topiic.:

At least the thread's a hit! Nobody likes to start a thread that turns out to be a dud.

To get serious for a moment, though, I think that 'murders innocent children', rather than 'allows them to suffer and die', is over the top. There is a difference.

What if those children went to heaven?

Here's some Scripture from 2 Samuel 12:21-23

2 Samuel 12:21–23

21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” 22 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ 23 But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

Here's a link to biblia.com, which is where I got this Scripture.

Possibly the most disgusting jusitification for gratuitous evil that there is. I'm utterly revolted and repulsed by this. I truly hope that it's not your personal view.

It doesn't matter if the awful suffering experienced by a great many children before they die has some divine purpose, or if there's some value god operates by that makes that suffering a good thing. I reject both the idea that suffering is 'good', and/or a god who causes suffering for his own reasons when he had the power to make everthing anyway that he chose, including making 'suffering' not be a good thing.

Unless you want to argue that as with the Euthyphro dilemma, god was operating by some external set of values and didn't simply create everything exactly how he wanted it? Go ahead and try.....

Fine, substitute the words 'kills' then. Same difference without the legal implications which you would no doubt argue, and I would agree, don't apply to a god.

He kills a great many innocent children, and, he knew he was going to do that in the moment that he created everything, it's quite deliberate and premeditated, it can't not be if god is omnipotent and omniscient.

You think that you know the mind of god?

I judge him by his actions. If god is all powerful, then evil can only exist if he allows it to, and that's equivalent to being the reason for it. God is evil.

It is common that a being's actions can judged to have multiple motivations based on what you presume about that being. So this answer seems grossly insufficient for addressing the question that was raised.

This is about as equivalent as the equivalence of "wealth" and "greed."

I'm just going to throw something out here, God is love and sin separates us from God.

1 John 4:8

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

That's just something it says in a book that not only is more likely to have been written by men than be the actual word of god, but logic dictates is wrong anyway. If god is omnipotent as claimed, then he could remove evil, but evil exists, so there are only two ways to resolve the problem, either god chooses to allow it, or god is not omnipotent.

So rather than 'throwing something out there', try to resolve the actual problem rather than sidestepping it. Is your god evil or not as powerful as you think?

Here's a song and music video for you Mightyboosh, it might help you out with this, just remember it's just a song and music video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1GkR54wQaM

Good song, what does it have to do with your god being evil or powerless to stop evil?

You've sidestepped this twice now, I don't have unlimited patience, so engage on the subject or don't but no more dodges please.