...really?

The holocaust and 2 world wars weren't important enough?

He couldn't have set up the universe so that the earth wasn't heavily bombarded by asteroids throughout it's history?

He couldn't set up earth so that massive droughts didn't cause massive starvations?

He couldn't setup the earth so that massive tsunamis, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions didn't decimate human lives and posessions?

He couldn't put enough clean water in enough areas spread out on earth to sustain the amount of people that earth can hold?

Did the sun really need to emit ultraviolet rays and deadly radiation?

Do poisonous plants really need to be indistinguishable from plants that provide nourishment to innocent animals?

Did people really need to sometimes be born with devastating birth defects?

You really think these things are indicative of a caring, highly intelligent creator?

Or maybe, just maybe, some humans have found a way to deceive themselves into thinking they are safer and going to live longer, and are more special than they actually are.

Humans have never experienced an asteroid event which would threaten their existence. It is silly you even mention it.

As for the rest humanity...it has come thru everything thrown at it just fine....your point is as it usually is....and that is it is impotent. Now while I cannot prove that God has intervened you cannot disprove it either. If God only intervenes on rare occasions....we simply do not have to tools to detect it. Your question is an excercise in futility and I am sorry I wasted a portion of my precious life answering it.

'You cannot disprove it' is not an argument. I can't disprove that there are magical faeries posting idiotic defences of religion on poker forums, but basic common sense dictates that we judge a proposition by the evidence for or against it. rizeagainst's post shows that the being whom Christians see as an omnipotent, entirely benevolent deity could - if he existed - be called a bit of a dick.

I never made an argument. I merely pointed out that what Rizeagainst was attempting to do was an excercise in futility.

And so is your point.....you can call anyone a dick...even Santa Claus.

But then where would the inspiration for such great movies like "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact" come from?

Oh, no... Yet, another case of the person yelling loudest garnering support...

What else is new?

Stu, your vision of god is bizarrely parochial if you truly believe god intervened just to help the allies defeat the nazis.

I don't know if He did or not. That is just an example of the type of situation where I would see God most likely making an intervention. Saving just one individuals life would be down toward the bottom of the list.

And yet you personally ask god to put your ailing family members at the top.

Were you here to make an actual argument?

sure.....I'm a pretentious son of a bitch.

I can see that.

But to answer the question, I think it is silly for humans to pass judgement on God....including making the judgement that God is "good".

Now claiming that God is the ultimate judge and that by definition everything He does is therefore "good" is not judging God. It is making a statement about God's attributes/nature....it is not making a statement about the morality/utility God's actions(which is what the question is looking for).

But how could you not judge good and bad actions? If someone does something i consider bad its not like i can just chose to see those actions as good.

Liar.

I'm not saying you can't judge....I'm saying its silly to make a judgement. It is like making a judgement that California prop 8 is unconstitutional without having read or been taught about what is in the United States Constitution. The opinion of such a person would be meaningless. So are peoples opinions on God.

The term 'good' is only meaningful insofar as the action as it describes furthers human wellbeing, and we can - and should - recognise that the actions of God (i.e. committing genocide against any group that doesn't comply to his sadistic whim) don't match observable facts about human wellbeing. You also need to justify the assumption that God is the arbiter of what constitutes morality.

It cant really be silly to make a judgment on an action if your not capable of not making a judgment on that action. If God comes down and takes out the unbelievers of the world in a mass slaughter of blood and guts ill think, damn what an ass. You can say its an uniformed and meaningless judgment but i couldn't really help but have it.

First, there are people that struggle with the character of God that they have been presented. So no, not every theist loves the God they believe in.

Second, for most I think that this is trivially true, but really says nothing to whether or not God exists. It doesn't even show that one's depiction of God is false. So I don't know what this argument is supposed to accomplish.

God's a multitasker. If he can speak and something is done...more than likely there is no list.

So then he didn't prevent something like the holocaust from happening because??

Well I know something worth reading that might obliquely address this but I doubt you'd enjoy it or believe it.

Awesome answer

You need to justify the assumption that the term 'good' is only meaningful insofar as the action as it describes furthers human wellbeing....but whatever...we can use that for the sake of argument.

Given your assumption it would be "good" to go back in time and kill Hitler when he was a baby. Suppose you lived when Hitler was a baby and observed that act. From your prespective would that time traveler be doing a "good" act or an "evil" one? Unless you somehow knew what the time traveler knew, you'd probably judge his actions to be evil.

The point is in order to judge God accurately you have to have a prespective that is reasonabily close to His otherwise it's just silly. Saying you and God have equal prespective on humanity is absurd don't you think? But thats exactly what you do when you judge Him.

Again, it would be impossible not to judge God in some circumstances. For good or bad.