Where do YOU think G-d is?

[SearchingForGod]

My question posed to anyone willing to answer is: Where do you think G-d is when bad things happen to good or innocent people? That is to say, do you think he's just ignoring us, punishing us, or some other third thing?

For example, say a child went through some severe abuse for the majority of their life. Where do you think G-d would be in that instance?

 

[Quintessence]

I presume you meant to target this only to theists who believe in a classical monotheist type god that is omniscient and omnibenevolent? The question doesn't make much sense otherwise.

 

[shunyadragon]

God simply exists there is no where, why or how.

God is not a chess player
with the white pieces.
God is the sea
and we are the fishes.

 

[MonkeyFire]

You suffer because of your own "bignorance."

 

[George-ananda]

My question posed to anyone willing to answer is: Where do you think G-d is when bad things happen to good or innocent people? That is to say, do you think he's just ignoring us, punishing us, or some other third thing?

For example, say a child went through some severe abuse for the majority of their life. Where do you think G-d would be in that instance?

Well, this is the famous 'Problem of Evil' question that has been discussed time and time again. For me, I see the problem framed around Abrahamic concepts of God and the individual. In my non-dual (God and creation are not-two) Hindu worldview I look at life from the perspective that life is eternal and we are in the process of learning that. We live as individuals for eons and not one life. We all return to godhead in the end. If one could see one's life from separation from godhead through the eons to return to godhead then things and temporary sufferings make more sense. What we see as evil are very short temporary events in the grand scheme of things where each individual story ends in success; return to peace/bliss/awareness of godhead.

Plus Problem of Evil proponents look at good/bad events as happening randomly to people. Eastern thinkers believe a long series of cause/events (karma) causes things to be the way they are.

I also use the analogy of creation as some grand expansive multi-dimensional artwork. And human problem of evil proponents view from their little speck and dimensional perspective of the artwork and try to judge the entire artwork. Their view is too limited to be meaningful.

I think to understand the answer to the 'Problem of Evil' we need to start thinking in more eastern ways.

1) That we live for eons in a soul developing process; not one body's duration. In that perspective any suffering in one life is short and temporary in this grander view. And even an unfortunate life and death has lessons for that soul and for those seeing and interacting with the unfortunate life.

2) That such things are not as random as they appear. There is chain of cause and effect through time we can not see.

3) That those currently living an unfortunate life will have victory 'enlightenment' at the end of the challenges.

4) That it is God at the core of everything and it is He who experiences the temporary good and bad fortunes. It is ultimately not Him imposing it on other separate beings. It is His play/drama where He separates Himself from Himself and returns Himself to Himself but this play ends with a happy ending for all. In any great play/drama there is always drama/suffering in the middle.

 

[Kirran]

It's entirely inconceivable to me that there's somewhere God could not be.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

My question posed to anyone willing to answer is: Where do you think G-d is when bad things happen to good or innocent people? That is to say, do you think he's just ignoring us, punishing us, or some other third thing?

For example, say a child went through some severe abuse for the majority of their life. Where do you think G-d would be in that instance?

God is Energy; Energy is Life

I would not say bad things happen to good people because that's assuming there are healthy people in the world that do not suffer. The body and mind is always in a constant healing process and that healing process is built on energy. That is what keep us alive.

God can't ignore us (if you want to put it that way) because you always have the choice and means whether physically or even just mentally to keep yourself healthy as best you can. I know some people travel out of the states to "poor countries" compared to our economic state.

Yet, even though children are starving, they are fed in spirit because the energy they have isn't physical and in many cases not mental but spiritual: motivational community support and connection with self and others. So, suffering takes on a different meaning than how the person across the water would ask it.

Punishing? No. Some people as they get older feel their bodies are punishing them because of the age process. They are losing energy, so it takes a toll on their bodies.

If someone (doesn't have to be a child) experiences abuse, god would be in those who help that person through the trauma. Many people say it's the Love (they call god) that helps that person out of abuse.

It depends on if that person has a good support network for healing and getting back to the life they wish to have, that's god. Intention, motivation, brain functions all work together via energy: God.

 

[shunyadragon]

You suffer because of your own "bignorance."

??????

 

[sun rise]

Another way of asking your question is about the meaning of suffering/pain. A great athlete might suffer pain in pursuit of excellent accomplishments. I freedom fighter might voluntarily accept pain to help a people to achieve freedom.

So if one looks at pain and suffering not from the pleasure is good, pain is bad duality but from other frames-of-reference, pain is seen not as bad but as sometimes a necessary part of achieving a worthwhile goal. I'm not suggesting deliberately injuring oneself or avoiding medical/psychological help, but instead the kind of unasked for suffering that comes to one.

Add to that is that our vision of the past and future, let alone the present, is imperfect. If you believe life has meaning then suffering must have meaning. And even in an extreme case such as child abuse, I've known people who say that it was worth the pain in this life because of who they became in this life.

 

[eldios]

My question posed to anyone willing to answer is: Where do you think G-d is when bad things happen to good or innocent people? That is to say, do you think he's just ignoring us, punishing us, or some other third thing?

For example, say a child went through some severe abuse for the majority of their life. Where do you think G-d would be in that instance?

Amos 4
13: For lo, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought;

Isaiah 45:7
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

Deuteronomy 32
39: "`See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

Exodus 4:
10: But Moses said to the LORD, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either heretofore or since thou hast spoken to thy servant; but I am slow of speech and of tongue."
11: Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
12: Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak."

Psalm 33
8: Let all the earth fear the LORD, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
9: For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth.
10: The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nought; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11: The counsel of the LORD stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
12: Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
13: The LORD looks down from heaven, he sees all the sons of men;
14: from where he sits enthroned he looks forth on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15: he who fashions the hearts of them all, and observes all their deeds.
16: A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17: The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save.

 

[shunyadragon]

My question posed to anyone willing to answer is: Where do you think G-d is when bad things happen to good or innocent people? That is to say, do you think he's just ignoring us, punishing us, or some other third thing?

For example, say a child went through some severe abuse for the majority of their life. Where do you think G-d would be in that instance?

The delusion that life is tripping through daisies and violets under Carolina blue skies and rejoicing with Joy is of course naive idealism out of control.

The ultimate reality of the soul when it journeys through this world and leaves is not the physical suffering of the body.

 

[Brickjectivity]

My question posed to anyone willing to answer is: Where do you think G-d is when bad things happen to good or innocent people? That is to say, do you think he's just ignoring us, punishing us, or some other third thing?

For example, say a child went through some severe abuse for the majority of their life. Where do you think G-d would be in that instance?

I think God is invisible and spiritual, not physical. In my experience God always works through people.

 

[Kemosloby]

Beyond the Red Sea.

 

[syo]

My question posed to anyone willing to answer is: Where do you think G-d is when bad things happen to good or innocent people? That is to say, do you think he's just ignoring us, punishing us, or some other third thing?

For example, say a child went through some severe abuse for the majority of their life. Where do you think G-d would be in that instance?

god created the world and adam and eve and after the fall of adam and eve, evil arose so god gave a promise to humans that he will send his son to fight evil. jesus came and taught humans the way of god that leads to goodness, and he said that humans must carry the way of god in their hearts and act accordingly. so god is to be found in the hearts of humans to guide us to goodness. in your example god is absent from the hearts of the humans who abused the child.

 

[osgart]

God don't exist, and whatever created us is bound to the universe like us.

 

[EtuMalku]

I presume you meant to target this only to theists who believe in a classical monotheist type god that is omniscient and omnibenevolent? The question doesn't make much sense otherwise.

In your mind . . . where He always is!

 

[Grumpuss]

Having visited Ohio, I'd say it's tough to believe God is in Cincinnati.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

My question posed to anyone willing to answer is: Where do you think G-d is when bad things happen to good or innocent people? That is to say, do you think he's just ignoring us, punishing us, or some other third thing?

For example, say a child went through some severe abuse for the majority of their life. Where do you think G-d would be in that instance?

Where do I think God is? In your head. In her head, or his head, or their heads (if they can agree).

Belief in God, which must remain pure belief for obvious lack of any evidence, naturally entails a lot of expected outcomes -- depending on what sort of God is believed in. If you believe in a "triple-O" God (omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent), then in the face of the world as it presents itself to us, you will always find yourself facing the dilemma that is obvious in your post (and as somebody else mentioned, "the problem of evil"). These simply cannot be reconciled, and thus such a believer will just have to learn to live with the cognitive dissonance that results. (Most do, by the way, by the simple expedient of not bothering to measure the belief against the reality. It's too uncomfortable and is thus ignored.)ere

Other heads will contain other sorts of gods -- usually not "triple-O" -- and will therefore how to cope with their own dissonances. But all beliefs that fly in the face of the reality we know suffer the same problem, to one extent or another. There's no getting away from that.

 

[osgart]

God would have to be in a total else existence, and totally unaware that our miracle reality exists.

 

[LuisDantas]

My question posed to anyone willing to answer is: Where do you think G-d is when bad things happen to good or innocent people? That is to say, do you think he's just ignoring us, punishing us, or some other third thing?

He is in the mental models of people who are inclined to build him, fulfilling whatever role they see fit to.

For example, say a child went through some severe abuse for the majority of their life. Where do you think G-d would be in that instance?

I personally don't think that is an accurate perception of the situation.