I'll take your "right" to mean that you agree: an omnipotent God could do anything that wasn't logically contradictory.
And wouldn't you agree that to "make" someone "freely" do something is logically contradictory?
We both agree that God can do anything that's not logically contradictory (right?).
:yes:
This means that when you argue that, for instance, the only way God could've achieved some good result involved making someone die a painful death, this implies that every single way to achieve that result was logically contradictory except for the ones that involved making someone die a painful death... or worse consequences.
Do you get what I mean now?
I get what you mean, I just don't think it is an accurate depiction...if a person's painful death is the ONLY way that God can get his desired result...think about it like this; There are many ways one can die, right? Now out of all of those ways, suppose the only way for you to come to know God is for you to die by the means of ONE of those many ways. No other way will get the job done, just that specific way...God know's this, so he either orders a world (or pre-orders) at which this possibility becomes a reality, so that the person man come to know him.
Funny how God's opinion of what diseases "provides a greater good" follows along exactly with advances in medical technology.
Meaning what?
Why do you think that God decided that scurvy was really useful in the Middle Ages but not so useful today?
I don't have all the answers, just like you don't have all the answers regarding questions about whatever you believe in. All I can say is, according to my belief, God is in sovereign control over every single thing that happens, whether good or bad.
Wrong. You'll have to explain yourself a lot better than that if you want me to accept your argument... or even know what your argument is.
My point is simple; I can think of scenarios at which even the most darkest and troublesome moments of our lives, God could be using it for a greater good..and all I am saying is this COULD be the case...but sometimes, our downfalls comes as a direct result of our negligence, which is why the lung cancer/smoking thing was brought up.
And I'm saying that for an omnipotent God, there can be no such thing as an unfortunate side effect.
He could have achieved his goals while avoiding any consequences he considered undesirable, so everything we experience must have been intentional. When someone suffers or dies, this must be because God wanted the suffering or death for its own sake.
Wrong..because as mentioned previously, there are some cases at which the only way a desired result could be acheived is through experiences that may we may consider troublesome.
... if God is omnipotent. If we drop this assumption, then unintentional side effects become possible.
I find it amazing that you keep assuming that things could have been done better, as if you know things could have been done better...if you know it, doesn't God know it? So apparently maybe your idea of "better" isn't the same as his idea of "better".