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God's lack of presence is certainly something we can agree upon - welcome to Atheism.

this "lack of presence", if interpreted correctly, is not limited to atheism. loads of atheists seem to think that Christians believe God to be responsible for all natural disasters. natural disasters are obviously just a natural process, events caused by reactions inside or around the earth. no one's to blame for them. God would not be held responsible for the deaths in the Lisboa earthquake. His "lack of presence" is merely His choice not to intervene. that was part of the condition of humanity's freewill and knowledge of good and evil, which we may not choose individually, but something i'm sure we would all choose under the same circumstances as Adam and Eve.

i dont know much about the Old Testament -- i focus on the New Testament because it replaces all laws from the Old, but i guess it's probably worth reading because many accusations against God are to do with the Old Testament. from stories i've heard, those who were killed commited huge sins against God, or were specifically instructed not to do certain things at pain of death (eg, touching the Arc of the Covenant). mass killings were of people who were firmly in the wrong religion, basically punishable by eternal damnation anyway, and all without significant enough Jewish influence to be saved except by divine intervention. often these killings would be preceeded by massive signs or miracles foretold by prophets, basically divine intervention, in an effort to turn those people towards God.

im no expert on the Old Testament, so i can't say there are no examples that wouldnt fall under what i've described above. someone who knows more about the Old Testament may be able to say more, or maybe already has!

sorry if i've missed something, i dont have time to read however many posts there are in this thread.

julz

Formerly known as JulzMighty.
I made KarBOOM!