Why Didn't God Get it Right?
When I decided to start Ionian Spirit, it took me some time to learn the general know-how of building and running a discussion board. I'd had some forum experience, but not as an administrator. Well, as soon as I opened the account, I was one, the Chief Administrator.
The creator of a message board is always Member no.: 1, the Root Administrator, as the rank is called. Though on some boards, multiple people can be added to the Root Admin group, the member #1 position still differs from all other administrators on the board in that the rank is unique by design. As "the" Root Admin, I am in complete control of the board and the software that runs it. I can design or modify any segment of the board from the ground up. I determine the settings of every facet of operation...whether or not we have flood control on posts and for whom and how long, time limits on editing posts, the size and type of avatars that can be uploaded, the number of emoticons one can use per post and per row, the management of permissions and forum access masks for members/groups, etc, etc. I can create any type of group or forum category or sub-category I choose, and give that group the on-board powers I see fit. I can change member account information, reset passwords and post count, even monitor and read personal messages and emails sent between members if I care to. At will, I can edit, suspend, ban, or IP ban any member or guest who comes to my board. Should a member get disorderly and I ban him or her from the forums, and that person is technically savvy and knows how to get past an IP ban, I have the power to IP ban entire ranges of IPs. For instance, I could IP ban anyone trying to get online from, say, Australia or Russia if I really wanted to. I can view anyone's IP and find out their ISP, even if they are guests to the site and have never registered. My fellow admins, non-root admins, have almost all of these same powers except the ability to change my personal account settings and access to certain advanced member monitoring options. I don't have but a few forum administrators. The ones I have are people I trust and who's opinions on running the board I value. They have plenty of say in what goes on in the forums, but if I wanted to, I could demote and ban all other admins and mods, and totally change things at any time. If someone didn't like it, nothing could be done about it because I am in charge and am the one who ultimately calls the shots. As far as the software limitations will take me, you could say I am the "god" of my forums.
No, I am not some narcissistic cyber-control freak. I am just making a comparison. The above is simply a countermodel of the Christian God, the alleged creator of the universe and his administrational powers over it. God is the "root admin" of the cosmos in it's entirety. No aspect of it is hidden from him, nor beyond his control. All power originates from him, no exceptions. He calls all the shots, and nothing can happen in this gigantic "forum" of his without his abiding consent.
Having said that, why does evil exist in God's universe? Why didn't God get it right? The problem may be an old one, but a sufficient answer has never slid off the tongue of a theist. Our illustration has effectively eliminated the many weak explanations often used in an effort to justify the existence of evil (i.e. "God allows freewill.", "God wants us to learn from our mistakes and make us stronger.", etc.). In addition to being poor excuses that do not stand up to the scrutiny of reason, these excuses are eliminated by reason of the fact that God must have created the universe you see before you the way he intended it to be. We have no reason to believe he would allow it to be taken in a direction that was contrary to his merciful, divine will, yet we observe a hostile, unforgiving universe of pain and disharmony, a place where people are buried alive and hard-working fathers are crippled in terrible car accidents.
So when it comes to the idea of an all-powerful god who runs the entire universe, he has no limitations, unlike those restrictions imposed upon me by the Invision Board software. God is the chief administrator of all that exists, yet his theistic servants would have us believe that god was incapable of setting up a system where women are never raped, children are not molested, where murderers are not to be found, and where predators are not forced to consume their helpless prey to stay alive?! I will never apologize for thinking that if an almighty creator existed, he was fully aware and fully capable of preventing the creation of an evil angel, who tricked a gullible woman into eating bad fruit, thereby, plunging the whole human race into decay!
In my forum, things that run contrary to the way my admins and I intend them are changed to accommodate our wishes. How can the same not also be said of the creator of the universe, an infinitely more powerful being with no limitations whatsoever? I cannot rationally assume that the creator of the universe created or allowed the formation of something that was not ideally his will.
Bottom line is, no special pleading can be made for justifying the existence of death and suffering in God's world...that is, unless he expressly wanted it to be so. I have to believe that any creator of the universe would be perfectly capable of fashioning the ideal soul-making environment just as he planned it from the very start. To suggest otherwise is logical lunacy. So again I ask, Why didn't God get it right?
(JH)
No, I am not some narcissistic cyber-control freak. I am just making a comparison. The above is simply a countermodel of the Christian God, the alleged creator of the universe and his administrational powers over it. God is the "root admin" of the cosmos in it's entirety. No aspect of it is hidden from him, nor beyond his control. All power originates from him, no exceptions. He calls all the shots, and nothing can happen in this gigantic "forum" of his without his abiding consent.
Having said that, why does evil exist in God's universe? Why didn't God get it right? The problem may be an old one, but a sufficient answer has never slid off the tongue of a theist. Our illustration has effectively eliminated the many weak explanations often used in an effort to justify the existence of evil (i.e. "God allows freewill.", "God wants us to learn from our mistakes and make us stronger.", etc.). In addition to being poor excuses that do not stand up to the scrutiny of reason, these excuses are eliminated by reason of the fact that God must have created the universe you see before you the way he intended it to be. We have no reason to believe he would allow it to be taken in a direction that was contrary to his merciful, divine will, yet we observe a hostile, unforgiving universe of pain and disharmony, a place where people are buried alive and hard-working fathers are crippled in terrible car accidents.
So when it comes to the idea of an all-powerful god who runs the entire universe, he has no limitations, unlike those restrictions imposed upon me by the Invision Board software. God is the chief administrator of all that exists, yet his theistic servants would have us believe that god was incapable of setting up a system where women are never raped, children are not molested, where murderers are not to be found, and where predators are not forced to consume their helpless prey to stay alive?! I will never apologize for thinking that if an almighty creator existed, he was fully aware and fully capable of preventing the creation of an evil angel, who tricked a gullible woman into eating bad fruit, thereby, plunging the whole human race into decay!
In my forum, things that run contrary to the way my admins and I intend them are changed to accommodate our wishes. How can the same not also be said of the creator of the universe, an infinitely more powerful being with no limitations whatsoever? I cannot rationally assume that the creator of the universe created or allowed the formation of something that was not ideally his will.
Bottom line is, no special pleading can be made for justifying the existence of death and suffering in God's world...that is, unless he expressly wanted it to be so. I have to believe that any creator of the universe would be perfectly capable of fashioning the ideal soul-making environment just as he planned it from the very start. To suggest otherwise is logical lunacy. So again I ask, Why didn't God get it right?
(JH)