Or they just, really, really value free will. Or any number of other possible explanations. Don't these statements kind of run contrary to your assertion above that humans have no idea what the creator's qualities are, if such a thing exists?
I don't think free will explains any of my concerns adequately; in regards to the existence of evil and suffering in the world, some of it is out of our control. A person who gets AIDS from a blood transfusion didn't use his free will to make any poor choices. Maybe this just means that God values free will so much that our decisions (about who to have sex with and what protection to use) can just kill other people. To me, it simply shows a lack of care on God's part. If someone who gets AIDS from a blood transfusion is meant to be a sign to tell us to stop having unprotected sex, what value does it do to the person who got AIDS? Not that, if this were the purpose of AIDS from blood transfusions, it has been very effective in stopping unprotected sex, given the way the AIDS rate has been soaring. The idea that God could create a child simply so that it could be born with AIDS strikes me as morally repugnant. The child (or the blood transfusion victim, both work) had no free will in the matter.
The idea of God meaninglessly "creating" (too strong of a word... God created the processes that led to the mechanism of sexual reproduction that led to the birth of the child?) a child shocks and offends me, too. That's why there must be a meaning to the madness if I am to reconcile omnipotence and omnibenevolence
So I say, that God doesn't arbitrarily do things like this. There is some reason for it. It's really not that hard of a leap to make if you accept God
But, as far as I know, the idea of a child meaninglessly being born with AIDS still exists with atheism too.
Poll
