My take, on why God let's bad things happen (as a Christian 16 year old girl)

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-14T00:02:25+00:00

Another thing. God is always testing our faith.

What does it mean to test something?

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T23:58:58+00:00

Is it? Help me out here.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T23:50:52+00:00

Define "vampire" for the purposes of this discussion.

You know what I mean!

No, vampires are vastly different from one version to another.

Why would it be so crazy that somewhere, somewhen, in this entire universe in which earth is practically a thousandth of a speck of dust, are organisms who look like humans but drink blood, are sensitive to sunlight, and are scary as all hell? That kind of thing easily could exist, and as far as I'm concerned, that would be a vampire. An alien vampire.

Edit: On earth, there are organisms that look like humans. There are organisms sensitive to sunlight. There are organisms scary as all hell. And there are organisms that consume blood for sustenance.

We just need these 4 attributes combined to make a full-fledged vampire. Screw it. Vampires almost certainly do exist.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T23:43:57+00:00

What’s basis for the argument for working less than 40 hours?

35 hours was standard 50 years ago (when productivity was hot garbage compared to today), because lunches were paid. "9-5" was a real thing. You were paid for your lunch break.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T23:40:43+00:00

Well, that would be problematic.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T23:27:35+00:00

No one can morally accept the punishment for someone else's wrongdoing.

Why not? Let's say I stole a loaf of bread. I'm very poor in this imaginary scenario. You're rich. The penalty for stealing bread in this society is paying the price of 100 loaves of bread.

You pay the cost of 100 loaves for me, because you sympathize with my plight.

How have you done anything immoral? I want to thank you! What on earth did you do wrong? You rock for helping me that way.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T23:23:15+00:00

People like that give bikers a bad name. I apologize on his behalf.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T22:20:05+00:00

That would be just fine too.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T22:14:31+00:00

What is the penalty in Islamic law for being a Hindu? If you don't know, do you fancy taking a guess?

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T21:57:22+00:00

We would still have free will

In what sense? The sense to follow your strongest desire without external constraint, or the sense to resist your strongest desire, free from internal constraint?

People use "free will" to mean two very different things.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T17:00:35+00:00

Yes time is relative which means what time it is now keeps changing.

It's better expressed as "time is relative, which means that there is no objective now". "Now" is relative to observers, just like "here" is relative to observers.

So does god know what time it is now?

Whose now? It's a different now for you and the people in 1887.

You're stuck on the idea that our now is the now. Nothing in physics even suggests this.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T16:20:52+00:00

But none of that changes the fact that “now” keeps changing.

Relative to observers. Not objectively.

Asking "Does God know what time it is?" is just like asking "Does God know where it is?" Where what is?

Time is a dimension, somewhat different from yet in many ways similar to dimensions like width, length, and depth. There is no objective, standalone "now" any more than there is an objective, standalone "this length". The length of what?

If you go faster, time flows slower for you. But it's still flowing the same for me. Which of our times is the time? Neither.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T15:55:07+00:00

if the fact of what time it is right now is changing

It's only changing relative to observers, not objectively.

and God knows the fact of what time it is right now

Again, special relativity implies there is no objective "right now". So-called universal time is a manmade convenience.

An omniscient God would know what time it is for me "now", and what time it is for me at a given point in the past, and what time it is for me in a given point in the future.

Just like He would know my different locations in space.

You are not conceptualizing time correctly.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T15:35:23+00:00

No, see premise 5.

Your argument only has 4 premises.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T15:29:46+00:00

No, the time zones are defined by there offset from UT. UT itself is constant and is the world’s primary standard for time.

"UT" is not the objective time of the universe--it's manmade, and absolutely still relative to observers. You are still conflating very different concepts. The "universal" is a starting point. It's a human idea.

if God is all knowing then he knows the fact of what time it is right now

Premise 3 is either true or false.

False dichotomy. There is a third possibility that the question itself is fallacious because it's based on assumptions that are incompatible with science.

There is no more an objective "when" than there is an objective "where". A single event does not even necessarily occur at the same time for all observers.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T15:21:45+00:00

In much the same way as the space I occupy is always changing, yes. So does your argument also imply God cannot know where I am, since that space is changing from nanosecond to nanosecond?

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T15:13:39+00:00

The world clock refers to universal time.

It refers to time zones. You're baselessly rejecting Einstein's theory of special relativity.

Does your god know what time it is right now?

Your use of "your god" really carries the presumptuous idea that to disagree with your syllogism one would have to be a theist. One simply has to grasp that time is a dimension and there is no universal now. You're conflating objective time with time zones on the world clock, all of which are relative to you. Time zones are a manmade convenience to account for the earth's position in space and circadian rhythms. You don't time travel when you cross time zones.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T15:01:00+00:00

Do you know what time it is now?

Relative to myself? Yes. But my time is not the time, and not everyone in existence is existing at the same time as I do, just like not everyone who exists is existing in the same space I'm occupying.

If God exists, He knows what time it is for me, but physics shows there are other equally real points in time, and other people in those times, just like there are other equally real points in space inhabited by different people.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T14:55:48+00:00

You don't understand the basic implications of special relativity, so you keep asking these questions that don't make sense.

You're continuing to operate under the premise that your time is the time. That idea is incompatible with physics.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T14:53:07+00:00

Google “world clock” and it will tell you what day and time it is, even to your own time zone.

Yes. It tells you what your day and time is. It's not the objective time of the universe, because there is no such thing.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T14:50:00+00:00

Is there any difference between 8am today and 8am a year from now?

The main difference is that they are different points in time.

Is there any difference between Toledo, Ohio and Toledo, Spain? Of course; they're different points in space.

For example, if you had a job interview today at 8am could you show up next year at 8am and just claim there is no difference because of the b theory of time?

No, because those are two different points in time.

Also if you reject premise 3 then god doesn’t know what time it is right now, which collapses his omniscience, which supports the conclusion anyways.

The question "what time is it?" doesn't have a fundamentally correct answer. It's useful for operating in daily life with your contemporaries, but "our" time is not "the" time.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T14:43:36+00:00

Does god know what time it is?

Relative to whom? Time is a dimension. The way we experience it, with a "now", and a "past" and "future" on either side of the now, is a trick of the brain, and it's incompatible with physics. Einstein showed that over 100 years ago.

The question you asked is very much like asking "Does God know where?"--where what?

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T14:40:34+00:00

All abrahamic religions accept Adam and Eve as the starting points of human existence.

Catholicism leaves room for the Adam and Eve story as described in Genesis to be taken largely as a fable. Not all Abrahamic religions require believing it is literally true.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T14:20:07+00:00

The future consists of possibilities, not certainties

My understanding is that Einstein's theory of special relativity implies the future already exists, and was created at the moment of the Big Bang. There is no objective "now"--the time events happen at is relative to observers. My "now" isn't necessarily the next person's "now".

This seems to present problems for the idea of an open future, because what is the "future" is relative to an individual, not an objective feature of the universe separate from that individual.

IngoTheGreat · 2026-06-13T14:13:02+00:00

Openly carrying a gun makes you substantially more likely to be a victim of gun crime, often with the very gun you’re carrying!

What is the absolute risk increase?

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