re: #1480 dwells38

Right I agree with that last sentence. I just get nervous when they even come close because to intermingle the two results in absurdity. No disrespect intended to anyone’s religious beliefs.

If one believes in God while understanding the mountain of evidence pointing to natural processes over time having produced galaxies, solar systems, and living creatures then it seems to me one would need to view that God as being abstract, outside of the physical universe and unconcerned with the minutae that produced astronomical bodies and humans. Because if there is such supreme being with a hand in everything then he’s got a lot to answer for such as his penchent for mass death, disease and rampant injustice.

I just read a story the other day that Muslim girls in Iran are being raped JUST SO they can be executed in accordance with Islamic law (can’t execute a virgin). Do you think the supreme being could step in every once in awhile and stop some of the gut wrenching sickness endemic in whole societies? Evidently not.

The question of why bad things happen is something completely different from reconciling science and religion, and I have only a quite limited understanding of it, so I won’t try to explain it.