re: #258 b_sharp

The uncertainty of a stochastic/chaotic universe scares them. They need to feel that in some way they can control the forces outside themselves & that control comes from the idea an all powerful being will adjust reality for them if they follow the rules.

But how can you look at the world as it is, and be more comforted by the thought that somebody made it this way intentionally? Pediatric cancer, for example - how is it more comforting to think that some supernatural entity wants those kids to suffer and die, than to understand that our evolution balances cell growth and renewal between uncontrolled growth on the one hand, and inability to heal on the other, and even though it mainly works (because evolution works at the population level) it sometimes fails, one way or the other? In NEITHER case do you have any control, but at least in the latter it’s not at the whim of a capricious entity.

It’s at this point that some believers will say that I’m ‘angry at god’, but that’s not it. I just don’t grasp the need or want to think bad shit is part of a plan.