From: cmtan@iss.nus.sg (Tan Chade Meng - with Dan)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Simple Question
Date: 27 Jan 93 05:15:37 GMT
Organization: Institute Of Systems Science, NUS

Hi Everybody!

	My name is Chade-Meng and I'm the person who posted the 1st question
that started this thread (concerning the question of sufferings).  
I posted my question to both this group &
talk.religion.misc.  In t.r.m, it achieved little, but here, the response
was very encouraging indeed.  I got lots of personal mail, & even got
the chance to get to know a few people.  I want to thank everybody for
your responses.  There was even 1 person who was kind enough to offer
to give me a book on the topic.  My appreciation to all of u.

	However, the sad thing is that ALL the responses are just different
wording of EXACTLY the same arguement.  And sadly, it was extremely
unsatisfactory 'cause it went against my understanding that God was All-
Loving.

        I am presently a part-time social worker.  Before I went to the
University, I worked in a Medical Centre, and I get to see suffering
people every now & then, & I would always wish that I would have some
way to help them relief their sufferings NOW!  And I'm not even All-Loving.
The fact that sufferings exists contradicts the assumption of a Loving
Almighty God.  Almost everybody who replied to me proposed that God is
not saving us now 'cause He is waiting:
(1)  For Everybody to Love Him first.
(2)  To prove that Man cannot live well without His Laws
(3)  To test if we can all love Him volunterily  (This is probably the
     worse answer for if something can/will happen, He WILL know 'cause
     He is omniscient, He doesn't have to "test".  Those who gave me
     this answer seemed to have sized Him down).
(4)  He set a Law to disallow Himself from interfering.
(5)  Some permutation of and modifications to the above.
I'm quite certain, from my experiences that those people who proposed this
"test period" theory, have either not witness human sufferings 1st-hand, or
simply do not sympathize with less fortunate people, or don't understand
the Love as taught by Christ.  Assuming u r a doctor, and a patient had
offended u by asking for a 2nd opinion or doubting your skills.  So u
let that patient suffer extreme pain for a prolonged period of time just to
see if he would really respect u as a doctor, while all that time, u
witheld a cheap and simple cure that would cure him completely without any
side-effects, what does that say about you being Loving?  Jesus Loved and
healed anybody, no matter what their opinion of Him was.  Now THAT is Love!
And I was very inspired by that.

        And about (4).  One of the Bible stories that inspired me most
was when Jesus broke the Law of Sabbath to heal a man.  I was taught from
this example that Love is worth breaking even holy laws for.  Those
who gave me (4) seemed to have forgotten this.

        The best and most honest answer I got for this question, "Why is He
not helping us now", is "I don't know".  I appreciate honesty.

        Almost everybody agrees that the most important reason for human
sufferings is sin, and that humankind are full of Greed, Hatred etc.
And everybody agrees that God could easily rid of all these qualities
and replace them with Love etc.  But when I asked why that is not done,
most people (except for those who gave the best answer of "I don't know"),
told me that God doesn't do it 'cause He doesn't want to interfere with
our "Free Will".  Assuming there is a very nice man who drinks too much
(sinned volunterily) and because of his over-drinking, he develops some sort
of insanity (consequence of sin) that torments him and makes him violent
(result of sin).  He suffers from his insanity and the people
around him suffers from his violence.  There r 2 things
we can do here.  We can tie the man up.  This will take away
his "Free Will".  If we are powerful enough (& God is certainly so), we
can cure him of his insanity, anhiliate his craving for alcohol and
implant Love into him.  A perfect solution that does not infringe on anybody's
"Free Will".  It seems to me that most people who answered to me simply
did not think of the 2nd solution.

        Some people suggested that constituted "reprogramming".  But if
an evil man becomes a Christian, repents, and becomes loving, isn't that
"reprogramming" too?  The most important thing is not what u do to that
man, but whether u have made him Love more.

        Overall, I STILL have not got any good answers.  I guess there are
simply questions even Christians cannot answer.  However, I appreciate
everybody's enthuasism to help me learn.  If anybody has a REAL answer
that does not contradict the Christian Love, I'll be glad to see it.
Otherwise, I would much more appreciate an honest "I don't know" than
some illogical answer out-of-tune with the spirit of Love.

        Some Chrsitians suggest that the reason God does not intervene
is that (on the 7th day) God is resting.  I wonder how many people
agree with that?

        Peace and Love to All .......

CHADE MENG