God Is Cruel

I didn't dismiss anything, sorry if it came across that way. I was just trying to get a clearer view. I haven't had it easy either, won't get into it, but I know what it's like to suffer at the hands of loved ones. Even now, I'm still struggling with ALOT, and for a short while, I blamed God too. The difference is, there was no pay off for me, blaming God took away my power, cos that meant that I couldn't change any of it. So now I'm trying, trying to be more positive, and have a different outlook. Thing is, wether you're a believer or not, people think of God as all powerful. It pains me to think that you feel so trapped, and victimized, when you DON'T have to be ANYBODY'S victim. I was just trying to help, honest, but I can't make you see any differently, and maybe it's not even up to me. Sorry if my responses to you were unhelpful or offensive.

Hmm, Menace2Hypocrisy I would say that you should indeed try to have a different outlook, but honestly, what anyone "should" or "needs" to do is a philosophical question that cannot be answered. More specifically, it really doesn't matter. But, in my thinking, everything that is going to happen simply will happen and there is nothing we can do to change it. This is where I differ my view from yours Trippin2.0 - and I do appreciate your posts btw. We do not have a free will. As I mentioned before, simple cause and effect. Menace2Hypocrisy - you just outlined this in your recent post, saying:

"As a child, I was brutalized by a father who beat me and mother who molested me. Both my parents had problems - my father an alcoholic and mother was just ill. "

among other things. This is not the entire reason of course, but it is PART OF THE CAUSE that created the EFFECT of your mind/thinking patterns being the way it is, not God. God didn't make you, your parents did. And you know what, your parents' parents made them the way they were, and their parents, and their parents, and their parents. So really, if you think about it, nothing is anyone's fault, no one is bad, good, wrong, evil, what have you. Everything is the way it is and will be and cannot be changed. We are simply living out this meaningless lives as beings that we don't even know who we are. I don't know if that made any sense, probably not, but meh, I give up trying to explain it.