Ken wrote and asked in part---
SNIPPED
> I cannot take
>comfort in the idea that there is an all-powerful deity who would permit
>the devastation of September 11 to take place.
>
>Does anyone else see it that way? I send this not to offend but with
>genuine philosophical puzzlement.
>
>Ken (care-giver)
>
Ken, you've asked one of the most basic theological questions which
has been debated for centuries: how can God be both all-good and
all-powerful? The best response I've come across is that while we
conceive of God (however we define him/her/it } as powerful if one
believes that God gives humans "free will" then we are equally free
to do evil as well as good. This same question has of course been
asked about the Holocaust, slavery, the killing fields of Cambodia,
the deaths of innocents everywhere, and on and on----
I guess my simplest answer would be that I believe God gives us the
power to love, but it is up to us to use that power. Don't know if
that even "speaks to your condition" ! <G>
--
Camilla Flintermann
<[log in to unmask]>
on the web at http://www.geocities.com/camillahf/index.html
"Love People----
----- Use Things"
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