thejeff wrote:
The third may make sense biologically, but it is pure speculation: lions, ebola, cancer etc. may simply exist as population "correctives" to keep us from overpopulating our world, and while horrible, may be a better alternative than global famine and starvation.
So, are you saying God is a utilitarian? Sacrificing a pawn to save the queen in a global chess game doesn't seem very benevolent.
If God is perfect, "correctives" are unnecessary. To paraphrase Epicurus, if God can stop these things but doesn't, he isn't benevolent. If he can't stop them he isn't omnipotent. If he is both able and willing, then where does evil come from? If he can't and won't stop needless suffering then there is no reason to call him God.
As for the world not being intended to be our permanent home, Nietzsche writes a fair bit about this and is over the mark, I believe.
Nietzsche saw that the negation of this world in favor of another, higher world, led to a devaluing of the physical here and now. This, starting in the industrial 19th century, is the cause of a deep-seeded nihilism. By shifting the value of a tangible, material existence to an ethereal one we are short-changing ourselves; subconsciously in some archetypal way this effects the collective psyche of the population. While correlation is not causation, I have to look at places in the world where fundamentalism runs rampant, and I see lower standards of living across the board. This is even true in the West.
Interestingly, Nietzsche did see the danger in "killing God," since there was no real societal or moral underpinning in place for people to cling to. I think this gets at your light/shadow, heat/cold, yin and ying if-you-will dichotomy. However, what if a third viewpoint existed? Something "beyond good and evil" as Nietzsche would put it? This is the heart of the argument several pages ago about belief/non-belief. We have to get away from this reactive way of thinking. As in, either God or not-God. In my view, we have to eliminate the idea altogether or we are just reacting against it, and then the whole nihilistic mindset just continues in one form or another.
Sorry, I got a little long and there is a lot there.