I would have felt the same Sunny. Suffering does not make all people better. Sometimes it breaks them and makes them much worse. If we want the world to be a better place, we need to heal and educate and offer opportunity not judgement and pain. How could our creator do less?
I believe in both
Warrigal, I was intrigued by that sentence, as it was not the way I remembered the Book of Job. So I got out by Bible (yes, I have one) and looked it up. It says, in an epilogue, that at the end, all his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him came and ate with him in his house, and offered consolation over all his losses. And the Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He apparently remarried (though it doesn't mention his wife), and eventually had 10 children, including some very beautiful daughters. (Doesn't say anything about the sons, though.) So he does get a second family, but the first family is never restored.
Does everything on earth have to benefit mankind? I think not.
I believe the answer is in the 2nd chapter of Job
While the science of carbon dating was a wonderful discovery back in the '40s, it's become arguable.
How 'bout that
I'm there
) who hold to an idea of Old Earth Creation or theistic evolution as well as various other guesses to how it all happened.
Actually, I can think of many benefits of pain as an alarm function other than just a burn warning, but you probably meant all the alarm warnings of pain. But I can not think of what pain you are talking about that does not include an alarm warning. Can you give examples?
No. You are correct. Without physical pain we would not know that something is wrong. We can learn to endure or ignore pain to a certain extent and become more stoic but usually it is best to take notice.
Would it have been better if god wiled out the family of a bad man?
To the authors of the Bible, yes, that would have made more sense, in human terms. At least we could say God was punishing the bad man. A big part of the Book of Job is understanding that Job was a good man, who followed all the rules, and still got whomped.
I do remember this but there was a debate in a theology class I took regarding this, what if Job particularly liked one of his sons or daughters who God allowed the devil to kill? We are humans and sometimes we do favor one child over another. It's natural.
If you give up on living all the science in the world will not cure/save you, but if you believe in a higher power, even when science says you will die, people have recovered. IMO, it takes both.
I am saying only man was created in gods image. As for the Bible, a book written by men, you have to read it with a grain of salt. The Ten Commandments, carved in stone, are the only thing that I am aware of that was written by the God of the Old Testament, who was not the forgiving type.
Chic, the entire characterization of God makes me "uncomfortable," which is one reason I am an atheist. The description of God, and the way He thinks and behaves in the Bible, sounds to me like the strutting and self-aggrandizement of a human tyrant. He needs to be constantly praised? Why? He has favorites, plays tricks, tests people in very cruel ways (telling Abraham to kill Isaac, his only son, as a "test" of loyalty?), inflicting plagues, floods, etc. on entire populations, not to mention war. The list goes on and on.
I think imagination works better that image.
No, that was not what you said, Aneeda. You said,"I didn’t notice in the Bible where it said god created all the animals."
Man was created in God's image? IMO, that doesn't say much for God. And just because somebody once wrote something down in a book does not make it true. Fiction is written all the time.
About the grain of salt, I agree with you. Although in my case, it's more like a ton of salt.
The Ten Commandments were written by Moses. Isn't that obvious? Anybody can write anything when hidden from public view (Moses took his time up on that mountain) and then claim that what he came down with was "written by God." Again, doesn't make it true. Moses got his credulous followers to believe him, or else use that bit of fiction for their own purposes.
And this is probably worthy of a separate topic, but take a good look at those Ten Commandments that you think were written by God, rather than by a person. The first three are a perfect example of the boasting, puffery, and demands of a tyrannical dictator. They are all about how we are ordered to worship him. Observing the Sabbath is important enough to be #4. That comes ahead of murder (which finally makes it to #6) and the other "afterthoughts" about what we should not do. I think Moses needed a good editor.
About the animals, I don't understand what point you are trying to make at all. You seem to be trying to segue from literally quoting the Bible as a source of what really happened, to suddenly talking about Darwinian theories of evolution. But it does sound like you are trying to analyze, which is always a good thing.
I’m not trying to do anything. I can not look at the Ten Commandments they have never been found so what they said is all speculation. They were written by the God of the Old Testament and sabbath was, hmm, well, not on Sunday. But then again, I have no ideal when it was because it was before JC.
oh, look, it exploded-now I need a brain transplant. Just Great. 
