A Question about Cruelity and God.

Watching Sky News this morning,I saw cruelity to children in usual foreign parts abroad where there is hunger and much more in young children.
Thinking about religion and God and Spiritualism on a general level.
Religion talks about kindness and charity,to help others.
Spiritualism talks about learning about after lives.
Reincarnation as well,that we live other lives to learn lessons.

Taking all this as a general subject,why are these children suffering in this world today?
Where is the charity from spirit and God?
Talk is easy but where is the action from religion,the action from God,the action from spiritualism.
Why are these children born to suffer in a world like ours?

The way I see it, the responsiblity for this lies on all of our shoulders. There is no evading our collective responsibility by blaming the devil or evil in the world, it's all our doing through the glorious gift and curse of free will. There's not much any one person can do to end all suffering, but if enough people make the decision to do what they can, in any way large or small, then ultimately suffering will have to end.

Don't for one second believe that charity from above isn't here already Petal, you can see manifested in the collective work of groups like Medicine Sans Frontiers, Amnesty International and the Red Cross, through individual acts of kindness, compassion and service, and in the prayers and intent of every loving soul on this planet.

Wes wrote:The way I see it, the responsiblity for this lies on all of our shoulders. There is no evading our collective responsibility by blaming the devil or evil in the world, it's all our doing through the glorious gift and curse of free will. There's not much any one person can do to end all suffering, but if enough people make the decision to do what they can, in any way large or small, then ultimately suffering will have to end.

Don't for one second believe that charity from above isn't here already Petal, you can see manifested in the collective work of groups like Medicine Sans Frontiers, Amnesty International and the Red Cross, through individual acts of kindness, compassion and service, and in the prayers and intent of every loving soul on this planet.

Normally we see these horrendous acts and sit complacently thinking rather callously
'Pleased it is not me or my child'.
Let's be honest and admit that even though we do care deep down.

But this monring,I felt quite sick,watching this child/baby cry,would not eat the food that was offered to it,it was beyond hunger.
My immediate thoughts for some reason jumped to God. I am not really a terribly religious person,take religion as it comes.
But we are taught God is a caring being and I thought 'Where is he/she at this moment in the child's need?'
Then as usual as our thoughts track from one subject to another,the thought 'Reincarnation' came into my mind.
Why I have no idea. Was someone telling me that this child had agreed to reincarnate into the life that was chosen?
Was it meant to live this life of hunger and need or would that life improve in time?
Wandering thoughts.
Thanks Wes...
Petal

I don't believe in reincarnation, as you know, , so I can't explain how that would enter into it.

Mankind does commit acts of unbelievable cruelty, but also ones of love and kindness. Why God allows a given child to be born into a horrible atmosphere. . . I don't know.

Many things that happen - wars, rapes, murders, etc. - ar attributable to the fact that God allows us to have free will, and we often exercise it for evil purposes. But I believe that we will pay the price for all of our evil acts, some day.

What's even more confusing to me is why so many terrible things happen that can't be attributed to humans exercising their free will. Who made the evil decision to have any given, destructive, flood, hurricane, tsunami, or other natural disaster?

What's starting to trouble me most of all, as I get old and devote more thought to it all, is how so many people can profess to believe in a truly cruel god: not the loving Jesus of the Gospels, but a cosmic monster who throws babies into the fires of hell, and who punishes a single sin - or even no sin at all - with an eternity of fiendish torment: and then tell you how much they "love" this god, and "want to be with him" when they die.

I don't for a minute believe that God - the real God - is like that.

But if I DID: I'd hope that "worshiping" and "serving" such a fiend would be the furthest thing from my mind!

Jim

Last year I asked Spirit a similar question when a little overwhelmed by some of the appalling things that happen.

I asked the question why we were created, the purpose of it all and received as clear as a bell the words For the perpetuation of love

I took that to mean that human kind has many opportunities to show love to others and to grow through those. Everyone of us has plenty of these opportunities on a practical and and spiritual level and we can do quite a lot through our sphere of influence.

Maybe that's why there is compassion in the world, so that everytime there is suffering created through natural or man-made devices, we have a chance to exercise that compassion and grow spiritually as a result.

Petal said earlier:

But we are taught God is a caring being and I thought 'Where is he/she at this moment in the child's need?'

My thoughts are that if a child is allowed to suffer it isn't because god has failed us, it's because we have failed god. We are god's instruments of love and compassion in this world and it's up to us to put them into action.

Wes wrote:Maybe that's why there is compassion in the world, so that everytime there is suffering created through natural or man-made devices, we have a chance to exercise that compassion and grow spiritually as a result.

Petal said earlier:

But we are taught God is a caring being and I thought 'Where is he/she at this moment in the child's need?'

My thoughts are that if a child is allowed to suffer it isn't because god has failed us, it's because we have failed god. We are god's instruments of love and compassion in this world and it's up to us to put them into action.

...and thank God that compassion is still there in some of us.

Why do bad things happen to good people?





God knows!

Wes wrote:Maybe that's why there is compassion in the world, so that everytime there is suffering created through natural or man-made devices, we have a chance to exercise that compassion and grow spiritually as a result.

Petal said earlier:

But we are taught God is a caring being and I thought 'Where is he/she at this moment in the child's need?'

My thoughts are that if a child is allowed to suffer it isn't because god has failed us, it's because we have failed god. We are god's instruments of love and compassion in this world and it's up to us to put them into action.

Interesting response Wes, I agree that we are instruments of love and compassion. Please explain more about what you mean by we have failed god when a child suffers. It would be very good if we could save the suffering of the children by putting love and compassion into action.

Thanks,
Lynn

Hi Lynn, looking back, using the word "fail" was a bit harsh and judgemental, and something like this would have been more appropriate:

"-it's not that spirit is ignoring us, it's that we as a society are ignoring spirit."

As long as our society promotes and values self-interest, materialism and the acquisition & maintaining of power, then spirit has a hard job of revealing itself and spreading its light among us. It's the voice of spirit within us that whispers thoughts of love and compassion, which is hard to hear above the din of consumerism and competition. That's where the thrust of my comment lies, that we all have a choice about which voice to listen to and to ignore spirit is to also ignore the suffering of those around us.

In an ideal world, we all embrace and value the interconnectedness of all life, and that becomes what society values and promotes. In that sort of environment, suffering and torment cannot exist. Which raises the issue of how to get to that level from where we are now...

Watching Sky news this morning.
States more children in care now,what on earth happened to love and compassion with those children?
Why are so many children abandoned in present times,what happened to to family life from long ago?
The values from those days seem to have disappeared.

Wes wrote:Hi Lynn, looking back, using the word "fail" was a bit harsh and judgemental, and something like this would have been more appropriate:

"-it's not that spirit is ignoring us, it's that we as a society are ignoring spirit."

As long as our society promotes and values self-interest, materialism and the acquisition & maintaining of power, then spirit has a hard job of revealing itself and spreading its light among us. It's the voice of spirit within us that whispers thoughts of love and compassion, which is hard to hear above the din of consumerism and competition. That's where the thrust of my comment lies, that we all have a choice about which voice to listen to and to ignore spirit is to also ignore the suffering of those around us.

In an ideal world, we all embrace and value the interconnectedness of all life, and that becomes what society values and promotes. In that sort of environment, suffering and torment cannot exist. Which raises the issue of how to get to that level from where we are now...

Thank you Wes, much wisdom there and just what I need to be reminded of lately. I suppose it is a good test to keep on track when chaos is swirling around us.

Lynn

There is certainly breakdown in family support for children in England. We have the highest number of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder [ADHD] children in primary schools of any European country, and that has been the case for some years. .
A report last week suggests that labelling many children ADHD may be used as a cover for lack of parenting. Poor kids who are let to stay up until all hours,have never been taught to sit still,cannot in some instances hold a knife and fork and genuinely do not understand the meaning of the word No.
What chance have they got compared to kids from supportive homes?