I just glanced over your website and was wondering why you assume, if you do assume, that if God existed that he would heal amputees. If that is how God is expected to behave, why wouldn't he have just created a utopia where there are no amputees in the first place?
Also, I agree with you to some extent about the Bible. It is not sacred. It is written by man not God. I believe lots of it is inspired by God, but as a whole was never approved by God. I believe it's another of man's attempts to define God and put him in a box so we can study him.
I agree with many parts of your reasoning, but I am a Christian. I believe that God not only exists but is all-powerful and my Savior. And I believe your question of about the amputees is fundamentally flawed.
Please reply! I really want to look at your forum but it's down right now.
-[name removed]
I'd say 'why' is fairly simple, the bible. You'll see the reasoning on the site. Of course, you're going by the argument that the bible is the word of man, but inspired by God, rather than the literalist "bible is the word of God" approach, whilst I believe it's a more reasonable approach but there are still problems. The question 'Why Won't God Heal Amputees?' is a question to do with prayer and not so much the problem of evil. The bible is very clear about the nature of prayer and yet, it never it never really does anything extra-ordinary...all it ever seems to do is things that could happen without prayer, contrary to the bible's claims. So the question is valid, though it may not be as applicable to those with a loose belief in the validity of the bible. Though the bible seems to represent the true nature of God and if you read the bible, particularly the old testament and it isn't pretty. Unless of course, you wish to such the bible is entirely fictional and in no way represents God, then of course we're talking about something entirely different.
So when people present the problem of evil, I think, actually, if the stories in the bible represent that God, then actually there's plenty of reasons why perfectly innocent people suffer greatly as a result of man's evil and why people suffer natural evil. What scares me reading the bible is that the Pat Robertsons out there understand God better than Christians I like. He's a dark and vengeful SOB and is very self-centred on the idea of worship and seems to have a damaged ego. Sure the new testament seems to sweeten him up more and has made him less wrathful and more forgiving, but if we're looking at the bible as whole, the new testament feels like I'm watching Ed Gein starting a charity for victims of mutilation, at the same time still showing signs of his past behaviour.
Though he is much nicer to his followers, except for the odd test of faith (wasn't there a story where he pretty much ruined a guy's life as a test to prove to the devil the man wouldn't break his faith?).
All I've been able to deduce is that this God is very sick and cruel and has a massive ego. He'll be nice if you worship him though and reward you in the afterlife, hence the ego. However, it is the severe lack of evidence that makes me a non-believer and the lack of evidence for any other gods out there. Each are very good at demonstrating a lack of presence...except in the stories people tell about them.
