The Problem of Unfishiness

[ciphergoth]

I am extremely flattered that my favourite atheistic blogger, Greta Christina, has taken a comment I made in her journal and made a post about it. I'm not sure she's quite nailed it on how what she discusses is different from questions like the nature of abiogenesis, but all the same I like the post and am very happy to have played a part in bringing it about.

Comments

Re: Assuming you're talking about an interventionist god...

[wight1984.livejournal.com]

"Because happiness isn't meaningful with reference to the existence of pain and suffering."

I do personally accept that there can be intelligent argument about how the existence of pain, suffering and, most importantly, trial is important to bring meaning to happiness, but even accepting it is we still have to confront the sheer quantity and intensity of pain and suffering.

Would happiness be less meaningful without bilharzia as mentioned by ciphergoth or parasitic worms that eat human eyes as mentioned by valkyriekaren?

Did we make life less meaningful when we eradicated smallpox?

I think that's part of the problem. Maybe removing all pain and suffering from the world would be a bad thing, but if you had the power to remove AIDs from the world would you think twice before doing so? Would you find it morally dubious for a human who had that power not to use it?

Ironically though, I do think the 'I don't know' answer isn't a bad one :oP Religion isn't science after all :o)