Alex's reply to the above episode from Closer to Truth about God and suffering. His reply included a great 20 min voice clip which I can't attach here unfortunately.
[6/30, 10:59 PM] Alex From Venice: I've just watched it and it's been quite fair on its search for a good theodicity
[6/30, 11:00 PM] Alex From Venice: but it ultimately failed
[6/30, 11:01 PM] Alex From Venice: I have my own theory that I think better explain how an all good and loving God may allow so much evil and suffer to exist
[7/1, 5:39 AM] Winston Wu: Yes i agree. The host didnt interview people much smarter. There are many better theologians and philosophers he could have picked. The experts he interviewed had no original ideas, they only knew whatever their seminary taught them.
My reply to Alex's 20 min voice clip on God and suffering.
[7/1, 6:45 AM] Winston Wu: Yeah but alex. Why does God allow excessive suffering and evil? Thats the big question. Can God control excessive evil and suffering?
Some suffering and pain leads to nothing good. For example some people suffer and die. What good is that? And many filipino beggars die young from malnutrition. What good can come from that? How does that fit into Gods plan?
Did your voice clip explain this?
[7/1, 6:45 AM] Winston Wu: If God just wants people to be good then what is the point of Jesus crucifixion? You can choose to do good even if Jesus never came right?
[7/1, 7:05 AM] Winston Wu: What do u mean that God chooses who to make miracle for depending on their free will?
[7/1, 7:06 AM] Winston Wu: Yes thats a good point. Men are attached to women just like women are attached to their children because women came from Adam's body and rib just like babies come from womens body.
[7/1, 8:55 AM] Alex From Venice: there's no good. There's no balance between excessive suffer and rewards.
But it's good that excessive suffer is shortened by a short life.
Death is not a loss for those who suffered but the gate to their reward.
My explanation is that this is "our world" and God can't intervene because his intervention will defy the purpose of this world where we live.
That doesn't mean that God likes to see us suffering, indeed God suffer for our suffers.
But his her ways of intervention are very limited as God can't alter the physics laws of our world any time there's too much suffer.
Anyway I also have an additional hypothesis, that is pure speculation though, that God might rescue in afterlife the souls that are already "good" (means they have freely chose to be good) when they are facing an excessive suffer, and live their body "alive" but soulless, just in control of an AI that simulate a "normal" living being, so that "the others" still think the is alive.
[7/1, 8:57 AM] Alex From Venice: yes. Jesus came to increase the number of people who can choose good. Jesus came to save "more" souls, not "only those who believes in him" as mainstream theology says
[7/1, 9:00 AM] Alex From Venice: I had inspiration trying to answer the questions "why Jesus had to suffer so much?".
It can't be that suffer Jesus has bear is "God's punishment for the men's sin" transferred on him. That'd be immoral
[7/1, 9:01 AM] Alex From Venice: I've seen the correlation between so much suffer and so many and powerful miracles God did as answer to Jesus prayers (Jesus said he is not who makes the miracles God makes them)
[7/1, 9:02 AM] Alex From Venice: I've seen same correlation of suffer and miracles in many saint's life
[7/1, 9:05 AM] Alex From Venice: I came to conclusion that only the suffer of the good, that freely and willingly offers their suffer to God, allows God to make exceptional alteration of the laws of physics so to gain some more good. This good isn't a simple "relief" from suffer, but leads to increase the numbers of people who will choose to be "good" to believe in God's love.
[7/1, 9:08 AM] Alex From Venice: Usually who sufferer and offer his her suffer for a miracle isn't the one who benefit physically from the miracle.
To understand miracles we need to keep in mind Jesus example.
[7/1, 9:12 AM] Alex From Venice: the "rib" is just a figurative way the mean that the women body comes from somewhere in the man body and that man body has "lost" something, sacrificed something of itself, to let the women body to come to exists. That's why the strong connection.
[7/1, 11:36 AM] Winston Wu: Heres the link to download the movie breakthrough. You will be touched by it.
https://yts.mt/movie/breakthrough-2019
[7/1, 11:41 AM] Winston Wu: This movie will touch u for sure.
[7/1, 11:43 AM] Winston Wu: At end of the movie the people ask why some people get healed and not others. No one could answer that question.
[7/1, 11:46 AM] Alex From Venice: I have a partial answer. Miracles are not a reward and should not considered as rewards
[7/1, 11:47 AM] Alex From Venice: Miracles happens only with the highest purpose to promote goodness
[7/1, 11:48 AM] Alex From Venice: the purpose of miracles is not to benefit an individual, but to benefit the souls of those who are witness and those who listen such stories of miracles
[7/1, 11:50 AM] Winston Wu: So if u get more attention then u are more likely to get a miracle? Then celebrities should have the most miracles right?
[7/1, 11:51 AM] Alex From Venice: yeah, but "visibility" isn't the only criteria
[7/1, 11:51 AM] Alex From Venice: but likely it's one of them
[7/1, 11:53 AM] Alex From Venice: miracles are also out of prayers
[7/1, 11:54 AM] Alex From Venice: Jesus had his miracles granted, he asked for them. If he didn't ask, they wouldn't happen, if he didn't suffer, they wouldn't happen
[7/1, 11:55 AM] Winston Wu: Jesus needed miracles to be remembered by history.
[7/1, 11:55 AM] Alex From Venice: so miracles are out of a mix of factors, there's the need of suffer, the need of prayers, and the need to spread the faith
[7/1, 11:56 AM] Alex From Venice: definitely. If no miracles no one would have paid attention to him. He had zero qualifications
[7/1, 11:58 AM] Alex From Venice: He was a "good man" but he was "heretic" relative to the mainstream belief, so even if he was good no one would have paid much attention to him and trusted him
[7/1, 12:00 PM] Alex From Venice: Miracles, combined with his supernatural wisdom and goodness, that made it possible for him to have so many followers with so strong faith to give their life while proselytizing
[7/1, 12:18 PM] Alex From Venice: kids suffers and prayers are best candidates to cause miracles to happen... to others
[7/1, 12:29 PM] Winston Wu: Why are kids prayers more effective?
[7/1, 12:31 PM] Winston Wu: Btw sometimes God has answered my questions in the past by having me pick up a book and then finding a paragraph or sentence in it that answers my question specifically. That happens sometimes. Its a sort of synchronicity. Have u experienced stuff like that?
[7/1, 12:32 PM] Alex From Venice: their faith can be more "genuine", their spiritual connection to God more "clear", their suffer is more undeserved, more worthy of a reward
[7/1, 12:33 PM] Winston Wu: Then we should have a child like attitude so our prayers can be more effective. Some new agers say mothers prayers are more effective than others too.
[7/1, 12:33 PM] Alex From Venice: yes, sure. That's not what we can call a miracle though. Miracles are alterations of physical laws
[7/1, 12:33 PM] Alex From Venice: yeah
[7/1, 12:34 PM] Winston Wu: Yes of course. But its a synchronicity that sometimes is too specific to be a coincidence. Sometimes it happens several times in a row more than once in a day too. Did u experience that before?
[7/1, 12:35 PM] Alex From Venice: I've experienced a lot of synchronicities but, as I never pray for something specific, I can never make a correlation to my prayers
[7/1, 12:36 PM] Winston Wu: The ancient romans and greeks always believed that god talked to us with signs and omens rather than with words or voices. Why doesnt god talk to us with words and voice? Like he did with Moses? Why does he use signs and symbols and omens and synchronicities? And clues from books, movies and radio?