Watch these videos. Then explain to me how a just and loving God can sit back and allow this level of suffering.







15-year-old suffering from bone cancer asks his parents to “kill him” because of the unbearable pain he has been experiencing

Bone cancer is known for its unbearable pain. It is the most painful cancer as it affects the bones directly. Pain in the affected bone is the most common complaint of patients with bone cancer. At first, the pain is not constant. It may be worse at night or when the bone is used (for example, leg pain when walking). As the cancer grows, the pain will be there all the time. The pain increases with activity and the person might limp if a leg is involved. For a child to suffer this kind of disease so early in life is a painful sight to see.

15-year-old Melvin Inocencio is suffering from bone cancer. In the video, he even asks his parents to rather “kill him” because of the pain he has been experiencing. He says he cannot go through the ordeal any longer. Of course, family and friends insist that he be treated. His father, Benjamin Inocencio is a mere part-time carpenter and his earnings is not even enough to sustain the family’s needs. Melvin’s mother is in Pakistan and is still not able to come home.

All they can do at the moment is to ease his pain with a mere pain reliever. The problem is that the child needs to be treated in a health center or a hospital, which the family cannot afford.

It's comforting to know God works in mysterious ways.

I'd like to hear what our resident believers have to say about this. Something tells me they will avoid this thread completely or will dodge and weave around this very straight-forward question. But I'll wait and see.

Chris OConnor wrote:I'd like to hear what our resident believers have to say about this. Something tells me they will avoid this thread completely or will dodge and weave around this very straight-forward question. But I'll wait and see.

Hi Chris.
I don't know the mind of God and can't give you a specific answer for a particular person or situation. I recognise that it's a serious and real question.
I see things from a Christian perspective and know I'm fallible and don't actually have the mind or omniscience of God. Christians have grappled with these things and presented answers which are incomplete and this is a problem as much for believers at times as unbelievers.
I think answers are muti-faceted and the demand for a straight-forward answer to a particular example demands Godlike omniscience which I don't possess.I'll make a few comments which are not complete answers but are relevant.
Could God heal Melvin Inocencio? Yes he could. Has the Christian God ever promised to heal everyone and make everything good now? No he has not.
You know the biblical account. God made a good world,man rebelled and sickness suffering and death entered the world and the biblical picture is that we all die in the end, but there is a future resurrection,judgement and eternal existence.
Also that we should treat others well is commanded and medicine is seen as a provision from God in nature not just an accident.
Horrific as it is pain from bone cancer can be alleviated medicinally. This family is poor though the publicity is helping to raise funding for him to get better treatment.
But then he's just one and there are many more children suffering from diseases.
I think sometimes we think that only modern medicine is effective and poorer civilisations and cultures have had no answers to pain. This is not true. Here's an example.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... in-therapy
I can't get this link right. Google; Bloomberg; Chinese thunder god herb works as well as pain therapy.

I don't accept the atheist view that God never intervenes and think there is evidence that he does but as I say I see no promise from God to make everything right or of constant intervention in this time.
On the contrary God gives commandments with a promise of future judgement and accountability for actions and a message of God's intervention and salvation through Christ's suffering and redemptive acts in history.
To give one example that I know of there is an account of the life of Pastor Hsi in China in the 1800s. I have no doubt there are modern examples and as I said before the guy who spoke to me of Christianity was healed from chronic heroin addiction instantaneously without any withdrawal symptoms.
I have no good reason to think he lied and every reason to think he didn't.
Here's Pastor Hsi's biography, https://archive.org/details/pastorhsiofnorth00tayl
Furthermore Christians are often at the forefront of combating poverty,sickness and pain. Cicely Saunders was the founder of the modern hospice movement promoting palliative care and dignity for the dying.
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publicati ... unders-rip
For an attempt to address the philosophical question here's an article by Howard Snyder. He doesn't claim to have a complete answer but there are things worth considering. I don't agree with all his attempted answers but then there is no stock explanation but you get various responses from people on different points.
http://www.philpapers.org/archive/HOWGEA.pdf
Finally since the main criticisms here tend to be of Christianity here's a debate between the agnostic Bart Ehrman and Michael Brown.
Ehrman at least is familiar with the bible though obviously I don't agree with some of his interpretations.
It's likely many will be persuaded by Ehrman's arguments while other will see some merit in some of Brown's arguments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtw0OdbNJwA

Ant, chime in here please. Why doesn't God cure Melvin Inocencio's bone cancer?

Chris OConnor wrote:Ant, chime in here please. Why doesn't God cure Melvin Inocencio's bone cancer?

Because he's busy trying to find a cure for atheism?

Because he's busy trying to find a cure for atheism?

An atheist is a greater evil than the relentless long-term suffering of a chlid?

Interbane wrote:

Because he's busy trying to find a cure for atheism?

An atheist is a greater evil than the relentless long-term suffering of a chlid?

Oh so you DO believe there's "evil" in nature.
How spiritual of you!

ant wrote:Oh so you DO believe there's "evil" in nature.

Yes.

Why can't you answer seriously?