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Ch'i - if you start from the posision that a deity is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent (i.e. knows everything, is everywhere, and has unlimited power) then there is no option but to believe that all the bad (and indeed good) things that happen in the universe are because;
a: The Deity desires them
or
b: The Deity chooses to allow them.
Any other options (such as the deity not knowing about them, or not being able to prevent them because of lack of power, lack of will, or being somewhere else) all negate one or other of the "omni"s.
If you accept that God has power, then the choice to allow things that might be termed "evil" becomes the responsibility of the god.
If God does not have that ability or power then God is not not all powerful.
If God does not have the will to prevent evil then God does not deserve worship.
I personally am utterly convinced that there is no God.
What ammuses me is that I have been of this opinion for most (if not all) of my self aware existence, and have never been shy of talking about it. I have never been threatened or criticised in any meaningful way because of this conviction.
It seems that in the USA it is much more controversial to espouse a-religious opinions than it is in the rest of the "developed" world.
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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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