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If only god would take a few minutes out of his busy schedule answering billions of prayers and saving (some) passengers in airplane accidents, he could straighten the whole mess out. He could tell us, for example, whose book is right. Maybe decide there'd be no more cancer in children. And no more mosquitoes, that would be good. I know, I know: he acts in mysterious ways...

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Angie, I think God watches over us for entertainment and doesn't usually get involved. :-) Can you imagine the Almighty wondering if/when we will cure cancer, greed, etc... Sitting on the edge of the Almighty throne, head in hands, wondering if John Snow and Sansa Stark will take back Winterfell. :-)

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Difficulty score 18. No green.

No Tuco, I can't imagine an omniscient God wondering...about anything.

Angie, the mess you wish God would straighten out is a mess of our own making. We are sinners and the mess is the consequence of sin. But I'm sure you know God did take time to straighten out the mess. He sent His Son to die for our sin. It is our responsibility to come to him in faith and receive the forgiveness He offers. Until God creates a new heaven and earth, sin and its consequences will remain with us.

Why not? Can't be all powerful if you don't have the power to wonder, or be surprised. I think you just like to argue anything I post. Even if it just a humorous anecdote. :-P

So then can God create a rock so big even He can't pick it up :)

All I know is my arms are too short to box with God.

And in the immortal/amoral words of Kinky Friedman, Jesus Loves You are comforting words, unless you are in a Mexican prison. :-)

The Conservapedia page concerning the question of God and the big Rock is fun reading.

I wonder if Angie ever got the gun she used to ask

Santa to bring her.

SJ: The Army of God and any other so called Christian terrorist goups have not been particularly effective compared to radical Islamists. Of course no level of violence is acceptable, but lets keep our perspective. Radical Islam is at war with us and we better wake up to that fact.

Have you ever considered that Radical Islam is not at war with us but are being used by those who want a destabilized middle east to stay destabilized?

We have kept a military presence in the Middle East to protect the flow of oil and support repressive rulers in that region. We overthrow their leaders when it suits us and support leaders who torture their people as long as they do not nationalize their oil fields. There is more too it than one religion hating another.

That may be part of it. I had a devout Muslim friend. One of our mutual friends asked him about terrorism. He said he disagreed with it because their timing was wrong. In other words, there is an Islamic prophecy of a time when all Muslims rise up and go to war against the infidels. At least some of the Islamic terrorism is being done by Muslims who believe that now is the time for that war.

I don't subscribe to your mentality of blaming the victims.

Specifically, ISIS is an attempt to establish the Caliphate.

Yes it is a handy tool to get people to blow themselves up along with innocents. In order to get someone to kill others you have to convince them it is a good idea. Using Religion has been a time tested way of getting people to do just that.

I am not blaming the victims. I am stating historical facts.

But the people "support" even more repressive rulers. Look at Iran. They had the Shah, not a nice guy perhaps, but much better than the crazy mullahs!

Why did they have the Shah in the first place? Who was their leader before the Shah? And how did the Shah come to power?

Of course we supported the Shah because he was friendly to the West, but when Jimmy Carter thought it would be more "democratic" to arrange the overthrow of the Shah the result was even worse. Remember, Jimmy thought like you, that we were interfering too much in their internal politics.

The same can be said of the Arab spring. Egypt now has a military dictatorship and Libya is in chaos.

UTH: You can find greek letters in the extended character set, for instance in Microsoft Word you can insert special characters into your document. Just create a Word document, insert the special characters you want, then cut and paste from the Word document to the IronSudoku chatterbox.

We didn't support the Shah because he was friendly to the West. We installed the Shah at the request of the British (specifically Anglo-Iranian Oil Company) who were incensed when the Iranians decided to Nationalize their oil fields. Mossadegh was a democratically elected leader of Iran and concerted effort by the Brits and U.S. led to his downfall and the installation of the Shah who ruled Iran through torture and repression. This is why the Iranians consider the Brits and the U.S. the great satans. They tried to be a western style democracy but since they had something the west wanted they weren't allowed to be.

The Shah was friendly to the West because if he wasn't he would be out on his ear. Sadam Hussein was friendly to the West until the Iran/Iraq war ended and he attacked Kuwait.

Carter stopped supporting the Shah because of his stance on Human Rights. The same stance that led us to divest from South Africa. The Arab spring started in Tunisia which is doing well today. Libyan sweet crude has been a prize the world's oil companies have been after for decades no surprise there is chaos there. No democratic infrastructure after 40+ years of Qadaffi. Give them time. Egypt will be a mess forever. I remember watching the TV when Sadat was murdered. He was a good man.

EZPZ, except possibly in one place. Lots of, Only one cell left. 9.