I agree completely, Chris.

M

i see no belittling in this thread ,if disagreeing is belittling then why have a conversation at all? but if it will make it better i'll believe k? adam

I think it's been explained about as many ways as possible. I really don't know how to say it any differently.

Boy, this is a long thread! I've read pretty much all of it and I noticed most (if not all) of it is from the Christian perspective. There are many other ways of looking at the world (and "God") than just through the lens of the bible. I personally lost my faith in the church not because of my abuse (even though the 2nd perp was a church leader), but because I found too many contradictions to what I believe to be true. I can't believe in a God that would condemn someone like Ghandi to everlasting torment just because he didn't believe in Christ. My beliefs lean more towards the Buddist/Toaist ways of thinking now. For me, the idea that God didn't protect me from my abuser doesn't come into question because I don't think of God in that manner. Maybe if your faith doesn't work for you, you should look at other faiths.

Basically, shit happens. What happens to you is not as important as how you react to what happens to you. I'd recomend "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl. It's about his experiences as a concentration camp survivor and his resulting philosophy. Basically, it's the meaning that you attach to your experiences that's important and you have the freedom to choose that meaning. You can choose to attach a meaning that empowers you or disempowers you. (Still working on that one myself.)

Maxx

I have seen this book several times Maxx but havnt picked it up i will take a look at it some time.

and welcome to Male survivor its a good place its helped me quiet a bit.

,Chris

Funny thing....out of all this and couple really good friends, I have found a path to my faith again. The explainations here helped me understand that and I thank each of you for that.

I also wanna say thanks to HP and Rob. Rob the way you explain things really opened up my eyes and HP your faith and strength showed me that God must exist.

Brian

This is a really difficult thread, as we all have the same questions but do not find the answers.

I am not a Christian so I can only talk about the Muslim worldview.

The problem we are facing is that we are blaming God for something a vicious human committed. As God has promised in Quran(Muslim religious book) that every good deed, no matter how small would be rewarded and every bad deed no matter how small would be punished.

So the good deeds are rewarded on the day of judgement and bad deeds are punished no matter how small. In this world bad things happen, people get sick, people die but all is because this world is a test, if we do good in midst of difficulties we would be rewarded more.
With there being a day of judgement and afterlife, the perps would be punished for what they did to us and we would be rewarded for the pain we suffered,so hey! there is hope for us all and darkness and hell for the perps.