Questions...

This isn't a "light read"; so if you're not wanting to face the dark and slightly depressing questions I may or may not bring up, than stare at this picture and then google videos of laughing babies.

To paraphrase a famous elf from a famous movie, "a shadow and a threat has been growing in mind". Please don't read this and assume that I've lost my faith; I've simply had these looming questions and doubts, which eventually lead to a much bigger question.

That question being, why do we exist?

I've gotten a few answers, all of which resemble this, taken from the Westminster Catechism:

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Q. 2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?

A. The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

Apparently, we exist to glorify our creator. Which to me seems simply selfish. The Bible claims that God is love. If this is true, how is God showing his love to us by placing us in a world that is filled with pain, suffering, and death? If God is all powerful, and combined with his love for us, why does he make (or allow) earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and other natural disasters to ravage the world, causing death and destruction in their wake? Evidently, the state of the earth is the consequence of the fall of man, tracing back to Adam and Eve falling into temptation and disobeying their creator. So I suppose you could say that natural disasters are a fault of man.

But if God is omniscient, then he would have known that we would use our free will to disobey, and therefore, pain and evil would enter the world. It's all around us - we hurt each other accidentally, we hurt each other on purpose. We have physical pain; our bodies are broken, dying. We feel pain when people we care about are hurt, dying, leaving. Of course there are good things in life. There is beauty and joy. I'm not saying that the good isn't worth dealing with the bad. I'm just saying that if God is everything they say he is, why did he create us, and put us in a violent and turbulent world with inhabitants that are equally violent? If he knew all that would occur, then why? If we hadn't been created, than we wouldn't experience the beauty of this life. But if we hadn't been created, than we wouldn't know the difference, would we?

In speaking to a friend about this issue, her response was "Well God is God. He doesn't have to play by our rules." (Don't read this part, Grandma) That's bull shit, I'm sorry. I'm going to need a better answer than that.

Don't think I'm depressed and unhappy. I'm going through a difficult time, I admit that. But I have many blessings in my life. These are just questions I consider fairly important.