Reply #3: The stock answer is "free will." [View All]

[Kutjara]

God apparently gave us free will so that we can choose between right and wrong. Early Christian philosophers debated about this long and hard. The prevailing view was that, if we didn't have free will, then we could be neither good nor evil, because we had no choice over our actions. Without free will, we are merely automatons enacting a script.

So borders and inequality and all the rest of the world's ills are something that mankind's sinful nature has brought into the world freely.

As for why God created so many people and then only "chose" some of them as His people, fundies would tell you that, again, everyone has the choice to believe in God so, if they don't believe in him, it's their own fault and they deserve everything they get. Part of the missionary colonization of so many parts of the world was driven by the need to bring God's Word to the Heathens. Missionaries were quite concerned that many humans would go to hell simply because they hadn't heard of God, so the missionaries made it their business to tell everyone they could reach. If the heathens still didn't listen, then, again, they had only themselves to blame.

Hypocracy works in mysterious ways, it's wonders to perform.