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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026

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The purpose of miracles isn't to occasionally fix God's mistake of creating diseases and disasters in the first place. The purpose of miracles is to point humans to God.

Here's a thought experiment, I'm curious to hear your reaction. Let's assume that God wants to instill virtue in people. Should he: a) create a world with challenges and suffering or b) create a world with no challenge and no suffering?

Let's assume that God wants to instill virtue in people. Should he: a) create a world with challenges and suffering or b) create a world with no challenge and no suffering?

An omnipotent God can directly create virtuous people and/or seed virtue into the universe at a base level. The universe could literally work on vibes-based storybook logic where the virtuous always prevail regardless of whatever challenges or suffering they may face. That is no more or less reasonable than having the universe run on atoms or gravity. Virtue is independent of challenge or suffering.

If he wanted no virtue, he could make the physics and incentives revolve around pure self-interest, maybe one has to eat the souls of others to survive. We don't live in that world.

If he wanted maximum virtue, he could have virtue directly translate into success and power and prestige, directly performing miracles in public. The medievals thought that could happen, they thought that kings could cure scrofula with the royal touch. We don't live in that world either.

God would certainly not resort to such indirect and ineffectual methods as getting people to write and constantly reinterpret holy books if he wanted virtue. There are much more direct levers to push.

Is Heaven not a place without challenge and suffering? It’s a ‘possible world’, as the philosophers would define it; which is to say a maximally consistent set of propositions. It only creates problems if you adhere to the axiom that God is omnibenevolent.

To your first point, you’re absolutely right. If your love of God is only conditional on the premise that He delivers you your hearts desires, this is no different than a parent who loves his children only if they do what it is he wants. But that’s the love of the sinners and tax collectors, it isn’t divine love. This is also an argument for why Christian philosophers dismiss Allah as a false God and why they don’t worship the same deity Christians do, because Islam has a morally deficient concept of God. Numerous times throughout the Quran, it details who it is God hates and who He loves.