Quote:
The affliction and suffering caused by the worm to the boy is an effect of the fall, not an effect of God's design in creation.
"The Fall" is a good cop out for most christian arguments about the nastiness of nature. But that still doesn;t answer questions like; why did god design the worm to be able to eat the boy's eye? Or alternatively, why did the fall make the boy's eye so weak it could be eaten. In both scenarios god (the designer) is the ultimate cause of the suffereing.
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Evolution is about mutation and sex. Intelligent Design is about metaphysics and sects.
[P Morgenroth - Letters to the Age 13/8/05]

I can't imagine a higher being throwing anyone into eternal torment for not worshipping him, anymore than I can imagine a loving parent throwing their baby in the oven for not understanding complex physics. - Casandra Blake