“When faced with reality, I can either accept it for what it is or come up with a cockamamie story for some giant dude in the sky and how it’s all part of his master plan”. Sounds reasonable.
Here's a question I think is applicable to this discussion: You are the pilot of an airplane that just took off. You have complete engine failure and you have no choice but to put the airplane down immediately. You have two choices on where to put the plane down. And you must choose one instantly. Choice #1 is a heavily congested area and you will most certainly kill and injure many people if you land there, but you will survive the crash. Choice #2 has no people or animals that would be killed or injured but you will die if you land there. I realize no one knows how they will actually react to any situation until it really happens. But what do you "think" you would do, honestly.
I think believers would say you went wrong when you ascribed human characteristics/feelings to and entity/being whose nature we can not know or comprehend. He exists precisely for the reason that those things are un-handle-able. He is "the crutch" (as people here love to call Him). And I think that when you are desperate, and you need that crutch, and it comes to prop you up in your darkest hour, you are eternally grateful for it, so grateful, that you commit yourself to trying to love others the same way you experienced His love...if you choose to believe that that is what it was.
Honest question in search of knowledge. Does science have a theory about where matter came from? Been a long time since I was in school.
Yep. Lots of them and they are quite fascinating. *Light - Photons. They decay and create matter. *Multiverse theories - we are a bubble sprung from another universe - We got shot out of the back end of the cosmic trash compactor known as a black hole. *It always existed - beginning to compact after all of the energy from the bang is used up - then blowing out again once it's super compacted. *Then there is string theory...no fucking way can I summarize that mess so it makes sense. I love this stuff. The possibilities are endless because we just don't have a fucking clue.
Richard B. Riddick once said, "Think someone could spend half their life in a slam with a horse bit in their mouth and not believe? Think he could start out in some liquor store trash bin with an umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and not believe? Got it all wrong, holy man. I absolutely believe in God... And I absolutely hate the fucker."
To the OP - Not everything that happens in this world is Gods will. Jesus taught His disciples to pray to the Father in Matthew 6:10 "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" If God's will was automatically done He would not have taught this way.
So, wait... God DOESN'T have a plan, then? Everything is random? Weird how there's so many inherent contradictory beliefs in this 'faith' stuff.
I have been calling myself a mushroom for quite some time. I feel like I am kept in the dark and fed shit.
God does have a plan. However His plan/will is in conflict with His adversaries plan/will and often with mans plan/will. While God eventually wins the war He doesn't always win each battle.