stumbling blocks to faith

I am dealing lately with several chestnuts that occupy those who cannot bridge their gap to a belief in God. Chestnuts like the problem with suffering, the problem with stupidity and many other similar arenas where atheists stumble and cannot believe in God. The reason, in my view, is that they define God, this most commonly undefined in virtually every case, as being a God totally in charge, as being totally in control and therefore being responsible as the creator of evil in all of evil's manifestations.

I am taking a different tack in my approach to the definition of God. For instance, as I read Genesis it never occurred to me that it differed with views on evolution. In fact. I thought it merely the same view couched in more beautiful very poetical language. Later it occurred to me that the untechnical approach of the time was spiritual in that it did not follow the letter of the story but rather the spirit of the story.

Now we all, mostly all I think, know that we cannot express an opinion about someone or anything else, without revealing a great deal about ourselves in the exercise. Expressing process cannot help but do reveal as much or even more about ourselves than about the subject we are talking about. The same is true as well about myself.

My approach is from an individualist view and I recognize an entirely different approach from opposing views, all from a group orientation to existence, therefore to God, and almost entirely a collectivist approach to the entire issue.

All my life, from a very early age, I saw this over and over again. I would say something to the effect that the differing person did not understand or address the basic premise of what I was talking about. 'Oh no' they would argue, I understand perfectly. But if I then asked the most simple of questions they would bungle the subject up into such a ball of various strings all tied together that I gave up.
And so I return in my final all too brief years to leave my view for a final consideration for those who can handle it not so intuitively and emotionally.  Thread will be edited and expanded in the Memorist.