Just as "our daily bread" in the Lord's Prayer does not refer to actual bread but to God's love and attention or whatever.

Maybe God's mercy is that he allows us to go to heaven?

And acceptance.

The Creator knows that humans are fallible, thus the Creator does not expect perfection.

My opinion.

Your gods certainly aren't providing this mercy forgiveness and acceptance in the real world, right?

Humans die. It is part of the deal.

And if one follows the path of the Creator, forgiveness and acceptance and mercy are what we should offer to all.

I don't remember signing any pre-existance contract.
Also what path?... Which creator?... How do we decide?

Inquiring minds want to know.

As to the path, I am certain you will find what works best for you.

no-one enters a bargain to be born. We are born not owing anybody anything. There is no "deal".

Didn't see much mercy.

Did you see caregivers doing their best to provide palliative care?
Did you see caregivers treating their charges with dignity and love?

If so, you indeed saw mercy.

These kids are sick. They are in exquisite, unimaginable pain. Their parents are suffering. No merciful god would put them in this position to begin with.

What I see are human beings doing their best to help each other navigate an indifferent universe. There is no god. No divine love. No mercy. All we have is each other.

If you expect a Creator who protects you from everything, you are looking for a shield, not a Creator.

Put a sock in it! You uncaring thing.

You evidently believe that the suffering of innocents is part of your god's plan.

That is why I will always oppose you.

One where free will has no function.

Interesting that, in the universe you describe, humans would be puppets.

I have even made one or two myself.

Or so my wife assures me.

Let alone experience just a few years of painful suffering. For what?

There are more than the two extremes, you know. "Free will" and "puppets." Try seeing the world in shades other than black and white.

That makes no sense.

Do you think these babies decided to suffer or did something so awful God is punishing them and their families?

You don't give up your free will just because you can imagine a world with an all loving god that doesn't force babies to suffer and die.

This god you have now is a cruel and evil creature.

you can do so, but it is not realistic.

if there are no gods.

Or do we still suffer there?

From the caregivers. God was busy creating new diseases and whipping up hurricanes.

And the Creator allows the creation to evolve.

God hasn't any.

One must accept one’s shitty lot in life as the “creator” will make one whole some time later, which is conveniently unverifiable mind you. The sheep need a shepherd so to speak, lest they start to think the shepherd is really a wolf in disguise.

and go to confession before you die god will be merciful and let you in heaven even if you fuck up again and confess.

I learned that in Catholic school.

The explanation being that we are all sinners and not worthy of mercy but for Christ, or to be more concise being born again.

So you have believe in the right flavor of Christianity of course.

It seems much more likely that the loving, all powerful, and all knowing God is in practice largely indifferent.

Instead of wiping us off the face of the earth as we truly deserve, you are here to live a life of "free will" so that you can choose God (read the right version of Christianity) and the ultimate prize being never ending life, in some form or another. The travails you suffer are tests or unfathomable plans of God for you. Again making you a better person or worse depending on the free will thing.

IMHO, no one knows God or God's plan. No Christian knows what God's plan is for you. If you believe in God, you might muddle your way to a better life and personhood by figuring out for yourself with the wisdom we can sift from our religious writings, philosophy and our experience as human beings.

a system which allows a soul many opportunities to develop to the point when it can go home. That is eternal life. Death is having to reincarnate and die and die and die. At any given time, therefore, there will be people with souls at different levels of growth. Thus, there are always examplars of the best values alongside mustard seed souls who care only for themselves.

We must show mercy, but the system works on merit, not mercy. We should forgive, but the system does not. We must cultivate all the qualities which will remove ungodly qualities from Mind so that the soul can flourish. Nowhere in the parables does some outside savior come to save us. It is the soul within each self that is the savior.

All that said, it is a helpful principle to think that we must imitate God (true) and therefore helpful for people to think that God is love...mercy...forgiveness if it gets people to live with those qualities.

theology only became a thing during the fourth and fifth centuries as Christianity went through its second failure to deliver paradise on earth. The first being the return of Jesus within the lifetimes of his disciples, the second after the christianization of the empire also didn’t trigger his return. At that point new explanations were required, and Augustine by way of Origen stepped up to provide a mystery religion where everything in their holy books is obscured and subject to reinterpretation. Their gods don’t speak plainly, but instead in riddles that only experts can interpret.