Ladies and Gentlemen,

I dont have the time, unfortunately, to read all posts on this thread. But if a believer has posited a cogent answer to my relatively simple question asking God why he doesnt show up in the sky and tell us he exists and what his true message is, then I have the following story to relate (my apologies but this will be a long post - but well worth reading):

I only met my paternal grandfather a handful of times before he died. I remember him being a very sad person. Like something in his past weighed him down. After he died, i asked my father what that could have been. My faher told me.

My parents are muslim Indians, who lived in the province of Punjab in 1947 when the partition of the Indian continent occured. As most of you will know, the partition of Punjab occurred along religious lines (muslim majority Punjab went to Pakistan and Sikh/Hindu majorioty areas went to India).

M y father's family happened to be Muslims in the Hindu/Sikh majority area. My father is was too young to remember any of this. But when I asked him after my grandfather's death about why he always seemed so sad, this was my father's answers:

In August of 1947, the shit was hitting the fan in Punjab. Muslims were trying to get to Pakistan, and Sikhs and Hindus were trying to get to out of Pakistan into India. The madness and mayhem on each side was beyond comprehension. Mt father's family lived in Amritsar, which was on the Indian side of the new border, and they all lived together in an extending family system (i.e. my grandfather and all his brothers and sisters lived together in the same little house...along with my grandfathers new wife, and their new-born son-my father).

My grandfather had 3 brothers and one sister. And he was a prominent member of the Muslim League (even though his family warned him that such allegiance could lead to trouble down the line). He adored his one sister.(or so i am told. My grand-dad never spoke of her). In August of 1947 the Hindus and Sikhs went ape-shit, and started a campaign of mass-murder against muslims in Indian-denominated Punjab which resulted in hunders of thousands of casualties. (I am not saying the Muslims were innocent victims as the same atrocities occured against hindus and sikhs on the other side of the border).

But one afternoon, before my grandfather's family could evacuate, a mob of hindus showed up at my grandfather's house. They beheaded his brothers in front of his eyes. They then gang-raped his sister, and then carved her up while she was still alive, piece by piece and fed the body parts to their hunting dogs.

The only reason they spared my grand-dad, grandmother and infant father was becuase my grandma cracked and told then where the other muslim league leaders where hiding. (they were also slaughtered).

My question to those who think God is out there and beneficient and looking out for us. Where the FUCK was God in Punjab in 1947? More importantly, the violence which resulted in 1,000,000 casualties in those 3 horrific months in the Indian Sub-continent, were due to REIGIOUS differences. God could have prevented all that by showing up in the sky in AD 1000 and saying, "Guys, stop killing each other, everyone believe in X.."

He didnt. And his failure to so show up, resulted in my grandfather's sister being gang-raped and murdered by religious fanatics. Is he God? Sounds like allowing these atrocities to occur (and there have been thousands, I only relate one which is from semi-personal experience) is something Satan would do. Not "God". Not when he can simply show up and tell the murderous Sikh hordes, or the Taliban, or Al Qaida, that theyre FUCKING WRONG.