“It’s not that I don’t accept God, you must understand,” said Ivan Karamazov, one of Fyodor Dostoevsky novel’s characters in The Brothers Karamazov, to his younger brother, Alyosha, “it’s the world created by Him I don’t and cannot accept.”(Dostoevsky 2007, 257) The world created by God is overflowing with horrifying and repugnant evils. Ivan vividly captured some of the moral … [Read more...]
Eschatological Solution to the Problem of Pain and Suffering
The problem of pain and suffering is without doubt the most troubling paradox for Christians. How could a loving, maximally powerful and caring God allow his children to go through extreme and seemly meaningless pain and suffering? In times of suffering many Christians do, and correctly so I may add, find it difficult to imagine that God cares about their struggles. God appears … [Read more...]
The Cognitive Dissonance Of Evil
The Problem of Evil and Suffering In defending the truth of the Christian worldview, I often come across atheists who point to the supposed incompatibility of a loving God with the existence of evil and suffering. Many defenders of Christianity will move directly to explain to the atheist that without an eternal, unchanging standard, there is no objective morality, thus there … [Read more...]
Atheism And Evil In The Name Of God
Evil in the Name of God I recently saw an animated short created by an atheist on YouTube. In this video, a bunch of theists were trying to tell an atheist about God. But then the theists began to threaten each other with weapons and argue over whose religion was right! Not surprisingly, the atheist character came out as the level-headed one as he tried to calm everyone … [Read more...]
Why Does God Allow Evil?
Day of Evil The 9/11 terrorist attacks kicked off a change in the overall tone of conversations about religion. Outspoken “New Atheists” like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and the late Christopher Hitchens gained a huge following from people who were critical of the Judeo-Christian conception God. Why Does God Allow Evil? Besides just slamming religion in general, … [Read more...]
On Behalf of Demea: Hume’s Problem of Evil
“Epicurus’ old questions are yet unanswered.” Said Philo, David Hume’s skeptical character, in Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779). “Is he [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?”(D 10.25) In part 10 and 11 of the Dialogues, Hume explored the … [Read more...]
The Argument of the Shadows
In June, 2002, in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attack, 25-year-old Pat Tillman abruptly left a multi-million dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals and enlisted in the US Army. He declined all interview requests, asking to be looked upon as any other soldier. Nevertheless, the news turned him into a national phenom overnight. Two years later, he was shot and … [Read more...]
Understanding the arguments in God’s not Dead: Part III of III
In part one we looked at Professor Radisson's arguments in detail, and in part two we dug into Josh's first and second lectures to his class. In the final part we will discuss the final talk, and the importance of Philosophy for Christians. Josh's third lesson begins with the problem of evil and suffering. This is one of the most difficult questions for the Christian to … [Read more...]
Ask the Alliance: What about animal pain and the violence in nature?
::Ask the Alliance #10::: Does God permit torture? Question submitted by Steve: Have any apologists spoken about the problem of animal pain (nature being "red in tooth a claw")? It is hard to understand the violence of the natural world (which includes us) in relation to the character of God. Is the violence of nature strictly a result of the fall? How do the theistic … [Read more...]
God, Love & Evil
The standard response to the traditional problem of pain and suffering, after Alvin Plantinga’s contributions1, is that there is a morally sufficient reason for a being that is God to permit or bring about instances of pain and suffering. If it is possible, not necessarily true nor believed by (a)theists, that a being that is omnicompetent has a morally sufficient reason to … [Read more...]