Guys, this is something I wrote in response to someone's post in another forum a long while ago. Thought you all might find it interesting. These are really not original thoughts, they were pieced together from a bunch of different people.
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please take a minute to read the response from a theist
Having neither the time nor the attention span to respond to the whole of these lengthy arguments, please allow me to interject a theist’s viewpoint on the matter. This is a personal position I hold as a Christian and as a philosopher. Just as this question has plagued humanity for as long as one can probably remember, it too has annoyed the hell out of me. Thus, here is my feeble attempt at elaborating on an infinitely complex problem.
It seems that more of what’s being debated by the skeptic is, “If your God is love, I see no evidence of that attribute in creation. All the death, disease, pain and suffering seems to be out of place if this God of yours is love. Surely an all-powerful God could, and a loving God would, eliminate all evil. Since evil exists, then no such God exists." Consequently, a proper response will be based on the examination of the principles of logic and the natures of God, man, love and evil.
The recognition that certain actions are wrong and others right allow us to recognize evil. But how do we determine what is right and wrong? This is founded on moral law. Moral law being defined as: a universal sense that certain states of affairs are right and others are wrong. Even most atheists would agree that certain things are universally right and universally wrong, which is indicative of an innate rightness/wrongness. An example can be found in that of a child. All would argue that it is better to love a child than to torture it.
Subsequently, the next question that one must posit is, “What is the foundation of this moral sense?” The two stances that follow this question are that of the objectivist (morals are discovered/learned) and the subjectivist (morals are created). However, the subjectivist stance is inherently flawed and self-defeating. This can be seen through the observation that there is no ability to illuminate the universal “right” when two separate moral stances are juxtaposed. Some cultures allow the killing and eating of innocent people, yet others do not. From a subjectivist stance, how does one discern which is right and which is wrong? You cannot. This forces the conclusion that social customs, attitudes, traditions or feelings cannot determine universal morality.
As an objectivist, I would hypothesize that moral right must be constructed from without; a source outside of ourselves that transcends cultures and even human understanding. Thus, a moral lawgiver is observed. Now, frequently, the problem of evil is posed as a fatal flaw in the existence of God by Atheists. Actually, it can be argued that the existence of evil is an absolute stumbling block for Atheists, not theists. How would an atheist explain evil in the absence of a transcendent lawgiver? It is an impossibility without a lawgiver. C.S. Lewis said that evil is God's megaphone to a non-believing world. Evil speaks of moral law. Moral law demands a moral Lawgiver, and it is He that we call God!
Another principle of logic must be addressed. It is the ironic circumstance that an apparently evil state of affairs brings about an even better state of affairs (evil often begets good). Unfortunately, we tend not to realize this till we have hindsight as our vantage point. An example: When a child touches a hot stove, the nervous system sends a neurological signal to the brain which is perceived as pain (a form of evil). Yet without that sense of pain, an even worse state of affairs would arise: the destruction of the limb.
God, Freedom, and Evil
The problem of human evil is rooted in the nature of God and the nature of love and the nature of mankind. I argued in last month's Personal UPDATE that God is a personal being because an impersonal force is an insufficient agent to create personal beings.
1. 2 What is the greatest passion of personal beings? I would argue that, above all else, personal beings desire personal relationships with other personal beings. So it makes sense that God, as a personal being, would desire to create us in such a way that He could have a meaningful, personal, and loving relationship with us. But this has a severe price.
Let us consider the nature of love and its consequences. I cannot experience love from you unless you have the capacity to do otherwise. If you have the capacity to not love me, and you choose instead to love me, then that choice has validity. It has meaning. You cannot have a love relationship with a computer. It is pre-programmed to serve you. Love requires choice: unencumbered choice. And that's where the problem lies.
When God created mankind, He too had a choice. If He created us as beings that were pre-programmed to follow and serve Him, there could be no love. But, if He created us with the capacity of choice, the capacity to love and serve Him, and the capacity not to do so, then there is the possibility of relationship: the possibility of real love. As a personal being with the capability of creating us in the first place, it makes sense that He would want to create us as personal beings with the capability of choice (free will) and, thus, the capability of love. But where there is choice and the capability of love, there is also the capability to choose wrong and to do great evil.
But the skeptic says, "Why did God do this when he knew in advance that the result of free will would be so disastrous? Did this God of love not care that war, murder, rape and so much senseless violence would be the result of his choice to give us free will?" A real life illustration will help us to understand.
The Love of a Mother
During my 15 years as a physician I have seen an enormous amount of physical suffering. During that time I have had five children in my practice die by disease and injury. All of these children came from Christian families. Several months after the death of one of these children, the child's mother was in my office and was very distraught over her loss. She asked me, "Why did God allow this? I love God. Why did this happen?"
What could I say in this situation? Rather than providing an answer I asked her this question. "You have three children. One of them has died. If you could go back to the time before you had any children, with the knowledge that one of them would die this horrible death, would you have children again?"
After a long pause, with many tears in her eyes and a broken heart she said, "Oh yes. Oh yes. yes I would. Because, you see, the love and the joy and the happiness I have received from my children far outweighs the pain, suffering and misery I experienced from the loss of that one child. Oh yes. Oh yes. I would have children again."
In this tragic story we see an incredible insight as to why God allows evil to exist. As discussed earlier, a loving God can allow an evil state of affairs to exist if, in allowing it to occur, it brings about an even better state of affairs. For this woman, the loss of her child was an unequalled and tragic evil. But, with the advantage of hindsight, she said she would do it all again because the love she received as a result of being a mother outweighed the evil state of affairs in the death of her child.
In the hypothetical scenario I presented to this woman, with the advantage of hindsight (foreknowledge in this case) she was in a position comparable to God's before He created humankind. Because He is outside time and knows all things, He knew that there would be tremendous pain and suffering as a result of His decision to create a people with the capacity of choice and, consequently, the capacity to sin (moral evil).
But God, like this mother, knew that the love He and his human creatures would experience would outweigh the pain and suffering that would result from His decision to create us as He did. But the consequences of God's decision were not unforeseen. They were foreknown!
What is generally concluded by non-theists is that, if omnipotent God does not eliminate evil, then He is actually a devil. This implication infers that removal of evil would cause a better, more loving world. Whereas, a truly loving God would have created such a place since it is obviously superior to the one in our possession. Furthermore, any God that did not walk down this path was not truly a God of love, rather an evil tyrant.
As we have seen, this logic crumbles under its own weight. The existence of evil is the "side effect" of creating a world with love. But as we have seen, there are compelling arguments that a world possessing both evil and love is superior to a world where neither is possible. For God to eliminate evil, He would have to eliminate our capacity of choice and thus our capacity to do both evil and good. And such a world is inferior to the one we have: one where love is possible, despite its inherent evil. What kind of God would do this? Only one kind. A God of love.
Why does a God of love allow evil? Because He is a God of LOVE.
So Great a Salvation
So, how practical is Christianity? The Bible presents an infinite Creator with the very attributes we would expect when we examine the things that are made. And God, as a personal Being, in order that He might have a love relationship with us, gave us the capacity of choice. In order that we might have a practical revelation of His love, His wisdom, His power, His glory, He became one of us in the person of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
In order that we might not suffer the penalty of our evil choices (sin), He, like a loving father, paid the penalty for our sins. He allowed his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be murdered on a Roman cross (arguably the most evil act in the history of the universe, if He is indeed God's Son). But this act of great evil gave rise to an even better state of affairs, and the greatest act of love in the universe: paying the penalty for the wrong choices we make, which were the result of the way He created us in the first place! In the cross of Christ He has provided a full pardon from the consequences of the evil in our lives. Consequently, we cannot look to God and declare that He is unfair. Far from being a devil, in this examination of the problem of evil, God becomes the hero of the plot and the solution to the problem of evil. And it all hinges on LOVE. Indeed, God is love.3 What must we do to receive this pardon?
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9
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