Logic, logic.
It's been asked many times,
'If God is good,
Why does He allow suffering on earth?'
'If God is all powerful,
Why can't He intervene and prevent pain in the world?
If He can't do this,
Then there are some things He can't do
Even though He's all powerful.'
I've been reading Lee Strobel's
The Case For Faith.
Strobel was an award-winning editor of Chicago Tribune
And a former atheist who holds a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School.
In his book,
He investigates and reports the toughest objections and questions on Christianity today.
To the questions mentioned above,
I like what Peter Kreeft from Boston College told Strobel,
'Precisely because He is all powerful,
He can't do some things.
He can't make mistakes.
Only weak and stupid beings make mistakes.
One such mistake would be to try to create self-contradiction,
Like two plus two equal five or
A round square.'
[follow through with me]
It isn't logically possible to have
Free will and
No possiility of moral evil.
'In other words,
Once God chose to create human beings
With free will,
Then it was up to them,
Rather than to God,
As to whether there was sin or not.
That's what free will means.
Built into the situation of God deciding to create human beings
Is the chance of evil, and, consequently,
The suffering that results.'
Strobel: Then God is the creator of evil.'
Kreeft: No, He created the possibility of evil;
People actualized that potentiality.
The source of evil is not God's power
But mankind's freedom.
Even an all-powerful God could not have created
A world in which people had
Genuine freedom
And yet there was no potentiality for sin,
Because our freedom includes the
Possibility of sin within its own meaning.
It's a self-contradiction - a meaningless nothing -
To have a world where there's
Real choice
Which at the same time
No possibility of choosing evil.
To ask why God didn't create such a world
Is like asking why God didn't create
Colourless colour or
Round squares.'
*
It's been asked many times,
'If God is good,
Why does He allow suffering on earth?'
'If God is all powerful,
Why can't He intervene and prevent pain in the world?
If He can't do this,
Then there are some things He can't do
Even though He's all powerful.'
I've been reading Lee Strobel's
The Case For Faith.
Strobel was an award-winning editor of Chicago Tribune
And a former atheist who holds a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School.
In his book,
He investigates and reports the toughest objections and questions on Christianity today.
To the questions mentioned above,
I like what Peter Kreeft from Boston College told Strobel,
'Precisely because He is all powerful,
He can't do some things.
He can't make mistakes.
Only weak and stupid beings make mistakes.
One such mistake would be to try to create self-contradiction,
Like two plus two equal five or
A round square.'
[follow through with me]
It isn't logically possible to have
Free will and
No possiility of moral evil.
'In other words,
Once God chose to create human beings
With free will,
Then it was up to them,
Rather than to God,
As to whether there was sin or not.
That's what free will means.
Built into the situation of God deciding to create human beings
Is the chance of evil, and, consequently,
The suffering that results.'
Strobel: Then God is the creator of evil.'
Kreeft: No, He created the possibility of evil;
People actualized that potentiality.
The source of evil is not God's power
But mankind's freedom.
Even an all-powerful God could not have created
A world in which people had
Genuine freedom
And yet there was no potentiality for sin,
Because our freedom includes the
Possibility of sin within its own meaning.
It's a self-contradiction - a meaningless nothing -
To have a world where there's
Real choice
Which at the same time
No possibility of choosing evil.
To ask why God didn't create such a world
Is like asking why God didn't create
Colourless colour or
Round squares.'
*
3 comments:
God is indeed all powerful and all good. But He has His own reasons for not revealing WHY He allows pain and suffering, and mankind as a whole does not yet understand what those reasons are. But God has good reasons.
I think part of the answer is that God is allowing mankind to learn some painful lessons that will pay off with benefits for all eternity. God could prevent pain and suffering, and in the future He will. But right now, He wants mankind to write a painful lesson in history that shows the consequences of our wrong ways of life.
God also is testing the faith of those who believe in Him. As I point out in my book, the biggest part of faith is not just believing that God exists, but believing God, in other words, trusting God enough to believe what He says even when we do not yet understand the "why".
Yes, thank you, I am a believer too.
The purpose of my post was to share with others from a certain angle, not to debate or question the existence of God. I love God and I believe in Him because I've had many encounters with Him.
Deut 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but htose things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Nice blog. Thats all.
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