Category Archives: Problem of evil

What would convince you?

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A few years ago, a visitor to our home expressed surprise at seeing a copy of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion lying around.  My response was that I find it helpful to know what those I might disagree with are actually saying.

In the same spirit, I present here the key points in this 2013 essay by Daniel Bastion.  These twenty reasons for not taking Christianity seriously have garnered high praise from sceptics such as John Loftus (‘Read ’em and weep Christians’) and David Madison (‘Bastian’s essay is indeed essential homework.…

Trimm: four views on Old Testament violence

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What are we to make of the command…

Deuteronomy 7:1f ‘When the LORD your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you—Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you—and he delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy!’

…and its fulfilment?…

Can we still believe in demons today?

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From Genesis to Revelation – and especially during the earthly life of Jesus – the Bible witnesses to the reality of evil supernatural beings who oppose God and seek the harm of his good creation.

In addition to this plain witness of Scripture, a number of other factors should be considered.

Clinton E. Arnold writes:

  1. Science is inherently incapable of answering this question. Some critics grant science authority to make judgments on issues it is incapable of judging.
…

Where is God in a messed-up world?

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Some excerpts from this book of the same name, by Roger Carswell (2nd edition, 2020)

How can God be all-loving and all-powerful?

The Greek philosopher, Epicurus, outlined the dilemma facing the thinking mind: God either wishes to take away evils and is unable; or He is able and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able; or He is both willing and able. If He is willing but unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God.…

The problem of evil

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The Christian faith has only a partial answer to the problem of evil. A great deal of mystery remains. Most Christians, however, lean upon several fundamental truths.

1. Christianity acknowledges the reality of evil. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he included the petition “Deliver us from evil.” The Christian faith, unlike some other religions, never regards evil as an illusion. It is not a misguided way of thinking, a problem of human perception of reality.…

The problem of evil – three pillars of truth

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With regard to the problem of evil, three things can be asserted with confidence:-

1. The evil reality of evil, Isa 5:20.

2. The all-embracing sovereignty of the Lord, Eph 1:11.

3. The perfect goodness of God and of his work, Gen 1:31.

There is, no doubt, great difficulty in reconciling these three, yet we hold them all to be true. Indeed, we find them intertwined on the cross, ‘an evil than which no greater can be conceived’ (Hick), which, nevertheless, was predestined by God, (Acts 4:28) and which was the ultimate expression of the goodness of God.…

Evil and God’s providence

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Of the evils that infect God’s world (moral and spiritual perversity, waste of good, and the physical disorders and disruptions of a spoiled cosmos), it can summarily be said:

1. God permits evil; (Acts 14:16)

2. he punishes evil with evil; (Ps 81:11-12 Rom 1:26-32)

3. he brings good out of evil; (Ge 50:20 Acts 2:23 4:27-28 13:27 1 Cor 2:7-8)

4. he uses evil to test and discipline those he loves; (Mt 4:1-11 Heb 12:4-14)

5.…

God, evolution, and natural evil

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One of the most significant objections to the theory of evolution is the moral one: if there is an all-wise God, why would he use a process that involves so much waste, suffering and death?

Biology, says, Denis Alexander, is a ‘package deal’. For every ‘plus’ that we might see as positive for life and well-being, there is a ‘minus’. For example: mutations are essential for biodiversity, and yet mutations also cause cancer and genetic diseases.…