Re: RE: God

["Justin Schwartz" <jkschw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> There is a very powerful argument against the existence of a a 3-A God:
> the problem of evil.
>
> jks
> > CB: Yes, and are those who are agnostic about God agnostic about the
> Devil ?
>
>
> JD: I wasn't raised as a Christian, but as I understand that faith, it's
> humanity that's the source of evil. (The Devil is most important to the
> fundamentalists, not the more sophisticated Christians.) "God" gave us free
> will and we mostly chose to be evil. In my view (as far as I can tell), we
> also created good (and God), along with the definition of good vs. evil.


The strongest version of the problem of evil involves natural suffering of
nonhuman origin. (The free will defense doesn't work fot this sort of evil.)
Unnecessary pain is intrinsically evil, so how can there be an all-good,
all-knowing, and all-powerful God whopermits, for example, a little fawn to
die in pain when a rotten tree falls and braeks its back, or an elephants to
starve to death when its teeth wear out? Can't hew just tweak the tree so
that it misses the fawn, or have the tree hit it so that it dies
immediately; or give theelephants teeth that last another ten years? Or
maybe He doesn't want to, or can't do anuthing about it, or doesn't know?
Any of these hypothese are inconsiastent with the usual three-A God.

jks


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