Monday, June 22, 2009

Two Things...

When considering the "problem" of evil, I rarely hear people discuss the evil in their own hearts. When people ask how God could allow this and that atrocity, I rarely hear anyone ask how God could forgive a man. It is interesting that the thrust of the problem of evil is not mainly a strong philosophical argument but rather a deep emotional unreasoned gut reaction. No one who champions the "problem" wants to deal with their own evil or God's forgiveness. I am, of course, open to correction if someone knows of something I have missed. Consistency is an uncomfortable thing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you should probably separate out the two groups you are speaking of here. First, every human (I would assume) SHOULD have a gut reaction (God-given I would argue) to the evil in the world. It _should_ be shocking. But the second one, the one you mention towards the end, is another group altogether. This is the group which wants to find a problem with a theistic world view and therefore plays on that emotional reaction.

Coffee Joe said...

I think you are right that there are people who only bring up the "problem of evil," or the sometimes now named, "religious problem of evil," in an attempt to attack a certain worldview. However, what I am curious about is why people leave out certain things in the discussion- not their motivation for discussing in the first place.