The POE takes many forms, and lots of people don't even realize they're essentially the same thing. For example, there seems to be a large interest in this question "Why won't God heal amputees?" The idea is that, if God is good and real (ie, if He exists), then He would do miraculous healings of all kinds, not just of the kinds that people would normally recover from (such as sickness or broken bones). Since we don't see any amputees being healed, that must mean that all healing is natural, and probably means that God doesn't exist. After all, wouldn't He want to heal amputees?
This is just a special case of the famous syllogism (I don't know who originally came up with it):
- Premise 1: If God were all good, He would want to eliminate evil.
- Premise 2: If God were all powerful, He would be able to eliminate evil.
- Observation: Evil exists.
- Conclusion: God is either not all good, not all powerful, or neither good nor powerful (but He can't be both good and all powerful).
I'll have more on this later, but for now, what are your thoughts on the POE?
Greg, you should really read NT Wright's short book called _Evil and the Justice of God_.
ReplyDeleteYou should also read my paper on this particular problem (called "theodicy") as it applies to children's suffering:-)
And probably you should read my colleague Bethany's paper on healing and people with disabilities. I can forward it to you if you'd like. She won't mind.
BTW, I was thinking of some of your creation stuff the other day... and had one of my preschool teacher-artist thoughts. I love creating... I feel most alive when I am making, decorating, drawing, perhaps writing something. I hope that it's just a little glimpse of the joy our Creator has forming us. When I do art, it's an ongoing creation though. One project leads to another. Each piece leaves room for perfection.... Nothing is ever "finished." That is part of the joy of doing it. I think this in a way helps me have space for the concept of theistic evolution... (Yeah, big jump in analogy). I think God's work in us must be continually developing, not because he got it wrong and has quirks to fix, but because the development of us is part of CREATING... That ongoing process is part of the joy and intrinsically bound in the idea of creating. I think doing things this way gives God joy even as looking at his work in us gives him joy. Anyway, that was just a random thought I had. Blessings! You are writing a lot more than ME these days.
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