Okay, logically it doesn't work, but Christians are taught things like, "Someone died THEREFORE you can be bad and not worry about it." Logical connection? No.
They don't use the same logic.
Eve sinned THEREFORE god had to ruin his paradise.
People sinned THEREFORE god had to kill everyone on earth.
I believe in Jesus THEREFORE I deserve eternal paradise.
You don't believe in Jesus THEREFORE you deserve eternal torture.
NO common sense causal effect here, except that God overreacts.
The excuse I usually get is something like "We humans cannot understand" or "It might not seem good to us, but it only has to be good in god's eyes"
But most commonly I hear the free will/fall of man bit.
Basically humans "choose" to have bad things happen, either by direct action or more often, original sin. So the next time a Tornado flattens a town or a tsunami drowns thousands or a child dies of cancer, know that god really loves you but damn it, someone, somewhere, sometime broke the rules.
I would think a benevolent god wouldn't mind violating "free will" now and again if it spared, say a 5 year old girl from a rapist/murderer. Or an altar boy from a priest, for that matter.
Omnipotent is qualified here, the same way that your actions are qualified. Although you have the power to take a 5 lb mall and start bashing cars in a parking lot, most sane normal people won't do this, since it goes against their moral code. You have the power, but not the moral will to do certain things.
You will have to agree that nearly 100% (outside of nature's catastrophes) of evil happening on the earth is being caused by human beings. If we cannot bring ourselves under control, knowing that, why do you want God to suddenly freeze us, so we cannot do evil? If God stopped your arm from moving, I think you would freak out. It would be a terrible universe.
The fact that so much evil is around is actually a sign that our human natures (our insides) are broken, and we cannot fix ourselves. It is a strong hint that we need help from outside ourselves and should begin an earnest search for God.
It is philosophically possible that God has morally sufficient reason to allow evil in the world. Therefor the reality of evil doesn't serve as a defeater to the Christian God.
Evil serves a purpose. Certain types of good cannot be produced in a world without evil, and hence God temporarily allows evil to accomplish certain super-goods which could not have been produced in a pain-free perfect world. I'll give you one example and let you figure out the rest: How can a human ever develop a charitable soul, if there was no downtrodden person to be charitable to?
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Okay, logically it doesn't work, but Christians are taught things like, "Someone died THEREFORE you can be bad and not worry about it." Logical connection? No.
They don't use the same logic.
Eve sinned THEREFORE god had to ruin his paradise.
People sinned THEREFORE god had to kill everyone on earth.
I believe in Jesus THEREFORE I deserve eternal paradise.
You don't believe in Jesus THEREFORE you deserve eternal torture.
NO common sense causal effect here, except that God overreacts.
The excuse I usually get is something like "We humans cannot understand" or "It might not seem good to us, but it only has to be good in god's eyes"
But most commonly I hear the free will/fall of man bit.
Basically humans "choose" to have bad things happen, either by direct action or more often, original sin. So the next time a Tornado flattens a town or a tsunami drowns thousands or a child dies of cancer, know that god really loves you but damn it, someone, somewhere, sometime broke the rules.
I would think a benevolent god wouldn't mind violating "free will" now and again if it spared, say a 5 year old girl from a rapist/murderer. Or an altar boy from a priest, for that matter.
Omnipotent is qualified here, the same way that your actions are qualified. Although you have the power to take a 5 lb mall and start bashing cars in a parking lot, most sane normal people won't do this, since it goes against their moral code. You have the power, but not the moral will to do certain things.
You will have to agree that nearly 100% (outside of nature's catastrophes) of evil happening on the earth is being caused by human beings. If we cannot bring ourselves under control, knowing that, why do you want God to suddenly freeze us, so we cannot do evil? If God stopped your arm from moving, I think you would freak out. It would be a terrible universe.
The fact that so much evil is around is actually a sign that our human natures (our insides) are broken, and we cannot fix ourselves. It is a strong hint that we need help from outside ourselves and should begin an earnest search for God.
It is philosophically possible that God has morally sufficient reason to allow evil in the world. Therefor the reality of evil doesn't serve as a defeater to the Christian God.
Evil serves a purpose. Certain types of good cannot be produced in a world without evil, and hence God temporarily allows evil to accomplish certain super-goods which could not have been produced in a pain-free perfect world. I'll give you one example and let you figure out the rest: How can a human ever develop a charitable soul, if there was no downtrodden person to be charitable to?
Or the other cop-out "It's Gods will"?