Problem of Evil: Logical Contradiction (2 of 5)

Introducing and evaluating the problem of evil in a five video series.

1) Introduction
2) Objection 1: Logical inconsistency within God
3) Objection 2: Probability argument
4) Objection 3: Evidential argument
5) Objection 4: Emotional argument & Conclusion

Omnipotence: S is omnipotent at a time t if and only if S can at t actualize any state of affairs that is not described by counterfactuals about the free acts of others and that is broadly logically possible for someone to actualize, given the same hard past at t and the same true counterfactuals about free acts of others.

"There seem to be many evils in the world that can be eliminated only by producing situations containing more evil or costing us some greater good. Suppose that many evils result from human free will or from the fact that our universe operates under natural laws… suppose further that a world containing free will and natural law … contains more good that a world that does not. If it makes no sense for God to eliminate an evil that would bring about a state of affairs in which there would be less good or more evil, our newest candidate for the missing proposition – that a good being always eliminates evil as far as it can – may safely be dismissed as neither true nor an essential Christian belief (p. 186)."

References:

Hume, D. (1980). Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill (p. 198)

Johnstone, P. (1993). Operation World. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan

Koukl, G. (2009). Tactics. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan

Nash, R. H. (1988). Faith and Reason: Searching for a Rational Faith. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan

Mission Frontiers. Retrieved on March 14, 2009 from: http://www.missionfrontiers.org/pdf/1990/11/n908.htm

Moreland, J.P., & Craig, W.L. (2003). Philosophical foundations for a Christian worldview. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press

Zacharias, R. (2000). Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson

Category:

Education

Tags:

• problem
• of
• evil
• atheism
• agnosticism
• logic
• contradiction
• law
• noncontradiction
• christianity
• god
• reason

[QuatFax]

@Xpatchris Yeah, I guess I see what you're saying. I've sort of moved away from this argument. I still believe it's logically impossible for god to exist, but for different reasons.

[Xpatchris]

@QuatFax The sticky part then is, this must mean that while being perfect it can still create imperfection while remaining perfect. So it can create a realm that is imperfect and allow others to participate in imperfection while abstaining from imperfection itself. That's the hard part.

[Xpatchris]

@QuatFax That's like saying that the fact that perfection can not also be imperfect, makes it imperfect. The question itself is faulty. If an entity has a certain characteristic it is merely being true to itself. Being true to oneself may seem to imply a rule that must be followed, but only if nebulousness is greater than identity. For Buddhists this may be the case, for the Middle Eastern religions it is not.

[QuatFax]

Your point about how god allows evil to bring about greater good is irrelevant. If god were all powerful, he would be able to bring about the greater good without allowing the evil.

[QuatFax]

I'm sorry, why would god not be able to do things that were logically impossible? If god had to follow the laws of logic, there would be some force outside of and superior to god. For god to truly be god, he would have to have created logic and be outside of its power.

[Eric91611]

@tonyjones595 LOL God isn't tangible hahaha any atheist can just go look up quantum physics if they think science disproves God. Almost all scientists believe in God. the way our universe works it had to be started somehow look up the big bang there once was nothing but a tiny dense mass of energy and nothing else literally nothing. but something had to interact with the energy causing the chain of events that lead to everything. So something beyond the physical universe started everything.

[polopowers1]

God's power is kept in Virtue by man's free will.?The definition of free will is the suspending of God's Virtues and attributes.Define how man can exercise a complete free will and not interfere with God being who He is by Nature.If God cannot absolutely overcome man's will that does not just limit power but love, mercy, truth, goodness,etc.

[pope6789]

"nor is god a genocidal maniac" well, if you're going by the bible then I'm going to have to disagree with you

[Perrine234]

And if you're saying that we should worship god because he created us, that's pretty retarded too. No one asked to be created, so why should we be grateful for that?

Why should a child born into poverty and starvation in Africa be grateful? According to you, even if they die before the age of one, they'll go to hell for not worshipping Jesus, even if they never even heard about Jesus.

[Perrine234]

So if my parents were genocidal maniacs, should I worship them simply because they are my parents? Because that seems to be what you're implying.