Problem of Evil & Why a loving & all-powerful God could allow evil RESOLVED. (Epicurus)

Most philosophers agree the problem of evil has been conclusively resolved. They accept Dr. Plantinga's free will defense and explanation of the problem of evil existing with a good God summarized above and say it's been answered and rebutted.

Robert Adams says that "it is fair to say that Plantinga has solved this problem. That is, he has argued convincingly for the consistency of God and evil."

William Alston has said that "Plantinga [...] has established the possibility that God could not actualize a world containing free creatures that always do the right thing."

William L. Rowe has written "granted incompatibilism, there is a fairly compelling argument for the view that the existence of evil is logically consistent with the existence of the theistic God", referring to Plantinga's argument.

While it's quite good, I think an even better explanation is the Cosmic Conflict Series also on my channel under the "!What is God like..." playlist here (esp. #3 & 4):
www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FF4DF93F306FA­0C3
or go here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky30JjA8hUo

Basically, it's because God has free will as a priority above almost everything else, that he has allowed the a rival system (Satan's) in all its variations to test and demonstrate whether there is any better system than the one God designed. The experiment with sin has been horrific and will end. But, it has been necessary so the universe can see the results of alternatives.

I agree with the open view where God gave his created beings free choice and this limits his own foreknowledge some. But, God knows much of the future because He is all powerful and can cause what He wishes to happen to happen and also knows all the present.

If God removed the consequences of our action (suffering), that would make rational thinking, growth in knowledge, truth and wisdom pretty much impossible, yet these are crucial for a universe run on freedom. Yes, when some misuse their freedoms, that harms the freedom of others as well including God. That's a cause and effect consequence of sin.

It's precisely because of this that God hates sin so much. It is Satan's way that destroys freedom, not God's.

God is NOT callous. God WILL correct all injustices in ways that will satisfy EVERYONE that complete justice has been done. Even though God COULD act like a dictator & order everything be done His way as you wish, this would destroy the whole concept of a universe based on freedom. Freedom MUST MUST MUST be allowed to have consequences, or else it's not freedom, it's a sham and rational thinking will not be possible.

Pain&suffering is sometimes necessary (while Satan exists) to preserve freedom. God has astoundingly decided to allow Himself to be put on trial by his creations to preserve this freedom. His wisdom in doing this & many other things with incomparable understanding, compassion and wisdom as well as his incomparable sacrifice for human beings give Him EVERY RIGHT to be called God and worthy in every detail of that title.

See also: "The Secular Benefits of Christianity"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIn3cu5mdGY

It's always good to question scholars. Just make sure you question scientific, historical, educational ones, as well as religious ones.

See WhatisMedia's other videos as well.
This video is from http://www.youtube.com/user/WhatisMedia

Category:

Education

Tags:

• problem of evil
• suffering
• pain why is there evil
• Plantinga Notre Dame Craig
• God
• injustice
• omnipotent

[TruthIsLife7]

@lautz73 These questions wer answered LONG ago&nearly all philosophers agree. I agree with the open view where God gave his created beings free choice and this limits his own foreknowledge some.

Most philosophers accept Dr. Plantinga's free will defense & see the logical problem of evil as having been sufficiently rebutted. Robert Adams says that "it is fair to say that Plantinga has solved this problem. That is, he has argued convincingly for the consistency of God&evil."

[lautz73]

@TruthIsLife7 Any limit to his foreknowledge then he isn't the all knowing being that christianity claims him to be. Since you say that then he isn't the god of the christians but is another god altogether and that makes there more than 1 god. That makes him not the god of the bible at all. See where that little admission leads? Saying that god isn't what he is claimed to be makes him not a god at all.

[TruthIsLife7]

@lautz73 I don't think I answered this. Some Christians think that God knows all the past, present and future. Some like me don't. This is called the open view. In the open view, because God has given people freedom, that directly limits how much of the future is knowable. Even in this view God knows significant parts of the future because He knows what He will do and he has watched human history for 1000s of years..but his gift of freedom limits his knowledge some.

[KrugmanTheKing]

@TruthIsLife7

It's funny that someone says a world with creatures being free and doing more good than evil is better than a world without... then is the Earth better than the Heavens above? Of are your angels not free? If the Heavens are any true, then the angels must be both free and only good if freedom is valuable and, if the Heavens constitute a reward, then it must be better than the Earth. Because, apparently, he did create a better world with only good in it...

[TruthIsLife7]

@KrugmanTheKing The angels also are free and this is a basic thing in Christian theology. Satan used to be the chief angel, but he rebelled because he wanted to be God. That's what caused his downfall...and caused him to become Satan.See a video on this here:

watch?v=Ky30JjA8hUo

God values free will as a priority above almost everything else, and so he has allowed Satan to test out many rival systems so all can see which is best.

[TruthIsLife7]

@lautz73 William Alston has said that "Plantinga [...] has established the possibility that God could not actualize a world containing free creatures that always do the right thing." William L. Rowe has written "granted incompatibilism, there is a fairly compelling argument for the view that the existence of evil is logically consistent with the existence of the theistic God", referring to Plantinga's argument.

I'm not even sure if you watched the video before commenting. Did you?

[Nepycros]

youtube(dot)com/watch?v=T1cRIV­va8rA

[31Uriel]

Nice!

[lautz73]

@TruthIsLife7 But what is the moral reasoning for an all loving being (as christianity claims him to be) to allow anything that would harm his creation? What would be the moral reasoning for a parent to allow harm to come to their child? That happens that the parent is looked at as a bad parent and has the child removed from them. The same would be true of a god. If he allows his creation to be harmed then he can't be all loving.

[lautz73]

@TruthIsLife7 What you just said comes back to "so we worship him". Again that could have been done without allowing evil to ever exist to begin with. There is no moral or logical reason for allowing evil that couldn't be overcome by an all powerful diety.