10
votes
Accepted
According to believers in the inexorable damnation of the unreached, how is God not unfair for letting someone be born in unreachable conditions?
There are three common landing points that most believers fall into: (personally I progressed in my own thoughts along all three and don’t think its of absolute importance as to which place a person ...
- 31.6k
10
votes
How is God's judgement of man fair when he judges them without considering their deeds?
Comparing the representative democracy of America with the kingdom of God is an unparalleled category error. The entire reason American jurisprudence holds a person innocent until proven guilty is ...
- 14.3k
8
votes
How do proponents of the “free-will defense” against the problem of evil explain that God can be free and immune to moral evil at the same time?
This question is answered directly in the text of the Bible.
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
...
- 31.2k
6
votes
How does Mormonism (the LDS Church) answer "the problem of evil"?
The problem with the Problem of Evil is that aside from the stated points, it also includes an unspoken premise that this life is all that matters. If that premise is true, then the Problem of Evil ...
- 31.2k
6
votes
Accepted
According to Catholic tradition, why doesn't God the Father punish ISIS?
Before continuing, it should be noted that this topic is discussed among theologians, but there is no official teaching which all Catholics are bound to. That's true for most questions which begin ...
- 4,983
6
votes
Why did God create people who would reject him?
Several ways of answering this are possible, some of them less pleasing to the ears, others less pleasing to the mind, and all of them depending on your view of foreknowledge, free-will, and the '...
- 1,666
6
votes
How do proponents of the “free-will defense” against the problem of evil explain that God can be free and immune to moral evil at the same time?
You're switching your morality definitions between your premises.
One counter to your premises that shows this comes from divine command theory which, essentially, states that God's will is the ...
- 316
5
votes
Accepted
How does Mormonism (the LDS Church) answer "the problem of evil"?
Part of the "Problem of Evil" from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint's perspective is that following the logic of the Problem of Evil was Satan's plan before this life (cf. ...
- 938
5
votes
Why did God allow for the original Bible to be lost to history? And how to reconcile that with Matthew 24:35
"the modern Bibles are bounded (sic) to have contradictions because of copyist errors and translation errors."
The premise of the question is insubstantial.
I am assuming the question ...
- 22.8k
5
votes
How do proponents of the “free-will defense” against the problem of evil explain that God can be free and immune to moral evil at the same time?
To paraphrase an idea from Dale Renlund, God does not simply want us to be well-behaved pets in the celestial living room, but to be full heirs of His glory (see Romans 8:17).
This life, then, is a ...
- 11k
4
votes
How is God's judgement of man fair when he judges them without considering their deeds?
I write from a reformed, Calvinist point of view which includes three things:
I believe in the complete sovereignty of God in all things, he does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth (Isaiah 46:...
- 6,562
4
votes
According to believers in the inexorable damnation of the unreached, how is God not unfair for letting someone be born in unreachable conditions?
For all have sinned.... The first part of the answer is that in the absence of Christ's death on the cross, justice demands that all humanity suffer eternal torment because of our sins. Thus fairness ...
- 11.2k
4
votes
Accepted
How do Christians justify lack of God's intervention during events where neonates get killed?
Summary
While God does not do miraculous divine intervention in most sufferings it does NOT mean He should do so. What you ask is a theodicy, which many Christians have attempted. In the next ...
- 21.8k
4
votes
According to believers in the inexorable damnation of the unreached, why should they be punished in Hell and not be given more merciful alternatives?
The question is similar to Abrahams appeal to the lost in Sodom. Abraham does not want God to destroy the whole city but pleads for mercy:
Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away ...
- 31.6k
4
votes
What is the Reformed Protestant view of Theodicy?
The author below is of the Reformed Protestant school and referred to theodicy in this way:
"Shifting the focus from our own sin to God (ontology and metaphysics)
is one of the sources of ...
- 25.8k
4
votes
How do proponents of the “free-will defense” against the problem of evil explain that God can be free and immune to moral evil at the same time?
Evil is defined as 'contrary to God's will' ergo it is impossible for God to be evil and his having free will has no effect on this.
The point often at issue is in fact this definition of evil. ...
4
votes
How does God tolerating evil not make Him evil?
Theodicy is an explanation for the existence of evil, and why it exists in the universe that God created. Skeptics and unbelievers cast aspersions on God, postulating that God--if he exists!--cannot ...
- 9,653
3
votes
According to believers in the inexorable damnation of the unreached, how is God not unfair for letting someone be born in unreachable conditions?
I'm just going to assume this question is on-topic and answer accordingly. This results in assuming certain other things to be a certain way because changing them renders the question off-topic.
Thus, ...
- 329
3
votes
How do Christians justify lack of God's intervention during events where neonates get killed?
I could start by asking you to read carefully God's words to Job at the end of the book (Job 38-41). And you will see that you will not have another answer to God's question "Shall he that ...
- 788
3
votes
Why did God allow for the original Bible to be lost to history? And how to reconcile that with Matthew 24:35
It is unarguable that no autographs of either the Hebrew, or the Greek scriptures have been discovered. Those, however, contain only written words, but this question invokes Matthew 24:35, which ...
- 25.8k
3
votes
What is the Reformed Protestant view of Theodicy?
Here follows a short extract from a sermon on the subject of evil, given by R.C. Sproul, who I believe was a Reformed, Protestant minister and author. He points out that “the problem of evil” is a ...
- 28.6k
3
votes
How does God tolerating evil not make Him evil?
This is an important question, whether or not particular words are used; whether or not similar questions have already been asked on Stack. This answer starts from the negative, seeking to work ...
- 25.8k
2
votes
What is the origin of "cruciform theodicy"?
In her novel The Minister's Wooing, written in 1859, Harriet Beecher Stowe offers the death of Christ as a response to the problem of evil. She does it in the voice of one of the characters, but it is ...
- 469
2
votes
What is the origin of "cruciform theodicy"?
Here is an early writing which may have been part of what influenced Bonhoeffer in the direction of cruciform theodicy. It comes as part of a letter from Ambrose of Milan to the Christian ...
- 14.3k
2
votes
Why did God allow for the original Bible to be lost to history? And how to reconcile that with Matthew 24:35
There are a number of practical reasons why the original texts - the very first copies that were written down by the original bible writers - would not have survived, as well as some scriptural ...
- 565
2
votes
How do Christians justify lack of God's intervention during events where neonates get killed?
I am a Christian who will not presume to justify God regarding anything that sinful humans accuse him of. You are accusing God of lack of intervention, and of being unjust. Yet while you expect ...
- 25.8k
2
votes
How do Christians justify lack of God's intervention during events where neonates get killed?
This question incorrectly assumes that God is currently micromanaging the world.
But the Bible calls Satan "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4), and "the prince of this world&...
- 8,146
2
votes
How do proponents of the “free-will defense” against the problem of evil explain that God can be free and immune to moral evil at the same time?
This is an old question which St. Thomas Aquinas deals with in the Summa Theologiae; more specifically, at I, q. 19, a. 10, ad 2 ("Whether God has free-will?):
Objection 2. Further, free-will is ...
- 131
2
votes
How do proponents of the “free-will defense” against the problem of evil explain that God can be free and immune to moral evil at the same time?
Your issue, as you might expect, is with premise 4.
A being with free will does not necessarily need to be capable of moral evil. The free will defense doesn't require this premise, and you're right ...
- 121
2
votes
If bad things can happen to good people, does this invalidate any of God's attributes or powers? Do we even dare to think of God this way?
People from all different branches of religion, as well as non-religious people, have wondered for millennia why those whom they think of as 'good' suffer bad things. Atheists are just as entitled to ...
- 25.8k
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