• scientia de summis
    25

    Didn't ask what you believed, asked you what you thought.tim wood

    Care to elaborate?
  • tim wood
    8.7k
    You can believe what you like, sez I. Thinking answers to sterner standards. Do some critical thinking. E.g., why do you "believe them a wholly accurate explanation of the problem of evil."
  • frank
    14.6k
    As an atheist myself since the age of about 7, I simply do not understand how theists can trust in a God given this argument. It would be much appreciated if someone would clarify a general religious stand point for me, however I just do not see that whatever I am told could disprove this argument without contradicting religious beliefs in itself.scientia de summis

    Leibniz provided a famous answer to the problem of evil (there are two PoE's, this is the later one): this is the best if all possible worlds.

    Contemporary answers would typically echo Leibniz, though maybe unconsciously: that God knows what he's doing and we should trust that.

    But contemporary Christianity isn't as focused on doctrine. I would advise asking a preacher that question.
  • Gregory
    4.6k
    I can rap on this

    Imagine you are a penguin, walking on those cute feet toward the water. Suddenly a lion seal bites your fin off after leaping at you from under the water. You didn't choose to exist, you didn't ask to exist. Yet your consciousness, will, and horror is suddenly real. Did or does creator go through this? No but maybe it's necessary for a creature to experience these affects on its will for a greater good. But this reflects God and shouldn't God's reflection be perfect. But God is bound by laws and logic. So a human gradually gains consciousness. Let's say he doesn't face a true test till after he has become guilty. God is neither guilty nor faces a test. So the goodness of God is in subtlety of will, which the person should have used instead of becoming guilty. And maybe God has to set things up so that people fall and others rise. We are a community of a species and so maybe the system is necessary, for God is bound by laws and logic. He chooses to create but can only do so in certain ways. He has to allow the evil for the good, the fallen for the chosen, the pain for the victory, and the shame for the love. Yet it's reflects his nature, perfect and peaceful. It's a picture akin to an actual picture: that is, to a pianting. It puts the frames around the edges. Yet it leaves you wondering at the end what the creator even is, does, or wants from us, especially since he chooses not to reveal his existence to anyone whatsoever
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