(February 7, 2020 at 1:38 am)John 6IX Breezy Wrote: I've always viewed the "problem of evil," including all the omni- categories, as existing only in a self-contained philosophical bubble. I'm not sure they map very well to the narrative presented in scripture. Perhaps mixing the two only makes a mess because they're inherently separate.
Problem of natural evil and other catastrophes is everyday human problem to which Bible is completely oblivious.
Even the smallest evils are punishment from God for person's/ Jews behavior. Thus the ancient Jews believed that if they suffered from drought, or if King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia invaded Judaea and exiled its people, that these were divine punishments for their own sins.
The Biblev can not recognise the possibility that perhaps the drought resulted from a volcanic eruption in the Philippines, that Nebuchadnezzar invaded in pursuit of Babylonian commercial interests and that King Cyrus had his own political reasons to favour the Jews. The Bible accordingly shows no interest whatsoever in understanding the global ecology, the Babylonian economy or the Persian political system.
That's why the Bible is so childish because that kind of self-absorption characterises all humans in their childhood. Five-year-olds think they are the centre of the world, and therefore show little genuine interest in the conditions and feelings of other people.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
