Epicurus riddle.

[Brian37]

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

Opinions on this riddle?

Not once in my 15 year history of online debate, have I seen the slightest credible refutation to it. I've seen tons of bullshit religious apologies to attempt to refute it, and sometimes their word salad of a skunky argument gets a new tux, but once you peal back the layers of the onion, it is still a skunk.

The theist starts with a naked assertion, then adds to it impossible attributes that when compared to reality, don't match up.

It amounts to, even if we agreed a god did exist, you could only come to the logical conclusion that he is a dick and we are merely his lab rats. I understand it offends believers to have it put like that, but the issue is the logic, not their personal rights.

The examples I like to use are as follows.

1. If you had a kid you want baby sat and the baby sitter had a 357 magnum to protect it with, but said to you  "In my past I had my gun while baby sitting. I baby sat 99 kids. 33 attempts by child molesters I shot and killed before they got through the door. 33 I let in, allowed them to molest the kid, but shot and killed them afterwords. 33 I let go and did nothing."

How many sane parents in their right mind would allow their kid to be hurt, if they had the power to stop it every single time? So why would you hire a baby sitter who claimed that they could do that, but had such a spotty record?

2. Or, say you go to see a Superman Movie  and in it Clark Kent walks by an ally and sees a women getting raped, watches her get her throat slit, bleed out and die, then only turns into Superman after the fact. How many people would value such a plot?

NOW combine those two metaphors with reality. The reality that 50 million humans die worldwide per year from everything. They die stillborn, they die from childhood disease, famine. And adults as well, die from disease, natural disaster, crime and war. WORLDWIDE. 50 million, that is half a billion humans in 10 years, and 1 billion humans dying in 20 years.

Now, that says to me, not for emotional reasons, but purely for logical reasons, that a god is not involved in anything and does not exist.

BUT,  if we pretend one does exist, for argument's sake only, I still can only come to a conclusion based on the parameters believers offer, that this character is not someone worth following, much less worshiping. Humans have the capability to display much better morality than the gods they worship.