The Problem of Evil (XXVII)

[LadyForCamus]

 

Evil is what an omnibenevolent god forsakes, not "other good attributes."  

That is the question isn't it?

 

The only thing logically incompatible with comfort is discomfort.  The only thing logically incompatible with happiness is unhappiness.  If we call comfort and happiness good, and discomfort and unhappiness evil, then--except for evil--an omnipotent god can have anything it wants in addition to comfort and happiness.  

If what it wants is discomfort and unhappiness, then it is not omnibenevolent.  
If it wants something else and can't have both that and the absence of evil, then it is not omnipotent.  

This is simple, but it's not naive or false: An omnipotent god can have anything it wants that isn't logically incompatible with other things it wants.  An omnibenevolent god doesn't want evil.  Therefore, an omnipotent and omnibenevolent god can have anything it wants.  

I don't believe that comfort and happiness equate with good (at least not on a logical or definitional level).   This it is more of an emotional problem, than logical.

The beauty and warmth of summer is upon us here in the eastern United States.  It's only the first week of June, and there have already been four toddler deaths as the result of being left, strapped into a car seat, in the back of a hot car for over 8 hours.  Maybe this sounds like an appeal to emotion but come on, now.  God isn't even TRYING at this point.  This type of senseless suffering (emotional as well as physical, because the child cannot grasp why he has been abandoned) is beyond comprehension.  How easy it should be for a tri-Omni God to step in and prevent such abject horror.

"Mysterious ways" doesn't cut it.