(June 24, 2015 at 4:52 pm)SteveII Wrote: So, you have decided that God did not have morally sufficient reasons for his actions. Why wouldn't uncaused creator of the universe, who in his nature, defines good, has the benefit of seeing every possible action of every possible person from the beginning to the end of time, have sufficient cause to act as he sees fit. Oh, wait, he doesn't exists. You can't have it both ways, either he exists as I have described and therefore has sufficient reasons for his actions, or he does not and did not "murder". There is no argument against God here.
There can be no morally sufficient reason for an omnipotent being to use evil to achieve good ends. When a human does this, for example, when a surgeon cuts healthy tissue of the abdomen to remove an infected appendix, that is done because the surgeon cannot remove it otherwise, and so it is justified. The surgeon is limited, not omnipotent, and so when he or she does damage to healthy tissue as a means to the end or goal of removing the infected appendix, though the damage itself is bad, it is better than the alternative. But with an omnipotent being, it does not require means to ends; it can instantly achieve its ends without intermediate steps.
The excuses that are made for god to try to explain away the problem of evil always entail some limitation on god.
As this has been addressed in another thread, I will just add in a couple of quotes rather than retype it all:
(June 20, 2015 at 1:23 pm)IATIA Wrote: In the infinite span of time and the vastness of the cosmos, why are we even here? If god knows everything, why did not god just send everyone to heaven or hell from the get go? What is to be gained by this infinitesimally short and insignificant life we have? The birth and the death of uncountable universes would be but a blink of the eye from a god's perspective.
(June 20, 2015 at 1:29 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: Take your pick:
1) Because god is an idiot and cannot tell who is worthy of heaven and who isn't without testing people on earth.
2) Or god is incompetent and cannot properly make people without the earth.
3) Or god is evil and enjoys torturing people.
4) God does not exist.
For those who need it, with 1, god is not omniscient. With 2, god is not omnipotent. With 3, god is not perfectly benevolent.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
