RE: Ask a Catholic
July 5, 2015 at 8:42 pm
(This post was last modified: July 5, 2015 at 8:44 pm by Randy Carson.)
(July 5, 2015 at 8:23 pm)Mr.wizard Wrote:(July 5, 2015 at 8:16 pm)Randy Carson Wrote: Oh, sure. We just don't get quite that specific is all...
That wasn't really my point though, my point was in regard to god intervening in any instance. Your logic was if god stops one rape the he has to get involved in all of our problems. So does he not answer prayer? Because if he answers one prayer, lets say to cure a person from cancer then he would be obligated to get involved in all of our problems.
As a Christian, I'm perfectly at peace (though not always content) with the idea that God prevents some rapes, cures some cancer, and answers some prayers even though I know that this means the converse is also true.
As an atheist, you are NOT at peace with this because you want ALL rape, ALL cancer and (presumably) ALL prayer answered. When you don't get your way, you deny that God exists because an all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful God would be able to prevent pain and suffering. But pain and suffering exist so...
My response is simply that WE are not in a position to know whether God has sufficiently good reasons for allowing pain and suffering, so this is not the proof of God's non-existence that so many think that it is. Further, we have no way of judging the "butterfly effect" of any of these actions whereas God does and is more than capable of bringing the maximum amount of good out of any and all situations - no matter how horrific.
However, I have yet to see anyone propose how a world in which all suffering is eliminated without also eliminating our free will would actually function. Merely saying that "God ought to be able to figure it out" eliminates our need to think deeply, and it also overlooks the very real possibility that the way things are IS what God figured out.