(July 29, 2021 at 12:58 pm)Angrboda Wrote: One could argue that the existence of this world is evidence of a benevolent creator. Things like free will and beauty exist which would not exist without creation. One can argue whether on balance things are good or bad, but like the free will defense, the argument that it's possible that these things demonstrate a benevolent god cannot be argued away just by disagreeing on particulars.
That is like arguing, you can't have Superman without Lex Luther.
Even if humans never evolved, real astrophysics, and evolution proves that violence and death will always be part of life.
I don't see volcanos or earthquakes as benevolent. I simply see them as part of a natural process. I don't see COVID or cockroaches or childhood cancer as benevolent either. They are all simply unfortunate realities humans have to deal with.
I don't see how one can argue that humans are the center of reality, the center of a cosmic super cognition, knowing that our universe is mostly violent, 13.8 billion years old, and locally in our solar system, which is only 4 billion years old, on a planet that has had 5 mass extinction events, to which, humans have only been around 200 thousand years in that time, how anyone could claim there was a God that gave one shit about our species.
Even Thomas Jefferson, although I would argue with him to if I could, even he thought this "God" started everything and stepped aside and left us to our own devices. I wonder what Jefferson would have though if he lived at the same time of Hawking when Hawking said "A God is not required" knowing Jefferson said, "Question with boldness even the existence of a God, for if there be one, surely he would pay more homage to reason than to that of blindfolded fear."
