1. The Problem of Evil, Part 4
I have been exploring the question: If God is good and God is all-powerful, why is there evil in the world? I have found #3, #4, and #5 from the list below problematic. Today, I will consider #6.
When considering possibility #6, I think we need to consider what we mean
by “God.” Many people, including people of faith, reject the notion of a
male sky-god. Some believe that God set the universe in motion and has not
done anything subsequently. If this were the case, the question of whether
God exists would seem quite irrelevant. God would be so remote that God
would have little, if any, impact on our lives. There would be no theodicy
question, because God would not be active in the universe.
Is there evidence for God’s activity in the universe? Many people relate
miracles as evidence of God’s action in the world. However, remarkable
claims require remarkable evidence. As best I can tell the evidence for
miracles attributed to Jesus and saints is not very compelling and is
commensurate with the evidence for miracles performed by religious heroes of
other faiths. Relatedly, people often argue that the remarkable qualities of
the human body, such as the eye, cannot be explained by science and
therefore represents evidence for divine intervention. Historically, many
remarkable natural phenomena that religious people have claimed, prove the
existence of God have been later explained by science. One thing that
science seems unable to explain is our own existence. How did each of us
become conscious, self-aware beings distinct from all the other beings in
the world? The failure of science to offer anything resembling a
satisfactory answer makes the proposal that God is somehow involved in the
world a reasonable hypothesis. Having argued that God’s existence is
reasonable, we will next consider options #1 and #2.
Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.
2. From All-Creatures.Org Ministry
We hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter. It includes how Why aren’t self-declared feminists vegan? — Cods’ skins for human skin grafts? — thrill killing of Wildlife in the U.S. — Allied Scholars for Animal Protection [animal defenders on your campus?] — Pigeon racing ‘abusements’ — lawsuit: plant vs. cow milk —another new institute expands human models for human diseases — sharing when Cows are my friends and I don’t eat them — Buddhism and Animal liberation — appreciating Swans and Cygnets — horseracing’s black market doping — and more...
All-Creatures.org Newsletter for June 14, 2023
Do you have things that you would like to see included? Then send it to
us at veda@all-creatures.org.
In the Love of the Lord,
Frank L Hoffman
All-Creatures.org
and
Kindness,
Tams Nicholson
Executive Directress
All-Creatures.org