God is Either Impotent or Evil

September 10, 2011 2 Comments

“Of course, people of faith regularly assure one another that God is not responsible for human suffering. But how else can we understand the claim that God is both omniscient and omnipotent? There is no other way, and it is time for sane human beings to own up to this. This is the age-old problem of theodicy, of course, and we should consider it solved. If God exists, either he can do nothing to stop the most egregious calamities or he does not care to. God, therefore, is either impotent or evil. Pious readers will now execute the following pirouette: God cannot be judged by merely human standards of morality. But, of course, human standards of morality are precisely what the faithful use to establish God’s goodness in the first place. And any God who could concern himself with something as trivial as gay marriage, or the name by which he is addressed in prayer, is not as inscrutable as all that. If he exists, the God of Abraham is not merely unworthy of the immensity of creation; he is unworthy even of man.”  Sam Harris, 2005

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About the word of me
Interested in family and friends,grandchildren, photography, darkrooms, history, archaeology, scuba diving, computers, software, fast cars, journalism, writing, travel, ecology, news, science, and probably most other subjects you could think of. Did I mention family and friends?? I require iced tea or cold brewed coffee and a internet connection to be fully functional. Sometimes there are just so many words in my head they spill out.

2 Responses to God is Either Impotent or Evil

  1. Katoikei says:
    September 15, 2011 at 5:51 PM

    Care to ask Sam how he factors in the idea of freewill? Did you watch his debate with Dr. William Lane Craig? In your opinion how do you think Sam fared? How do you think Sam would have fared should he have debated say someone like Professor Alvin Plantinga?

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  2. the word of me says:
    September 15, 2011 at 8:39 PM

    The bible is very ambiguous about freewill…many places say we have it, and some say we do not.

    I did not watch Sam debate Dr.Craig. I once viewed a debate that Dr. Craig had with someone I don’t remember now. I didn’t care for him at all.

    The following excerpt from a debate critique between him and Dr. Lawrence Krauss explains what I felt at the time.

    “Unfortunately any effort I made to show nuance and actually explain facts was systematically distorted in Craig’s continual effort to demonstrate how high school syllogisms apparently demonstrated definitive evidence for God.”
    And
    “Let me now comment, with the gloves off, on the disingenuous distortions, simplifications, and outright lies that I regard Craig as having spouted. I was very disappointed because I had heard that Craig was more of a philosopher than a proselytizer, but that was not evident the other evening.”

    Regarding Dr. Plantinga I have not had the honor of meeting or watching him debate so I can’t comment intelligently on your question.

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