2 Big Arguments Against God's Existence -Answered

[Joshua 0]

Atheists have 2 major arguments against Christianity it seems. First I'll present a quick explanation of the 2 from my handy Desk Reference and then offer a refutation. Here is the following from page 329 of the 3rd ed. Desk Reference which is authored by the New York Public Library:

One of the most influential and powerful "proofs" that there is no God proceeds from "The Problem from Evil."  This argument claims that the following three statements cannot all be true:  (a) evil exists; ( God is omnipotent; © God is all-loving.  The argument is as follows:
*  If God can prevent evil, but doesn't, then He isn't all-loving.

*  If God intends to prevent evil, but cannot, then He isn't omnipotent.

*  If God both intends to prevent evil and is capable of doing so, then how can evil exist?

Another argument claims that the existence of an all-knowing God is incompatible with the fact of free will-that humans do make choices.  If God is omniscient, He must know beforehand exactly what a person will do in a given situation.  In that case, a person is not in fact free to do the alternative to what God knows he or she will do, and free will must be an illusion.  To take this one step further, if one chooses to commit a sin, how can it then be said that one sinned freely?

First, free will.

Every time I see this argument, a huge, glaring error jumps out at me. It assumes that because God has the power to know everything, He must know everything.

However, if God didn't have the choice to NOT KNOW He could not be all-powerful. You see, omniscience without choice contradicts omnipotence. It may surprise some to learn that while the Bible calls God "omnipotent," (Revelation 19:6), nowhere is He called omniscient.

What the Bible does say is

"the ways of man are before the lord, and He pondereth all His goings," (Proverbs 5:21) "He looketh unto the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven," (Job 28:24), "Hell and destruction are before the Lord:  how much more then the hearts of the children of men?," (Proverbs 15:11), and "In whom [God] are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

Herein lies another error in reasoning, my friends. God is omniscient in that He sees all that is occurring, but it would seem He is not necessarily when it comes to knowing the future. But it is upon that presumption which the above argument depends. For you see, God must have the choice of whether to know something or not for Him to be all-powerful. His knowledge is conditioned thus on His looking, or choosing to see it. Take these verses for example:

"The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.  They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one." -Psalms 14:2

As you can see, God looks that He may understand. The Bible clearly shows that God CAN see the future. It stands to reason, however, that such knowledge of the future is conditioned on His looking, even as it is with the present. And, it is an error in reasoning to assume that just because God can see future events, that He always chooses to do so.



Now for "The Problem from Evil."

It seems to me the gist of such a question is to ask why God permits us to suffer the consequences of us breaking His moral Law, as if He owes us a perfect life.

Let me turn this around though, and examine our own accountability as well as that of our Creator. Would not a better question be "Why does a just God put up with us when we wrong Him and wrong other people?"

The human race is a race of jerks. Let's face it, we all fail God and other people. And this brings me to my point. Why is there evil and suffering in this world?

Because of us.

There is a story circulating that has the following quote:

Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life," the student continues. "Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?"
Now uncertain, the professor responds, "Of course, there is. We see it everyday. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

================================

If we were all to perfectly abide by God's moral Law, two things would happen:

1) We wouldn't harm God, but love Him.

2) We wouldn't harm other people, but love them.

Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40 points out that the great commandment is to love God with all our hearts, minds, and souls. The second, He says, is to love our neighbor as ourselves.

On these two commandments, says He, hang all the Law and the prophets. Paul, in Romans 13:10, takes this one step further in pointing out that love fulfils God's moral Law precisely because it does no harm to others.

So, can God prevent evil? Of course He can! Ever hear of the giant flood, and of Noah's ark? God came very close to exterminating evil right there. And therein lies my whole point.

We are the source of evil. When one asks why God allows evil to exist, they are unconsciously asking why God allows us to exist. We are the ones who've polluted God's once-perfect universe. If we lived like God wants us to, there would be no suffering. It's disobedience to God's will that brings in problems.

The concept everyone calls Heaven is, according to the Bible, God's destruction of this flawed universe to bring in a new, perfect one. But we'll just destroy it again, how then can God let us enter it? Wouldn't we just be a bunch of eternal jerks who go on harming each other?

This is why one "must be born again." (John 3:7) What it takes is an inward change of our very nature, so that we will have God's love in us, as well as an eternal commitment to growing more in accordance to God's will.

All this cannot happen if we cannot acknowledge we are evil and need to change. It is why in Luke 13:3 Jesus says that unless we repent, we will all likewise perish.

And so, God permits our pathetic, evil-causing human race to continue to exist because He loves us, and sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins so that through repenting and trusting in His sacrifice alone to save us we can indeed be "born again" and find eternal life.

God permits us to exist because through Jesus He has made a chance for us to escape the consequences of our sin and to be born again within so that we will keep changing to become more and more like God, with the end result being our becoming people who will not harm Him or other people, and thus, not cause evil, pain, or suffering to others.

It is a just God who can't waffle on sin, and must pronounce the judgement of eternal separation from Him for the harm we do to Him and to others.

It is a loving God who sent His only begotten Son from on high to do the only thing capable of making us new people who can spend eternity with Him.

[delivi 0]

Yes atleast now the Atheists should belive the existence of God. The Bible is not only the Holy Book of Christians but also hold the key and the Truth to this universie and its mysteries. The only book in this world that covers all the aspects of the life and covers the entire history of the Earth from its creation in the Past , the Present and the Future.

[catfish 0]

and god only knows (pun intended) how many times it has been edited, things left out, etc...the present day bible is hardly the end-all be-all some believe it to be. (dead sea scrolls, etc.)

[realthor 0]

Just one thing more: devil is also the creation of God, just like the man, but as man was first sinless thus was the devil- an angel first. But God loved the man and didn't killed it after falling; he left him the chance to see what is the result of his sin and thus return to God after making it up to Him in this life. So God loved the fallen angel and all those fallen with him, and because of His love e choosed not to end it but to let it exist. Of course devil is not God's equal it's just like man and as man can cause another man to sin exactly the same can devil, which i dunno what is in real form -God's absence, some energy etc.This is my 2 cents.

[switch 0]

now here's some people who know what they talking about! lots of respect for Joshua and Delivi and Realthor too

 

catfish, upon the discovery on the Dead Sea scrolls they were cross checked with the Modern manuscripts and found to be 5% different. Now, 5% isn't that much as it is, and 80% of that 5% was spelling mistakes. So we are left with 1% of the Bible has had its meaning changed at all. This is usually in a reasonably insignificant way.

 

As a result of this, you'll often find in Bibles footnotes (marked with a * or a superscript letter) that say "Some Manuscripts add" or "Has been rendered suchandsuch in some Masoretic texts" or something like that. If you want more detailed explanations of the accuracy of the Bible, there's plenty of books, and probably loads of websites about it (but i'd be more inclined to trust a book).

 

Good stuff guys!

[Cerb 0]

Arguing religion is a silly game. Arguing religion with a religious book is an even more silly game. I don't know why I even bother clicking on topics dealing with religion anymore...

[MaverickFang 0]

Its not so much is there a god, but who is the god? And im sorry to say guys, but Jesus is arabic, not caucasion *which means all of those depictions of a "white" jesus are incorrect*

[CroSpartacus 0]

Actually Jesus was Hebrew. Jews are mainly white and I have seen Jews with light hair and blue eyes so the idea that Jesus had those features is possible.

[wild20 0]

Nice Joshua. You can see in "Evidence for God" located in the debates area, which I wrote, also deals with a little of this matter and talks about how the Bible validates itself. Your article is well written as well. I personally believe that God let evil and the devil in the world for one reason only, as an example to His angels and the universe.If we remember, Lucifer, the devil, took a third of the angels out of heaven. I am sure maybe some had doubts about God as well. He created us. Maybe because He was bored. Who knows? But He did give us the choice to follow Him or not. It is like a wild animal. You can try to win it's affection, but you can't MAKE it like you. So we had this choice, and we decided against God. Lucifer came in, and now actually has some control of the world. By letting sin come in, God is making an example of what sin does. When it is over, there will be no doubt as to who's side you want to be on.