Skeptical Theism and the Problem of Evil w/ Dr. Perry Hendricks
Perry Henricks recently joined me on the podcast to discuss his work on skeptical theism and the problem of evil.
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Perry Henricks recently joined me on the podcast to discuss his work on skeptical theism and the problem of evil.
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Probably irrelevant because I believe the issue of "evil" is a non issue.
The reason I put the word evil in quotes is that I have never really seen a good consistent definition of the concept Is it bad things happening to people or what I call unwanted outcomes in this world? There are certainly a lot of them and range from insignificant things such a stubbed toe to constant pain lasting years. Or is it the privation of something that is desirable, again an unwanted outcome? Or is it something else. I suggest before anyone discusses this topic, they define the concept.
According to Christian theology, this world is definitely not the final existence. There is a far, far better existence promised. So if one is a Christian, how should this world be judged, since it is all that we really know but it is definitely a temporary existence.? Having been brought up as a Christian and willfully adhere to Christianity, I believe that what happens here is a test.
And for it to be a valid test, there must be doubt about the nature of this test. Does God really exist? Does the test really exist? If God does not exist then there obviously is no test.
But what about this world. What ever is bad in this world, is infinitely small compared to the rewards promised by the Christian God. Our personal existence along a time line of all existence is also so small that individuals are asked to endure unwanted outcomes even a painful death for less than a brief instance of time compared to length of this universe let alone eternity.
If there is no God and no test than all is meaningless. And all the bad things we see are just the effect of natural laws doing what they do. In fact, one would expect the chaos and bad things we see as natural processes play out.
But what if there is a God and the promise is true and there is a test? It would be necessary for there to be doubt about the cause of this existence. So we would expect to see exactly the same thing as if there was no God but we would also expect to see lots of evidence that this is not all. And that is what we see if we look.
Aside: Everyone dies in this world yet this is rarely mentioned when discussing evil against the existence of a creator. I find this a curiosity for those using evil as a reason against a caring God.
Aside2: the world is continually getting better. As we eliminate various bad things, people naturally point to other things as bad which were not considered that bad before. In other words we will always find unwelcome things even if they are much less serious than those things abhorred in the past. But whatever the unwanted thing is, it is infinitely smaller than eternal life with God.
Lastly, if we believe God created this existence, then we must also believe this is the best of all possible worlds and that what is called evil is part of this best of all possible worlds. How could it be less? So our focus should be on trying to understand why this is the best of all possible worlds. Is it a world of tradeoffs? Is it a world meant to cause doubt?
From: John Ch 20: “You have come to believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” It seems there is a bunch of Thomas's in this world.