What Neil deGrasse Tyson Gets Wrong About God
A new article of mine, What Neil deGrasse Tyson Gets Wrong About God, was just published on Catholic Exchange.
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A new article of mine, What Neil deGrasse Tyson Gets Wrong About God, was just published on Catholic Exchange.
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I am commenting here because I do not have an account with those that Catholic Exchange requires. There is an emphasis on the problem of "evil" in Flynn's aorticle so that is my emphasis here.
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It does not follow when something causes suffering and is painful, it is harmful to us as humans. I am not talking about it being a test for us to overcome or to build character. That is worthwhile but what are our goals as humans according to the Christian God? To reach eternity. So how is pain and suffering part of our reaching eternity?
How do we reach eternity? Not by existing in a perfect state according to human terms but by voluntarily loving and serving God. How does one do that? By loving and serving God even though there is doubt about His existence and His purposes. So doubt is essential.
And pain and suffering lead to doubt. One religious philosopher said pain and suffering is the only tool in the atheist’s arsenal to discredit the notion that God exists. (The irony is that it does not preclude the existence of a creator but the atheist only means to disprove the existence of the Christian creator. The atheist is obsessed with discrediting the Christian God. This is what Tyson is about.)
God gives us enough information about His existence, as this book by Flynn is about. But still, we doubt and the issue is what do we do with this doubt? The so-called problem of “evil” is not a problem when we compare everything that could go wrong in this world with the one true evil, the eternal separation from God.
The so-called problem of “evil” is not a problem at all when we compare everything that could go wrong in this world with the one true evil, the eternal separation from God. An example of the nonsense people generate about evil is that the most extreme evil by human experience is not pain and suffering but death. We all die after a very thin sliver of existence in the current world. Our whole existence is incredibly small. But no one points to death as the ultimate evil in this world only when it is comparatively brief. However, all life is short. The percentage of existence we are alive in this finite world is less than 100 years of the billions of existence in this universe, a number with several zeros after the decimal place. In other words, death is the principal evil in this world for the atheist. But for a Catholic, it is the entrance to the real existence.
So “evil” is a straw man argument and what is considered evil constantly changes as humans eliminate or significantly reduce many forms of pain, suffering, and early death.