A few years ago I heard a lady speak on the devastating experience of losing her son. As the extraordinarily painful narrative unfolded, she described how her faith had faltered on the rock of divine foreknowledge. And she recounted the central question she faced: how could she worship a god who foreknew and — by […]
problem of evil
“I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth…” Could God be punishing Texas?
13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. […] 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath […]
A Case Where I Spend WAY TOO MUCH Time Analyzing a Snide Atheist Meme
Here is a tweet from the folks at “Atheist Republic”. Call it a meme if you want. (Might as well since the word “meme” seems to apply to most anything that gets retweeted.) So here’s the meme: pic.twitter.com/AduwjnloUq — Atheist Republic (@AtheistRepublic) August 16, 2017 I’m not sure what definition of “bullshit” the folks at […]
Today I Think of Bob Jyono
Yesterday I learned about the latest emerging pedophile scandal in the Catholic Church, one that centers on Cardinal George Pell, by some reports the third most powerful man in the Church. (I’m not up on Catholic polity so I won’t render an opinion either way on that.) This will be settled in the courts, but […]
Gnu Atheism? Wildebeest and the Problem of Natural Evil
Natural evil concerns any suffering within nature which is not the result of the morally culpable actions of a moral agent. (For my previous discussions of natural evil see here.) Instances of natural evil are not hard to come by. Consider, for example, this image of a young wildebeest being eaten by a hungry crocodile. […]
The Hiddenness of God: Thoughts on the Giunta-Schieber Debate
The most recent episode of “Unbelievable” features a very fruitful exchange between Justin Schieber and Christian apologist Blake Giunta on the hiddenness of God. Schieber defends the hiddenness argument from J.L. Schellenberg. (See my review of Schellenberg’s recent book here and his reply here. And just for the heck of it see his endorsement of […]
Skeptical Theism and Skepticism Simpliciter: A Response to Jason Thibodeau
In his two-part article “If it’s okay for God to allow horrors, then we don’t know much about God” (Part 1; Part 2) Jason Thibodeau presents an articulate and concise skeptical argument against theism. There is a lot packed into his article, and I’m not going to attempt to address it all here. But in this […]
If it’s okay for God to allow horrors, then we don’t know much about God (Part 2)
This article is part 2 of a guest post by Dr. Jason Thibodeau. For part 1 click here. Jason teaches at Cypress College and blogs at The Secular OutPost. You can also visit him online at “Not Not a Philosopher.” III: Reply #1: We Know Enough In his recent book, An Atheist and A Christian Walk […]
If it’s okay for God to allow horrors, then we don’t know much about God (Part 1)
This article is part 1 of a guest post by Dr. Jason Thibodeau. Jason teaches at Cypress College and blogs at The Secular OutPost. You can also visit him online at “Not Not a Philosopher.” I: The Problem of Evil Every year in the United States an average of 37 children die after being left in […]
I feel love. It’s about love: Still Alice as Theodicy
Lisa Genova’s 2007 novel Still Alice tells the story of Harvard professor and scholar Alice Howland and her journey living with early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Howland is a few months into her fiftieth birthday when she receives the terrible diagnosis. From there the book follows her on her slow and painful decline into dementia. At first […]
Gleason: A Review
Over the last couple weeks I’ve heard a lot of people exclaim what a horrible year it has been. I admit that I’ve grumbled a bit myself. However, I won’t do so anymore. Gleason has a way of putting things into perspective. This extraordinary documentary debuted earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. In a perfect […]
God and Answered Prayer: A response to Justin Schieber
I guess this is the week of responding to tweets. Our latest helping comes from my coauthor Justin Schieber: When somebody thanks God for helping them find their keys they betray their belief in a God with some profoundly misaligned priorities. — Real Atheology Podcast (@RealAtheology) December 21, 2016 Before I proceed to offer a […]
God, Serial Killers, and Natural Evil
Most of my readers will know of Stephen Law, the respected atheist philosopher who has made some perspicuous contributions to philosophy of religion, perhaps most notably in his evil God argument. (In the past I reviewed Law’s book Believing Bullshit and I’ve offered several critiques of his evil God argument, including here and here.) Today Law offered […]
Calvinism and the Problem of Evil: A Review
David E. Alexander and Daniel M. Johnson, eds. Calvinism and the Problem of Evil. (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2016). Calvinism represents one of the richest and most formidable intellectual traditions in Christianity, one that has enjoyed a popular renaissance in North America in the last several years. Given these facts, you might expect that Calvinism would attract significant […]
