I’m going to offer my syllogism for how God’s sovereignty and man’s free-will can co-exist. Now, this isn’t me trying to “philosophize” the issue, I’m simply taking my understanding of the Scripture (which is that both God is sovereign, knows the future, knows what actions we will do, but that we also have free will) and showing how my in my understanding God’s sovereignty and man’s free will don’t contradict each other. This is not an explanation of how I believe things work, because there is no possible way I can know how God functions outside of time, much less inside of time.
Exploring the Problem of Evil (Pt. 4) – “Can God’s soveriegnty co-exist with man’s free will?”
30 04 2009Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: Alvin Plantinga, Calvinism, Christianity, Evil, foreknowledge, free will, God, molinism, Philosophy, problem of evil, Religion, soveriengty, theodicy, Theology
Categories : Exploring the Problem of Evil Series, Philosophy, Theology
Does God exist? (Part 3)
27 04 2009I received a reply. Here is my response to the reply I received:
Issue 7 – Does God need “special pleading” to avoid the arguments against naturalism?
Me:
It is necessarily true that in any universe where matter decays it must also have a beginning. Thus, even if we say there was something prior to the universe, we’re still left with the problem of infinite regress – at some point, there has to be something beginning everything.
Atheist:
Except for God right? He gets a special pass.
That would be the Special Pleading Logical Fallacy i think
Me:
I thought I did a good job explaining why God is not subject to the problems listed in the original post. As I stated:
If the universe requires a beginning, then it requires an immaterial, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful mind to bring the physical world about. All of these would be part of the nature of the being that caused the universe, thus satisfying the requirement of premise (1). The universe, as it is, fits none of the above descriptors, thus requiring an explanation. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: atheism, Christianity, existence of God, God, Kala, kalam cosmological, Philosophy, Religion, Theology
Categories : "God Exists" series, Philosophy, Theology
Does God exist? (Part 2)
25 04 2009I hadn’t intended on making this into a series, but I received an email from an atheist concerning my previous post. So I am putting up his arguments to my arguments and then supplying my defense.
Here was my response:
Issue 1 – Kalam Cosmological Argument
Me:
1) Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
2) The universe began to exist.
3) Therefore, the universe has a cause.
Atheist:
Why do you assume that the universe had a cause?
“Our” universe came into being however many billions of years ago, but who is to say what was there before. The matter within this universe could have always existed, just not necessarily in its current form.
Me:
It is necessarily true that in any universe where matter decays it must also have a beginning. Thus, even if we say there was something prior to the universe, we’re still left with the problem of infinite regress – at some point, there has to be something beginning everything. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: apologetics, atheism, Christianity, cosmology, evidence for God, God, Philosophy, Religion, Stephen Hawking, William Lane Craig
Categories : "God Exists" series, Philosophy, Theology
Hope Fulfilled
14 04 2009Anonymous prayer requests can sometimes cast a dark shadow on this world. People put up prayers for their children who have cancer. One mother asked for prayer for her heroin-addicted teenager. One man pleaded for prayers over a broken marriage and a wife that was cheating on him. Another man spoke of how he didn’t know whether or not his three-year-old daughter was going to live. Prayer requests made by strangers are sometimes more open than the “unspoken” prayer requests made in Sunday school. The reason is that some of the requests come across as hopeless.
I have worked with students who have grown up in poverty. They see no hope. I worked in a high school where one student drank her nights away because she had a debilitating disease, a disease that would inevitably take her life. She saw no hope.
To the burdened down, to the trial weary, to the restless, to those without hope, I beg of you, look in the empty tomb. The nothingness of the tomb of Jesus is full of everything you need.
Jesus Christ, God incarnate took upon our sins as a propitiation for what we deserve. He offered His life as a ransom. He took on our pain and suffering so that He too might be made weak like us, so that He might endure what we endure. But it is in this tomb, this beautifully empty tomb, where we see Christus Victor, Christ victorious! In His resurrection He gained victory over everything laid upon Him on the cross.
Look into the empty tomb, those without hope, and in the emptiness find your hope. In His resurrection He has gained power over that which holds us back. All the evil of the world has been defeated and will one day come to an end.
For those who feel bogged down by their sins, see them upon the cross and see their defeat in the tomb. See that you are forgiven and can live life victoriously. To those tormented by demons, see that they hold no power over you, for they could not keep Christ in the grave.
For those who have no hope, look upon this empty tomb and see that He has given you hope, a hope beyond hope, that you will one day be resurrected. To those who live in poverty, peer into the richness of the empty tomb and see that your wealth is not found in the things of this world, but instead is found in Christ.
To those afraid of death, look in the tomb and realize that death is dead because Christ is raised. To those with physical ailments, look beyond the tomb, look to the risen Christ! As He is so shall we be, with new bodies that do not fail us.
To the blind, fall before the risen Christ and look up to Him with the sight you shall receive. To the deaf, listen to the beautiful song the resurrected Christ has written for you. To the terminally ill, fight death and laugh at it, realizing that death holds no power over you because Christ has already defeated it.
To the weak and paralyzed, run to our risen Lord and collapse in His arms, feel His strong embrace. To the hungry, go feast with the living Christ, who died for our sins, but has been raised by the Spirit of God, the power of God, to victory!
Look upon this resurrection, this very real resurrection that took place in time and space. Look upon the victorious Jesus. Look upon Him, oh weary and trodden down, and have hope; for Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!
The trials of this world mean nothing for our hope is in Him. He is our only hope. When the trials of this world become too much, when the seas begin to rise an the earth shakes, when all comes tumbling down and the darkness will not cease, we take comfort in this; Christ Jesus died for our sins, our struggles, took them to the grave, left them there, and was risen in victory. In His victory we seek comfort from the ravages of this world.
We hide in the power of Christ from the heaviness of this world. When we struggle, when we are hurt, when all of life makes no sense, we can turn to Him. This is not some distant deity we worship. He is not some subject to be studied. He is the personal God, resurrected.
We live in power now because of Him. We live in victory. We live moment by moment for Christ. It is the power of the resurrection that transforms us; we die with Christ and are raised to Him, our old nature being destroyed and our new nature being created.
Take heart in the dark times of life and have hope in the resurrection to come when we shall all join Christ. Oh what a glorious day that will be! Can you imagine, oh sinner, what it will be to look upon the face of the One who died for you? Can you imagine looking at God, a God none of us are worthy to see, and instead of feeling His righteous wrath, to feel His warm embrace? Actually feel Him, for Jesus is truly resurrected!
This is the hope of all Christianity, that we will one day be as He is. We will one day be resurrected. We will be in perfect fellowship with Him. The hungry will feast with Him. The oppressed will be liberated. The orphaned will find their Father. The sinner will be made righteous. The impure will be made pure. Find hope in the resurrection of Christ, for the resurrection is what sinners dare not dream, it is hope fulfilled.
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Tags: Christianity, Devotional, Easter, fulfilled, God, hope, inspirational, Jesus, prayer, Religion, Theology
Categories : Devotional
Exploring the Problem of Evil (Part 3) – How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
2 04 2009We now come to the point where we must explain why God would send people to Hell. Though we can see how it is logical that God is (a) wholly good, (b) omniscient, (c) omnipotent, (d) allows for free will, and yet (e) none of this is contradicted by evil, we can proceed onto the judgment of God.
Before doing so, we must explore (2) more fully. What does it mean to be good, much more, wholly good? In the classical understanding among both pagans and Christians (though Christians had a slightly different modification to “good”), moral goodness was defined as that which was just. Thus, justice was one of the highest virtues because within justice was goodness. Justice was defined as what kept things balanced, of what brought about positive results and what punished negative results.
Under the Christian view, “good” and “just” are those things that bring glory to God. Thus, if an action glorifies Him (most often by displaying love or pointing us back to Himself) then the action is good. Any action contrary to Him is evil, or “sin.” Thus, if God is good (2) and all powerful (1), and we accept good to mean:
(2’’) That which is good is whatever aligns with the character, nature, and will of God
Though this seems circular, it isn’t. The reason is that I view it as primarily basic. Every culture has a sense of what is ‘good’ and what is ‘evil’ and often those cultures have more overlap in their understandings than contradictions. Regardless, under the Christian definition ‘goodness’ is what proceeds forth from the nature of God and is in line with His nature.
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Tags: Christianity, Dawkins, God, Logic, Philosophy, problem of evil, Religion, theodicy, Theology
Categories : Exploring the Problem of Evil Series, Philosophy, Theology
Exploring the Problem of Evil (Pt. 2) – Why Does God Allow Evil to Exist?
1 04 2009Though I could point to Job and say, “God has His reasons,” this is my attempt to show logically how God does not contradict Himself in allowing evil. The previous post dealt with how a believe in a good God and evil do not contradict each other. This one will attempt to show how God can allow for evil without contradicting His nature.
We are then left with (7) in this topic, the latter part of (7), pondering what His good reason happens to be. Drawing off my response to (6), we can come up with (8):
(8) God, being good, will allow evil E to occur iff (if and only if) E will bring about good G
Of course, there is an underlying assumption under this, which we can pull from my explanation of (6) and say
(8’) Given that some evil E contains an outweighing good G it is not logically possible for God to eliminate E without likewise eliminating G, by proxy eliminating Himself.
My justification for the last part of (8’) is that if God is good any elimination of good is an elimination of Himself. My definition of goodness isn’t pantheistic, but instead that when we see a good action, we know that somewhere down the line God is behind that good action. Therefore, to eliminate the good action or prevent its actualization, God would have to prevent His own nature from intervening within the world.
Regardless, we see from both (8) and (8’) that God will allow E if He knows that it will produce G and that G will, at some point, outweigh E.
So we’re left with pondering about the cause of evil. Some would propose
(9) God authored evil – caused it – even in a simplest form in order to bring His plan about
On the surface, this might make sense, but is it necessarily true? For one, can both (9) and (2) coexist without contradicting each other? If God is wholly good, can He likewise cause evil?
I would submit that (9) and (2) are a necessary contradiction if we accept Augustine’s definition of evil, that is, “Evil is not a substance, but instead is the absence of a substance, namely Good.” If (2) is true and (2′) is likewise true, then (9) cannot also be true. God would have to cause the absence of Himself – though He can allow the absence of Himself, He cannot likewise be the cause of that absence.
If a Being B causes an absence A of event e with e being caused by B, then A forms a necessary contradiction between B and e. B would both be causing e and A to simultaneously occur, the problem is that e exists and A is the absence of e. B would, therefore, be causing both the existence and non-existence, or presence and non-presence of e, which violates the law of non-contradiction.
Thus, (9) is a contradiction to the syllogistic grouping if (2) and (2′) are both true. I am not necessarily arguing for the truth of (2) and (2′), but merely trying to show the logic of how both a good God and evil can exist in the same world. In light of this, (10) does not fit with the syllogism provided (likewise, given the above analysis, if one wanted to accept that (9) were true, one would have to do away with at least (2), changing the entire nature of the syllogism).
On a more theological note, (9) doesn’t work with the syllogism above and since it could be argued that syllogism A (composed of {(1), (2)(2′), (3), (4c), (5), (7)}) is Scripturally based, (10) would likewise seem to be a contradiction of Scripture as well.
We are still left wondering what caused the absence of good. This is where free will does come into play. If we accept (7) and (8)(8’) then we can come to
(10) A free agent must be allowed to cause evil
The agent must be allowed to have significantly free will, capable of making a significant moral action. In light of this, God’s creation of Lucifer and humanity, knowing they would fall, does not violate (1) or (2)(2’). Following the logic, we come to see that (10) is done in order to allow for (7), that because God has a plan and a good reason for allowing evil, we can allow for (10) without worry. So long as (8)(8’) is true, allowing (10) doesn’t negate God.
For a more detailed explanation of (10), please read my essay The Metaphysical Necessity of Evil.
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Tags: Christianity, Evil, God, God and evil, Logic, Philosophy, Religion, theodicy, Theology
Categories : Exploring the Problem of Evil Series, Philosophy, Theology
