Comments on: Theodicy: Taking a Stab at Natural Evil

By: Threads from Henry’s Web » Blog Archive » Theodicy and Openness Theology

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 13:38:05 +0000

[...] time ago I made a few remarks on Dr. William Dembski’s article, Christian Theodicy in Light of Genesis and Modern Science [...]

By: beepbeepitsme

beepbeepitsme — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:09:41 +0000

RE: adam and eve
Were Adam and Eve Framed?
http://beepbeepitsme.blogspot.com/2007/01/were-adam-and-eve-framed.html

By: kehrsam

kehrsam — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 02:50:18 +0000

In what context? I fully agree that a death out of season may well be evil, this is a circumstance of that situation, not an indictment of death qua death.

A good friend of mine is watching her grandmother die tonight. While it is heartbreaking to watch, if the alternative is six more years of Alzheimer’s, death does not seem like an evil.

To move to the trivial, thousands of cells in my body will die today. Is this evil? How about a spontaneous abortion? Where are we to draw the line so as to give the word evil any meaning?

My point is simply that death is part of the process of life; as nearly as I can tell, it has always been part of the plan. In Genesis, Adam is cast from the Garden, “Lest he should eat from the Tree of Life.” Death was part of the plan from the beginning.

By: Martin LaBar

Martin LaBar — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 21:16:11 +0000

Thanks for posting this, and for the link to Dembski’s article. I’ll try to slog through it.

In reference to the previous comment, the Bible refers to death as “the last enemy,” and the shortest verse in scripture tells us that Jesus wept because of the death of Lazarus. I believe that death is, generally evil.

By: kehrsam

kehrsam — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 23:21:29 +0000

I see no reason why “Natural Evil” should exist as a category. Without a human mind to call something good or evil there is neither; I assumed this was the point of Genesis 2.

Death, in general, is certainly not evil, merely part of the cycle. And if God chooses to abolish death in heaven, what is that to us? The fact that it would be different than our current experience is, in itself, neither good nor bad, merely different.

This is true of many things labelled evil, such as global warming. The warming itself is not good and not bad, just different. Our response may be good or evil, but, again, that is a separate question.

That some deaths are evil is a matter of context, not a characteristic of death in general. A lot of people are confused by this for some reason.