By Henry Neufeld
This is another brief thought. As I was thinking about politics I also considered some of the questions that come up in theodicy. In politics, many of us look for protection from risk, from the consequences of our own actions.
It seems to me that in theodicy many people prevent “consequences” as an example [...]
By Henry Neufeld
As a follow-up to my notes on God’s Problem, I would like to comment briefly on how a diversity of explanations do coexist, and how they might justifiably do so.
First, despite our best efforts to find logical explanations, in general people use case by case explanations pretty readily. They may believe that one person [...]
By Henry Neufeld
Ehrman, Bart D. God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question-Why We Suffer. New York: HarperCollins, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-06-117397-4. 294 pp.
I have previously noted that Bart Ehrman’s books are much more controversial on their jackets than on their pages (see notes on The Lost [...]
By Henry Neufeld
Mike, at The Creation of an Evolutionist, calls attention to an article by Dinesh D’Souza on Townhall.com, in which D’Souza replies to an argument by Christopher Hitchens. Mike says this is worth thinking about, and I agree, but I’ve got some bones to pick with D’Souza’s approach.
Hitchens’ argument is essentially that God has been [...]
By Henry Neufeld
Mark responded to my post Dealing with the Theological Implications of Evolution, and in turn poses a question to me, well summarized in the last sentence of his last paragraph:
What is the particular problem that is raised that Stegosaurus had a million or so years in the sun but now is no longer?
Which reminds me [...]
By Henry Neufeld
There are two extremes in how Christians respond to the possible theological implications of evolutionary theory once they are convinced that the theory of evolution is valid. The first is to claim that there are no implications whatsoever. This is represented by the statement: “The Bible tells us that God created; science [...]
By Henry Neufeld
One of my objections to inerrancy is that it is impossible to demonstrate. Lacking a perfect standard external to the Bible and also lacking perfect understanding, we are unable to actually demonstrate that the Bible is, in fact, without error. Some apologists seem to believe that if we just apply the right set [...]
By Henry Neufeld
Theodicy is a relatively interesting thing, and I’m really going to discuss a popular aberration, so those of you who have real backgrounds in theology can tune out, or critique me for oversimplifications.
One basic way of stating the entry point for Christian theodicy is that there are three key things we believe about God and [...]
By Henry Neufeld
I’m going to try to divide this one up, because the topic promises to get a bit long. Also, objectors please note that I am aware of various approaches to theodicy and am not discussing them here. My point is simply that we assume some good explanation will be available for certain things, [...]
By Henry Neufeld
PamBG quotes a letter that using some wonderful phraseology with regard to the process of creation, but also related to theodicy. I can’t access the letter itself due to a subscription requirement, but the part Pam quotes is quite good.
I like these two sentences particularly well:
Suppose instead that he made the world make itself.
. [...]
: “It’s short, unimportant and uninteresting.” That will show him! (
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