Can God offer salvation to Christians only? Then he is not omnipotent.Could God offer salvation to non-Christians but chooses not to? Then He is not all-loving. God cannot be as Christianity says.
A great spin-off of Epicurus's argument of evil. It forces one to justify whether blasphemy really is the one unforgivable sin and if it is, whether or not that is the work of a benevolent being. Although, I like Epicurus's better, more general in scope and more strident in defining God.
The original:
If god is able but unwilling to prevent evil that just means that it is the responsibility of humans to stand up to evil. God then provides the opportunity for humanity to fully develop. Humans can then be courageous, Brave, resolute etc... Without this opportunity we are like a child who grows up only to have their parents take care of them forever. Never getting the opportunity to stand on their own. Never getting the opportunity to fail and succeed. Never able to experience the satisfaction, joy, sadness and sorrow that makes life worth living.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I believe in God but Epicurus is obviously a winer who pursues only pleasure and blames god for pain.
The parent child analogy only goes so far. Natural disasters often kill, which leaves the victims unable to develop to become courageous brace, resolute, never to experience everything you mention that makes life worth living.
ReplyDeleteIt would be like a child running in the street with cars going each way and the parent not interfering. Why? Well, its an opportunity for them to stand on their own, an opportunity to fail and then...well, never to succeed again. Such a parent would not be viewed as benevolent by much of anyone, which is the point. Such an act may be an opportunity for a bystander to act altruistically, but the parent should be shamed, for their actions are either malevolent or negligent.
Good point. Without the possibiliy of disaster, death and tragedy man cannot be truly free. A god who grants freedom, a world of discovery, and Natural law isn't Malevolent.
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