My "go-to" attempt at theodicy for the problem of suffering and evil being allowed by a kind, just, and benevolent God has always been free will. I like to point out things like without pain, we would have no way to conceptualize pleasure, and without sorrow we could not truly appreciate joy. Likewise, some of my best evidence that the New Testament is true is that half of it was written by Paul, who persecuted and murdered Christians when he still called himself Saul. Few serious people question whether Paul was a real historical figure or that he went from being an executioner of Christians to ultimately become an early Christian martyr. However, I'm not the least bit afraid of challenging my own beliefs on a regular basis, and the question recently popped into my head: did God interfere with Saul's free will? Saul hadn't been looking for God -- in fact, he was actively searching for more Christians to murder when Jesus appeared on the road to Damascus and completely changed his life. Yet if it weren't for Paul, Christianity would not be what it is today. So, how do we solve this conundrum? Atheists like to argue for determinism, but if determinism is really true, how can we as a society justify putting criminals into prison if they have no choice except to rob, rape, and murder other people? That doesn't seem fair, if we really and truly cannot choose between right and wrong. My counterargument has been that without free will, humans would become slaves to their DNA and their environment. But if determinism is true and we really are slaves to our … [Read more...]
To whom would an atheist pray?
I can understand how a person can become an atheist -- after all, in my book Divine Evolution, I described how I came to believe in God, after at least a decade of materialistic, apathetic agnosticism created by my advanced education. Like many atheists have done, I came to believe that much of what I learned in school conflicted with the "Young Earth Creationism" worldview to which I was indoctrinated at an early age, and so I discarded my previously held religious beliefs in favor of nothing. Strangely enough however, at any point during this period I now call my apathetic agnosticism, if you'd asked me if I believed in ghosts, my answer would have quickly been something along the lines of, "Absolutely. My friend's family owns a house that I'm sure is haunted, and I've been there many times. I have personally experienced ghosts." Personal experience can have a very powerful impact on someone's worldview, I can attest. At the same time, I would have equivocated on the same question asked about God and given a much different answer because of my lack of personal experience with God at that time. In retrospect, it now occurs to me that my acceptance of the "reality" of a supernatural ghost and simultaneous rejection of a supernatural God seems a bit silly. To be brutally honest though, I really wasn't putting a whole lot of thought into existential questions at that point in my life. Quite frankly, furthering my professional career and raising a family were much higher priorities for me. Rarely if ever did I go to church during that extended period of my … [Read more...]
