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From: hunter@oakhill.UUCP (Hunter Scales)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: God and suffering
Message-ID: <541@oakhill.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Sep-85 18:48:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: oakhill.541
Posted: Wed Sep 25 18:48:12 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Sep-85 06:35:38 EDT
References: <389@decwrl.UUCP> <2203@sdcc6.UUCP> <351@pyuxn.UUCP> <328@uwvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: hunter@oakhill.UUCP (Hunter Scales)
Organization: Motorola Inc. Austin, Tx
Lines: 39

In article <328@uwvax.UUCP> planting@uwvax.UUCP (W. Harry Plantinga) writes:
>
>(1) it is only possible for an omnipotent being to do things which are
>  logically possible.  For example, an omnipotent being can't create a
>  round square, because there just ain't no such thing.
>(2) It could be that God could eliminate evil in the world, but not in
>  way that people would still have free will, for if he prevented them
>  from sinning, they would no longer be free.  That is, it is possible
>  that it is logically impossible and therefore impossible even for 
>  God to create free creatures who never sin.
>(3) It could be that in God's opinion, it is a greater good to have
>  free people, some of whom choose to do good, than to have no sin
>  in a world where people are not free.
>
>Thus, the argument that if God is omnipotent and wholly good, then he
>would eliminate all evil fails:  it assumes premisses which may be
>false, such as that God can do anything and that if a good God saw 
>any evil, he would eliminate it.
>
>							Harry Plantinga

      This line of thinking might hold for "evil" such as murder, rape,
etc.  How does it apply to letting innocent children die from
starvation, disease, storms, earthquakes etc?  Or are these children
not christian and so are not "innocent" ?  A fundementalist once tried
to convince me that people who had never heard of Christ would
nevertheless be damned to eternal hellfire!!

Is it logically impossible to create a world without disease or at
least create human beings who are immune to viruses and bacterial
infection?  I think it is possible and, further that man will eventually
create just such a world.  This is the difference between an optimistic
but rational person and one who is besotted with a basically negative
religion.
-- 
Motorola Semiconductor Inc.                Hunter Scales
Austin, Texas           {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax,gatech}!ut-sally!oakhill!hunter

(I am responsible for me and my dog and no-one else)