On another blog, FideCogitActio, some theists of a "classical" stripe (that's to say, like Brian Davies, Edward Feser) are criticisng the Evil God Challenge (or I suppose, trying to show how it can be met, or sidestepped). The main post includes this: In book I, chapter 39 , Aquinas argues that “there cannot be evil in God” (in Deo non potest esse malum). Atheists like Law must face the fact that, if the words are to retain any sense, “God” simply cannot be “evil”. As my comments in the thread at Feser’s blog aimed to show, despite how much he mocks “the privation theory of evil,” Law himself cannot escape its logic: his entire argument requires that the world ought to appear less evil if it is to be taken as evidence of a good God. Even though he spurns the idea that evil is a privation of good, his account of an evil world is parasitic on a good ideal; this is no surprise, though, since all evil is parasitic on good ( SCG I, 11 ). Based on the conclusions of se...
Stephen Law is a philosopher and author. Currently Director of Philosophy and Cert HE at Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. Stephen has also published many popular books including The Philosophy Gym, The Complete Philosophy Files, and Believing Bullshit. For school talks/ media: stephenlaw4schools.blogspot.co.uk Email: think-AT-royalinstitutephilosophy.org
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Vacula: Why would the creator be all good, instead of all evil, or morally neutral? How can you get to that conclusion?
Murray: Well, because God is God. There is no evil in God. God is moral perfection.
Vacula: How do you know that?
Murray: How do I know that? If you want to see God, look at Jesus. Jesus is the express image of his person, the exact brightness of his...
...So I look at Jesus. Is there anything in evil, anything evil at all about Jesus?
*silence*
Can you find anything evil about Jesus?
*silence*
Vacula: Well no, I think you're missing the objection here.
Classic stuff, well played Justin!
“The first marriage was performed by God”. “I am a personal witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ…”
“If man had never chosen to sin…” there would be no natural disasters.
Our ignorance is based on what God “keeps secret from us”. “The big bang is ridiculous.”
“The more I read [the Bible] the more I believe its perfection.”
This is someone who reads a text to the effective exclusion of all others and has convinced himself that was is obviously mythology to others is fact to himself.
I thought Justin Vacula did a very good job.
Regards, Paul.