In theology, the problem of evil is the problem of explaining why a loving God would allow the evil and suffering on that occurs on Earth. But, let’s talk about another problem: the suffering that occurs outside of Earth.
Many religions, including Christianity and Islam, believe that all non-believers will go to Hell when they die. Someone could live a fantastic life of benevolence and charity but then suffer for eternity because they did not believe everything in an old book.
I expect you could try and justify God’s actions by saying we were given the free will to choose to have faith. But, as I have said before, there is very little evidence for any specific God. I am not misrepresenting things by saying it generally comes down to an old book. The penalty for making a mistake here is huge—considering it’s eternal punishment, I’d suggest the penalty is infinitely larger than any mistake or sin. What’s more, some people will never get to know of the true God. Even if one of the most popular religions in the world is correct, there will still be a great number of people who have never even heard what the true God wants them to do. Note that God is all-knowing and knows this.
Free will is simply no excuse, because free will does not and cannot apply to God, who is by definition omnipotent. The fact is, God will send people who have lived otherwise good lives to Hell because they didn’t believe in Him (and had little reason to). That doesn’t sound like an all-loving god; that sounds like a narcissistic psychopath.
If God truly was all-loving, he would let good people go to Heaven regardless of what they believe. If this is the case, there’s no reason to worry about having faith because you’re going to Heaven anyway. If this isn’t the case, God either doesn’t exist or doesn’t actually love or care about us. Whatever the case, there is no reason to believe in God.
Yes, tonight’s www.maestrosync.com post contains more of my thoughts on religion. I think this one is quite coherent.
Suppose there is a God. There’s very little indication for us here on Earth of who this guy is or what he might want. We have are texts that purport to the word of God, but most of these are contradictory, so most of them have to be wrong. Of all the major religions in the world (because they contradict each other) at best one is right. With nothing else to go on, it’s completely unreasonable for God to expect us to find his commandments, let alone fulfill them.
All things considered, religion seems like a futile pursuit. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with searching for answers—it’s something we do and it’s something we should do—but my own search has lead me to the conclusion that religion only offers lies and uncertainty. Considering that the odds are not just low, they’re completely unknown, why bother with it?
Also suppose one of the holy texts out there is the correct and true word of God. No matter what religion this is, the majority of the people in the world don’t subscribe to it. The majority of people in the world are condemned to eternal damnation* just because they picked the wrong book. As far as I’m concerned, that alone rules out the possibility of a truly benevolent God. Trying to twist the concept of benevolence or love to suit this scenario would be robbing the word of all meaning.
In the end, the best you can do is live a good life by your own morals and standards. If there’s no God and/or nothing after death, nothing lost. Otherwise: if God really is all-loving, you should have no problem getting a good afterlife, without missing out just because you didn’t pick the right religion; if he is not, what can you do?
* This does depend on the religion, but they’re certainly missing out on subscriber benefits of some sort.
As the commercial says, it’s “a wagon with the word ’sport’ in front of it”.
Bruce Edwards Ivins (April 22, 1946 — July 29, 2008), was a scientist for 36 years and senior biodefense researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland for 18 years. In July 2008 he reportedly committed suicide just as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was about to charge him with a crime and seek the death penalty for his alleged connection to the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five people and made 17 ill and terrorized the whole nation.
That’s the current opening paragraph for the Bruce Edwards Ivins article on Wikipedia and there’s nothing strange about it, unlike the image which accompanied when I checked it out earlier today:
As far as I can tell, an editor was WP:POINTing by adding this picture because fair use was disputed on an image he was trying to add to the article, but whatever. It’s a triumph, just like the uploader’s comment asserting it’s an “artistic interpretation of Bruce Edwards Ivins”.
Guernsey’s parliament is called ‘The States of Deliberation’. I like that.
Also, my favourite entry on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index:
2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
