The Nature of God — The Problem of Evil

Atheists try to escape the absurdity of their position (the only way you can say God doesn’t exist is by having all knowledge, since if you don’t God can exist outside your knowledge) by silly arguments, some even go so far to attempt proof God doesn’t exist. But those attempts always fail as they fall into the same logical problem.

  1. If God exists, God is an omnipotent and wholly good being.
  2. A good being always eliminates evil as far as it can.
  3. There are no limits on what an omnipotent being can do.
  4. Evil exists.

Therefore, God does not exist.

The only real debatable point comes from #2 — will God always eliminate evil if He can? If we assume God is good, all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing, why wouldn’t He save starving children, eliminate disease, stop wars, and so on?

The atheist makes a major logical error in that point as well, and the author even points it out as a problem.

If it is even possible that God has a morally justifying reason to permit evil, then there is no logical contradiction between the existence of evil and the existence of a good, omniscient, omnipotent God.

So where’s the error? The atheist finds himself right back at square one — the only way to state no reason exists for God to allow evil is if you have all knowledge, and surely the atheist won’t claim that. The atheist sometimes uses some mysterious, unknowable God to distract attention from their problem, which is a basic error in logic and analysis.

The nature of God isn’t at issue — by definition He is all-knowing and benevolent — rather, the atheist makes the mistake he has the same knowledge and experience of God — it’s an error attributed to hubris.

Atheism is illogical, as any attempt to prove God doesn’t exist makes the nasty assumption you posses all knowledge. Perhaps that’s why many atheists now claim more of an agnostic position — there’s no reason to believe in God. That is a more reasonable position than the atheist, at least one standing on more solid logical ground, even if we’d disagree with the agnostic conclusion.

In the end atheism makes no sense, always finding itself trapped by its own absurdity.

Filed Under: Doctrine

Recommended Citation:
Yeager, Darrin "The Nature of God — The Problem of Evil" (2023-11-23 14:45),
https://www.dyeager.org/post/nature-of-god-part6-problem-of-evil.html
Copyright 1998–2023. All rights reserved.

Copyright ©Frames of Reference LLC 1998–2023

https://www.dyeager.org/post/nature-of-god-part6-problem-of-evil.html