Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!porthos.rutgers.edu!christian From: lionti@ecs.umass.edu Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: An atheist's question Message-ID: Date: 2 Nov 90 08:51:31 GMT Sender: hedrick@porthos.rutgers.edu Lines: 55 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu duncant@mbunix.mitre.org (Thomson) writes: [description of brutal killing cut] > My question is this: How can events such as these be reconciled with > the christian notion of a god who is both omnipotent and benevolent? This is probably the most difficult theological question and so I won't attempt a full answer as I know it would be pitiful. ************************************************************************ *Basically, the answer (in my limited understanding) lies in the idea * *that to allow us (humans) to have Free Will, God must allow us to sin.* ************************************************************************ If you are truely interested in this topic, I suggest you read C.S. Lewis' book "The Problem of Pain" or maybe the book "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" (I'm afraid I don't know the author, I believe it is by a Rabbi, but hey, it is the same God! This book was very popular about 8-10 years ago and shouldn't be too hard to find.) Another thing you might consider is perhaps God IS working (albeit indirectly) to reduce the amount of suffering, and what you hear about is just a trickle that gets through. Consider that in the last 30 years we have been on the brink of complete Nuclear destruction TWICE! First during the Cuban missle crisis, then again in 1983 during the Reagan years (see the article in Time Magazine about the KGB defector), very scary stuff. As another poster commented, however, this problem may serve as a mental block to accepting the gift of Faith, but to start believing in God, you just have to make an "illogical leap" and try to believe. I know, I did this two years ago (I was an Existential Atheist, along the lines of John-Paul Sartre) after the birth of my daughter, and it worked (amazingly enough!) I realize this is a pretty weak answer to such a difficult question, so I really must stress that you should (if interested) read a book or two by a professional writer/theologian/apologist. The C.S. Lewis book mentioned above is short, and Lewis writes with a simple, common sense style that has made him the most popular lay apologist of this Century. If you are not familiar with him, he also wrote "Mere Christianity" and the fantasy series "The Cronicles of Narnia" Good Luck. I would appreciate it (as I'm sure everyone here would) if you would post your thoughts about the results of your inquiry to this group. If you don't get a satisfactory answer here, please don't assume that this group has all there is to say from a Christian perspective on this matter. (No offence to the other posters here intended, of course) As far as I'm aware, none of the people posting here are professional theologians, and so any answer you get is that of a lay person, not an expert. (especially mine! :-) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eric C. McClure lionti@umaecs.bitnet Standard Disclaimer