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From: hunter@oakhill.UUCP (Hunter Scales)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: God and suffering
Message-ID: <547@oakhill.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Oct-85 11:06:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: oakhill.547
Posted: Thu Oct  3 11:06:30 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Oct-85 05:05:43 EDT
References: <389@decwrl.UUCP> <2203@sdcc6.UUCP> <351@pyuxn.UUCP> <328@uwvax.UUCP> <541@oakhill.UUCP> <329@cylixd.UUCP>
Reply-To: hunter@oakhill.UUCP (Hunter Scales)
Organization: Motorola Inc. Austin, Tx
Lines: 43
Xref: watmath net.religion:7881 net.religion.christian:1401

In article <329@cylixd.UUCP> charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips) writes:
>>>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?  
>>-- 
>>Motorola Semiconductor Inc.                Hunter Scales
>
>I'm probably going to regret this, but here goes.  (Biblical basis
>for the assertions follows.)
>
>Christians generally hold that God made man and the universe good.[1]
>When man sinned, it warped his nature to the extent that a man can no
>longer be entirely good, even if he wants to. [2]  Besides warping
>*human* nature, the presence of sin also warped nature in general. [3]
>Starvation, disease, storms, earthquakes, and so on, are a result, not 
>of a given sinful action (like rape or murder), but of sin in general.
>
>God also does not like the situation.  He could (and we are told that he
>will) create human bodies immune from these evils, and he could (and 
>will) create a universe without them. [4]  But he cannot do so until sin
>in general has been wiped out.  He has not yet wiped out sin in general,
>because doing so will unfortunately and necessarily wipe out a lot of
>people as well, and God is reluctant to do that. [5]
>
>The gospel of Christ is that through His death and resurrection, we
>can be delivered from our sinful nature, and that the world will also
>ultimately be delivered from the results of sin as well. [6]
[here follow the scriptural passages to support his "arguments".]

	Whew!!!!  For someone who posted a logical argument you
certainly look silly trying to support it with  this kind of
evidence!  Haven't you ever heard of Occam's Razor?
-- 
Motorola Semiconductor Inc.                Hunter Scales
Austin, Texas           {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax,gatech}!ut-sally!oakhill!hunter

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


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