cheers, COLA.

Bad, I found your observations interesting and well thought out. I will share a few thoughts of my own warning everyone that I’m not a philosophy student. I merely speak from my heart but I do believe in the importance of openly sharing ideas with one another even if we may be at odds (or even if some of us are less versed in religion than others, referring to myself of course). My faith, after all, stems from having an encounter with the living God and walking away a completely different person.

Bad, why can’t we begin with a premise that perhaps evil is in fact the absence of God or in the least caused by it? I believe that what the student was saying was that a person who does not know God, and therefore God is absent from his life, is more likely to do evil things since God’s character is not in him. The absence of God in one’s heart can produce evil in that person.

Some may argue that God did create Satan but not necessarily with the intention of creating an evil being. Perhaps he created a being with the ability to choose and Satan, through his choices, alienated himself from God. God became absent in his life. God of course knew that giving this being the ability to choose could bring about some very negative consequences but for whatever reason, he might have felt that this was still the better way. Who can understand the mind of God after all? I for one appreciate this gift of choice.

I agree with you that evil acts do have their own causations. According to scripture, these evil acts are not caused by God though. People make choices. But I believe that what the student was saying was that the absence of God in people’s hearts is at the root of what causes evil in the first place. Am I making any sense? I don’t have your gift for words.

Did God create Malaria and brain damage? I won’t be so arrogant as to assume that I know the answer to this but here’s something to think about. What if God didn’t? Is it possible that these diseases developed in humans over time once sin and evil entered the picture or just through the body experiencing stress? For those of you that believe in evolution, you should be able to accept that changes can occur in beings very slowly over a long period of time. What if this alone is the explanation for many of the diseases that are present? Keep in mind that some of these diseases we bring on ourselves. I have hypoglycemia. If I eat properly and take care of myself, I can keep it under control. However, I can become careless and this illness can pretty much take over my life. If I let that happen too often, I can become a diabetic. We put poisons into our bodies every day through the foods that we eat, the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, and the medicines that we take. Vaccinations alone are being linked to diseases like Autism and who knows what other diseases or illnesses they will be responsible for in the future. We choose to put these poisons into our bodies. Is it fair to say that God made us sick if we chose to do this to ourselves? Now please, don’t read more into my words. I’m not saying that the diseases that we have are our fault. I am not saying that someone who has cancer caused this disease to occur because of poor diet choices or whatever. I’m just expressing the possibility that diseases evolved over time on their own. I’m suggesting the possibility that our minds have such a small capacity to understand and that we should be able to accept the idea that we don’t know everything about God and how he works.

I, like the student, don’t understand much of anything about empiricism(I even had to look up the word!) but here’s my take on what he was saying. At first it seems silly to say that because the students couldn’t actually see, feel, touch, smell or taste the professor’s brain that he, therefore, didn’t have one….according to science. Now it seemed silly to say that because we all know that tests could be run on the professor to show that he did, in fact, have a brain. Perhaps an autopsy could be performed etc. etc. etc. However, I think the point that he was trying to make was this. If they were in a situation where tests couldn’t be run, an autopsy performed etc., how would we know that the professor did have a brain? What evidence would there be? Even though we couldn’t see, feel, touch, taste, or smell his brain, we would still know that he had one because we would see evidence of its existence (the professor was talking, breathing, walking etc.). He was saying that even though we can’t see, feel, touch, taste, or smell God we can still see evidence of his existence in creation. Maybe God can’t be proven using scientific methods, but his existence is evident. This evidence appears in many forms. That’s another topic all together. I’ll close with some of God’s words concerning this topic.

“When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:13-17

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (Suffering has a purpose)

“Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight…” 1 Corinthians 3:18-19

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” Romans 11:33-34

But defining evil as the abscence of God does not work in this context: it merely begs the question under discussion. You can’t have a debate over whether or not God is responsible for evil if you simply start out defining evil as anything that isn’t God. You’re simply assuming your conclusion right off the bat.

And in any case, this bizarre definition of “evil” basically takes it away from any concrete examples. Evil acts are not negatives, not lacks: they have their own particular causations, and no hypothetical absolute creator God cannot beg off of being part of that causal chain.

Not only did God, if God creates everything, create evil, but he would have specifically picked a precise amount of evil. God made malaria. God made it so that brain damage can lead to psychosis and rage. And the student never even bothers trying to explain why God would create a being, Satan, that works to inspire and create more evil.

Nor does the student seem to understand much of anything about empiricism: the argument that the professor has no brain, or that evolution isn’t well established is nonsense. Empiricism is about evidence, of which seeing things directly with eyeballs is merely one example, and not even the most reliable or convincing kind.