Bill Snedden

Not necessarily. I suppose that would depend upon how literally one takes the Bible.

That's an interesting point, and I suppose it might be the motivation, however it doesn't resolve the tension.

Regards,

Bill Snedden

JerryM

He argued that Christian doctrines make the probability that God has morally sufficient reasons for allowing evil to exist much higher.

His argument was that knowledge of God is the ultimate good because knowledge of God is a ticket to eternal bliss, which outweighs any possible suffering in this life. Furthermore, God is justified in allowing suffering in this life since suffering causes us to have greater dependency on God thereby increasing the possibility that we will come to know God.

So God allows pain and tragedy to exist in the world because it is part of his plan for the greater good. Ultimately then, all is for the best. Shades of Professor Pangloss! How can a supposedly educated man like Dr. Craig not see the fatal flaw in that argument? If evil is used as part of God's plan, then why should we resist it? Why should we risk lives, and spend resources to eliminate terrorism? Perhaps the mass murder of innocent people by terrorists is just God's way of bringing on revival. Taken to its logical extreme, anything we do to alter the status quo would thus be going against God's will. This optimist-like philosophy died over two centuries ago, and it's hard to believe Craig would try to resurrect it. And he should reacquaint himself with Candide to see how absurd it really is.