Theodicy: the 'good' view of viruses (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, November 04, 2021, 07:32 (1114 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: It requires the thought that God is not all light (good).

dhw: That is one logical conclusion to be drawn from all the bad in the world. Congratulations, you have found an answer to the problem. But now you go on to his good intentions, which suggests that he is all good, and so you haven’t found an answer to the problem.

DAVID: I have given you answers you won't accept. God knew His system might and would produce errors, and put in editing systems to protect the system.
And:
There are no errors in a design if it is the only one available for use.

Knowing your system will cause errors does not mean the errors don’t exist! Putting in editing systems which sometimes fail casts doubt on the theory of divine omnipotence.
And:
dhw: I didn’t know that as first cause he found himself limited by what was available. I thought he created everything that was available.

DAVID: He did. Try to understand this is the only system that would work, and that there are no other alternatives.

I’m amazed at your knowledge of your all-powerful God’s limitations, and your fixed belief that he could not possibly have deliberately designed the existing system because that was what he WANTED to design rather than what he was forced to design by the conditions he himself had created.

The good viruses do
dhw: You brought up the bad, but then kept on telling me how negative I was because the subject of theodicy entails explaining the bad, and you only wanted to focus on the good.

DAVID: What is wrong with focusing on the good? Viewing life in the whole, what percentage do you see as bad?

You continue to ignore the fact that our subject is theodicy, which means an attempt to explain why an all-good God would produce bad. The problem is not solved by focusing on the good and ignoring the bad.