God and Suffering (General)

by Mark , Thursday, November 20, 2008, 10:02 (5845 days ago) @ dhw

Omnipotence never meant belief that God could make truth equal falsehood. - If I am with you so far, dhw, then: - 1. You accept that a world like this may not be possible without suffering, i.e. it may be logically impossible to create humans without allowing suffering. - 2. You still blame God for creating this world. - Then my original question still holds. If God is wrong to create this world, why is it right for us to keep it going? - There is a lot more to say from a Christian viewpoint, of course. Not least that creation has direction (hence we have hope), and that God has created what is not himself, and by his Spirit is calling forth a response by which it can become what it is meant to be. But that calling cannot be a coercion if creation is to have its own freedom and integrity. Creation is not an extension of God. It is different from him. He is not the direct answer to everything that happens. He has made the world so free that it is possible to believe that he doesn't exist.