Saturday, June 27, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Like father, like son
Owen has grown very interested in books lately. I keep a basket of them on his changing table, and sometimes, that's the only way I can keep him still long enough to change his diaper. He's even starting to turn the pages!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Sunday School
I taught our sunday school class this week at our church. This was the second Sunday that I've taught. I find it a great way to volunteer, as I find the preparation and learning required to be highly enjoyable, before even giving consideration to any sort of service for others. Win-win. As long I do a good job, which I suppose is the foremost challenge.
Anyway, this week we discussed the problem of evil. As I mentioned here before, Gabe recently inquired about why God made bad people (a question I was not readily prepared to answer). This is just one variation of the problem of evil. Why do bad things happen? Why does suffering exist? Why do terrible tragedies befall seemingly innocent parties, especially in light of an all-loving God (omnibenevolent)? Basically, the problem is how do we reconcile the fact of evil's existence with an all-loving, all-powerful God. Wouldn't an all-powerful, all-loving God eradicate, or better yet, have never permitted at all, the existence of evil?
A Greek philosopher named Epicurus posed this same question some 300 years before Christ. He posited the dilemma thusly:
The great Church theologian Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, spent a good deal of thought on this subject. As to the genesis of evil, he articulated a position known as privatio boni, or the privation of good. This idea says that evil, in an ontological sense, doesn't exist, that is, it has no essence or being. It is simply the absence of good. In a similar sense, darkness itself has no essence. It is the lack of light, a fact, perhaps, not lost on the Biblical writers, as the equating of evil with darkness appears there. But just because something doesn't really exist doesn't mean it can't do harm. Imagine walking in a field. You are relying on the dirt underneath your feet to support you. If you happen to encounter a lack of dirt, i.e. a hole, that privation can cause you real harm.
Charles Templeton, a prominent evangelist from the 1950s who apparently was at one point more renowned than his colleague Billy Graham, was challenged by this paradox. As he was looking at Life magazine, he saw a moving picture of an African woman holding her dead child. The child had died from famine. Templeton questioned with particular difficulty how God could permit such tragedy. Without much delay he left the ministry and later left the faith, and remained a vocal atheist for the remainder of his days.
We discussed all this and the common Christian responses: free will, greater good, and evil defines good theories.
The free will theory states that God allows evil because it is necessary for an adequate amount of freedom in our choices. God didn't create the universe to be perfect. He created it to be a place for his spiritual creations made in his image to live and ultimately choose between loving him or rejecting him. Without this choice, true love can't exist. You can't choose between good and bad if bad doesn't exist. This may adequately explain the necessity of moral evil, but what about disease, famine, and natural disasters? Moreover, how do you explain this to a four-year-old?
The greater good theory says that, while God doesn't create evil, he uses it for a greater ultimate result, whether we're aware of it or not, a sort of divine ends-justifies-the-means. Common biblical examples of this include the selling of Joseph into slavery by his brothers, which ultimately results in the salvation of Israel (read Gen. 50:20); Jesus and the healing of the man blind from birth (John 9); and ultimately the whole story of Jesus and the crucifixion itself.
Finally, the evil-defines-good theory says we can't recognize good without evil to contrast it to. You can't recognize a beautiful day unless you've experienced terrible weather.
Ultimately, we can't solve this problem of evil because we can't think like God (see Rom. 11:33-34). We can, however, take solace in the promise that God will eradicate evil in the new earth (see Rev. 21:4). This is the ultimate Christian hope.
Additional reading from Randy Alcorn here.
Another good read on the subject is N.T. Wright's Evil and the Justice of God.
Anyway, this week we discussed the problem of evil. As I mentioned here before, Gabe recently inquired about why God made bad people (a question I was not readily prepared to answer). This is just one variation of the problem of evil. Why do bad things happen? Why does suffering exist? Why do terrible tragedies befall seemingly innocent parties, especially in light of an all-loving God (omnibenevolent)? Basically, the problem is how do we reconcile the fact of evil's existence with an all-loving, all-powerful God. Wouldn't an all-powerful, all-loving God eradicate, or better yet, have never permitted at all, the existence of evil?
A Greek philosopher named Epicurus posed this same question some 300 years before Christ. He posited the dilemma thusly:
Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to; or he cannot and does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, and does not want to, he is wicked. But, if God both can and wants to abolish evil, then how come evil exists in the world?
The great Church theologian Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, spent a good deal of thought on this subject. As to the genesis of evil, he articulated a position known as privatio boni, or the privation of good. This idea says that evil, in an ontological sense, doesn't exist, that is, it has no essence or being. It is simply the absence of good. In a similar sense, darkness itself has no essence. It is the lack of light, a fact, perhaps, not lost on the Biblical writers, as the equating of evil with darkness appears there. But just because something doesn't really exist doesn't mean it can't do harm. Imagine walking in a field. You are relying on the dirt underneath your feet to support you. If you happen to encounter a lack of dirt, i.e. a hole, that privation can cause you real harm.
Charles Templeton, a prominent evangelist from the 1950s who apparently was at one point more renowned than his colleague Billy Graham, was challenged by this paradox. As he was looking at Life magazine, he saw a moving picture of an African woman holding her dead child. The child had died from famine. Templeton questioned with particular difficulty how God could permit such tragedy. Without much delay he left the ministry and later left the faith, and remained a vocal atheist for the remainder of his days.
We discussed all this and the common Christian responses: free will, greater good, and evil defines good theories.
The free will theory states that God allows evil because it is necessary for an adequate amount of freedom in our choices. God didn't create the universe to be perfect. He created it to be a place for his spiritual creations made in his image to live and ultimately choose between loving him or rejecting him. Without this choice, true love can't exist. You can't choose between good and bad if bad doesn't exist. This may adequately explain the necessity of moral evil, but what about disease, famine, and natural disasters? Moreover, how do you explain this to a four-year-old?
The greater good theory says that, while God doesn't create evil, he uses it for a greater ultimate result, whether we're aware of it or not, a sort of divine ends-justifies-the-means. Common biblical examples of this include the selling of Joseph into slavery by his brothers, which ultimately results in the salvation of Israel (read Gen. 50:20); Jesus and the healing of the man blind from birth (John 9); and ultimately the whole story of Jesus and the crucifixion itself.
Finally, the evil-defines-good theory says we can't recognize good without evil to contrast it to. You can't recognize a beautiful day unless you've experienced terrible weather.
Ultimately, we can't solve this problem of evil because we can't think like God (see Rom. 11:33-34). We can, however, take solace in the promise that God will eradicate evil in the new earth (see Rev. 21:4). This is the ultimate Christian hope.
Additional reading from Randy Alcorn here.
Another good read on the subject is N.T. Wright's Evil and the Justice of God.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Uh oh!
Owen has discovered how to open cabinets. Fortunately, I still have everything dangerous put up, but I may have to find the cabinet locks, if I don't want to pick up the measuring cups and towels 40 times a day!
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