Hello Ron,

You have misrepresented Christianity, so how can I be assured that you have not also misrepresented all these other views?

Please note that the Doctrine of the Trinity refers specifically to the nature of God. If you\'re refering to anything else that\'s a missappropriation of the term.

Hello Bill Williams,

The dabate in academia on this problem of evil has largly moved on. For the following reason. See here;

1) God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent
2) There is suffering in this world

If these are supposed to be incompatabl with eachother they will have to be shown to be contradictory. But they are not explicitly contradictory. So therefore you must be saying they are implicitly contradictory. Thus there must be some propositions hidden between the two that would serve to bring out the contradiction.

You seem to have some intimation of these hidden assumptions, for you say "If God is all-knowing and all-powerful, the he could be kinder and more compassionate and still get the same outcome, i.e., still teach us important lessons." But your simply not in a position to judge the truth of that counterfactual, or any other counterfactual that would bring out an explicit contradiction between 1 and 2.

Whatsmore, for the objection to follow, the counterfactuals that would serve to show an explicit contradiction between the two propositions, would have to be necessarily true. So even if there is even one possible mitigating consideration, (such as, for instance, that God has over-riding concerns other than our creaturley comfort) the problem posed is already dead in the water.

I don't appreciate being psyco-analysed by strangers, especially when it's obvious I'm not "holding my head in the sand" avoiding the problem or psychological discomfort. And frankly it's insulting for you to think I am cut by a knife called "belief perserverance" when weilding that knife equally cuts the one that uses it - you could be inventing problems where there is none in order to preserve your own atheistic beliefs.

I also don't appreciate those who unfairly characterise then criticise my arguments. I won't take the time to point these out as all can see what has gone before, but do try to be more thoughtful and carefull in the future.

Hello Joe,

I would usually appreciate the brevity, but it's difficult to see what your comments refer to, and how you draw such conclusions as "[this] claim (what claim exactly?) brings about the Problem of Evil."

I think it would be worth pointing out that if we could determine God to be good, that might suggest a standard of goodness independent to God, but not necessarily. It could equally indicate that God has fashioned our ethical judgments, and the process by which we arrive at them, to correspond to his own nature, which is itself the ultimate paradigm, or the locus of goodness. Indeed the Christian Scriptures say we are made in his image, and are his handiwork.

:-)

Of course there is a seat-setting out award! It\'s recipients don\'t get acknowledged though until the kingdom is come. So don\'t feel sorry for yourself. Only feel sorry if your church has fixed seating.