"Since God is the one who directly creates everything, why does He create famines, earthquakes, mud slides, AIDS, deformed babies, and the like? Surely no one's free willââexcept God'sââcan be blamed for these! If He's all-loving, one would think that He'd exercise a little more care with His creation."(40-41).The son, who is a theologian, responds by explaining it the result of evil people below.
"First, I would argue that most of the pain and suffering in the world is the result of evil people, not nature, and that in the pain cause by most natural disasters could be minimized or eliminated if humans were what God created us to be. Take famines, for example. Do you think anyone would ever starve if everyone 'loved his neighbor as himself'?"(42-43).This is not true. If there is a god and god created man then where did evil come from? If god created it all, then it ultimately comes back to god. Also, if god is taken out of the equation and there is only a deist perspective, there are also problems. If god is out of the equation, we know how horrible and evil nature can be without mans intervention. Either in the animal kingdom or natural disasters, this would also be problematic for the deist. How could nature which would be viewed as god allow such horrible acts of nature without man?
"The very fact that what God creates is less than Himself introduces limitations and imperfections into the picture."(43)Says who? If god is perfect than why couldn't god create perfection? It seems that there must be a flaw to gods perfection to create imperfection. Why should we assume anything a god creates is imperfect? The response from the son then goes on to talk about how the Bible explains that there are spiritual forces and there is a war against love. It seems in my own perspective, and I know this is biased, crazy. It is unfortunate that someone would value what the Bible might say over actual evidence. This frankly sounds like delusion, and the son does state that it is hard to believe.
"In the Christian view, then, the earth has been literally besieged by a power outside itself. There is a power of pure evil which now affects everything and everybody on the earth. The Creator is not the only influence any longer. This is why the earth can be so incredibly beautiful on the one hand, and so incredibly nightmarish on the other. We live, individually and collectively, amidst, a contradiction of good and evil. The beauty of the world couldn't be here by good design. (That's what the 'problem of evil' is all about.) My claim, then, is tat the earth is a battlefield. We are like Normandy in World War II, caught in the cross fire of a cosmic battle. And on battlefields, as you know, all sorts of terrible things happen. In such a situation, everything because a potential weapon, and every person a potential victim. And thus the entire cosmos, the Bible says, is in a state of chaos(Rom. 8)."(45).All I can say is wow! This is heartbreakingly crazy talk. Where is the evidence? The bible is not evidence, and anyone who reads this from an outsiders perspective has to have a moment where they feel bad for the son in believing this way. All I can ask is how can anyone believe this without evidence? This is very black and white thinking, and it shows, by the description of good against evil. It creates a good side against the bad side. It is very unfortunate to read this by a well educated theologian.
Works Cited:
Dr. Boyd, Gregory A., and Edward K. Boyd. Letters from a Skeptic. Canada: David C. Cook Distribution, 2008. Print.