God By Simon Blackburn God Analysis

Why does God allow things like cancer to take away little children? If God loves us, then why are there people dying of starvation in Africa? Why does God allow murder and death? These are the questions being asked today that keep people from giving their lives to God. To put it simply, God is not the one to blame for evil in modern society, and he himself is not the one imparting it. The book of Job is a good example of this. Job is a man who is said to be a model of a man’s righteousness, Job 1:1 says:

If god was all good, all powerful and all knowing, he would not allow the existence of evil.

The consequences of accepting that the goodness of actions consists simply in the fact that God favours them are obviously disagreeable. However, the consequences of accepting the alternative also appear unfortunate. If it is maintained that God favours certain actions because they are objectively good, it seems that their goodness is independent of His will. But such a view appears to be inconsistent with the conception of God as the omnipotent creator and sustainer of all that is. It means that there is a realm of moral values which exist quite apart from God's creative will and to which His will must conform. Such a view must inevitably appear blasphemous to all those who believe in God, for it makes God out to be less than He is.

“Either we must say that God is not wholly good, and that he permits or is even the author of evil. Or we must say that God is not omnipotent, and although he is wholly good and would prevent evil if he could, he is powerless to stop it.” (Fitzgerald 340).

Ernest Nagel identifies that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and loving. However, if God has all of those traits, then why would He allow evil? This is where the problem of evil comes in. It says that if God exists, he is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent. Because God is omniscient, He knows when evil occurs. Since He is omnipotent, He has the power to prevent it and his benevolent nature would permit him to stop evil. Yet, evil occurs anyways. Therefore, a God with such traits does not

Therefore, it is not the case that God is an omnipotent and wholly good being.

The second portion asks if he is able but not willing. This would make him malevolent. God is supposed to be omnimalevolent, all loving and all good. A God who is able to stop all evil but doesn’t is clearly not loving then, correct? Christians would respond that this apparent ignorance from God is actually human sin and not God turning his back on us.

In the beginning of Genesis, God expects humans to be subordinate to him, and refuses to tolerate defiance.  He sees no excuse for disobedience, and punishes Adam and Eve.  God expects everyone to be perfect and castigates for every mistake.

Most major arguments of God are rooted in the existence, or lack thereof. However there has been a continuous debate regarding the specific characteristics of God. In this debate, Charles Hartshorne, Alfred North Whitehead, and other the processed theologians oppose Anselm, Augustine, and other classic theologians. Although there are many points of disagreement, there are some characteristics for which both sides can agree upon. I will show one strong point of agreement and one strong point of opposition, and allow you the opportunity to decide for yourself how different, or similar, these two camps are.

Generally, God is known to be all good, to have complete control and power, and to be loving. Although, how come there is evil in the world with such an angelic God?  If God cares and loves us- wouldnt he prevent the suffering if he could? Since he is all powerful, he should be able to eliminate the suffering that evil brings. It seems we only have two potential answers: either God is not loving and all powerful, or God does not exist. Although, I am going to try to give an alternative answer and possibly explain how God could coexist with evil.

The problem of evil questions the nature of God and threatens his status as a figure worthy of worship. Surely human beings would not wish to worship a God that is neither all good nor all-powerful? The figure we call God is seen to be entirely perfect and flawless in every way. The problem of evil also questions God’s omniscience, in respects that he is all knowing. If God is omniscient then he must know the harm that evil does and the suffering it will cause. The attributes in question are the essence of the nature of God and without them he becomes more like a human than a God. If any of God’s characteristics are omitted, he

The belief that God is the perfect standard for which all things are compared also contradicts itself. If everything that is measured as degrees such as beauty or goodness are measures comparative of god, that would imply that God is also the most evil and the most cruel. If God is the sole creator and the cause of all things, then he inherently contains all of the bad in this world. And since we are taught that God is the embodiment of good and right, the idea that he is also bad would contradict many facets of our

The Holy Bible revealed to us that God is a symbol of goodness. He likes creating good things. He declared each day work as good in His own sight. He finally pronounced all His creation as being good and complimenting each other. Almighty God forever, remains the highest good any human could seek and a standard to measure goodness.

Blackburn also mentions that religious individuals state that because of free will the world is what it is today. The notion that God created a perfect world with humans having free will and because of the misuse of that free will evil is present. Blackburn is against this idea total, he mentioned we couldn’t have free will without the influence of the past we can be free to do whatever we want and potentially to be blame for it, but the will is the influence of the past so we basically doing what the past tell us which is determinism. Blackburn also states that it’s not only human decisions that inflict evil

The problem of evil is as ancient as humanity itself. Since the dawn of man, thinkers, philosophers, religionists and practically every human being who have suffered at the hands of evil have pondered this enigma, either as a logical-intellectual-philosophical or emotional-religious-existential problem. The preponderance of evil as a reality in human existence, and