> Thanks, Bill, for that response about God and a billion years of death.
> Those are some interesting ideas - and hearing ideas I haven't thought
> about before is the main value of spending time on this reflector. The
> notion that it might be the evil one who has been messing things up
> here for a billion years is an fascinating possibility. The thought
> might also occur that perhaps the evil one has been messing with things
> for a shorter time in a deliberately deceptive way. Seems like the
> Bible does call him the "deciver" somewhere. The latter notion is not
> one that appeals to me, however. At any rate I am not yet as
> comfortable as you indicate with the idea that God would tolerate pain
> for a billion years. It might not seem very long to Him but it still
> sounds long to me. What would be the most uncomfortable about it is
> that He might be just a willing to tolerate this situation for another
> billion years. That runs against my notions of Christianity but I
> realize it might not be troubling from other viewpoints.
Hmm, I've always been confused about the "pain" issue of Christianity and
an old earth. I've heard atheists argue strongly that if evolution is
true, then the Christian god must be false because of this issue.
However, I've seen it also used by Christians as an anti-evolution
point.
I have several problems with both these issues someone might be able to
enlighten.
First, since "good" is subjective, pain and suffering can be "good,"
depending on the outcome.
Second, the Christian god did intentially inflict pain and suffering on
people in the Bible, and many claim today that their pain and suffering
is a test of faith by God.
Hugh Ross, for example, argues that natural disasters are "good" even
though they inflict heavy damage, suffering and loss of life.
I guess my point is, if pain and suffering can be "good" depending on the
outcome, then the objection to God by atheists because of the pain and
suffering, and the objection to evolution by Christians because of pain
and suffering becomes severely weakened....
ANy thoughts?
Tom