Engaging God's Problem -- Agreements with Chapter One

In dealing with this issue I have decided to engage each chapter and divide each chapter in two. I want to first express some of the things I and Bart agree and and then what we disagree on will be handled in the next post. Going back and forth through the book like this I hope to engage the book completely after about sixteen more posts with maybe a few final words.

Chapter One is entitled Suffering and a Crisis of Faith. I chronicles Bart's own journey to his conclusion that the God of the Bible cannot be the God that exists and the issue that tilts the balance for him is suffering. I agree that this is a great problem and should not be taken lightly because it is a serious problem.

Like Bart I agree that pat answers and shallow thinking on it are both not helpful and short sighted when it comes to faith. In truth, this question should be a make or break issue for faith and if it isn't then it probably means the person involved hasn't thought completely about the issue. I too am bothered by the question of suffering and evil, but as you can see the course I chose is different.

Bart does seem to give a nod to the freewill defense involving suffering but in the end brings up a question -- If bad decisions are made by people and that results in suffering because of freewill what about heaven or the new earth? If freewill is a great gift won't we have it in heaven and wouldn't that mean the possibility of disobedience and suffering will still be possible afterwards. It is a great question and one I am still wrestling with at the moment.

One pet peeve both he and I share is the fact that people pick and choose what Scriptures support their views and then ignore the rest and this is bad. We all do this to an extent but it doesn't make it right.

Here is the big agreement -- both of us find the books currently addressing the issue to be Intellectually unsatisfying, morally bankrupt and practically useless. Most Christians I see that write on this subject are just regurgitating old arguments and there has been little original thought into the issue.

In short, both of us are tired of the half-hearted, half-intellectualized, half-brained solutions to the problem. But at the same time I disagree that the Bible does not have a solution. I believe if the Bible is taken for what it says it is and not turned into something else there is an answer to the problem of evil and suffering --through we may not like to hear it.

Next: Disagreements with Chapter One