The Problem of Evil, Part 5 – Love Not Micromanagement

In my previous post, I explain why the “magical” view of God is ruled out by his unchanging nature which fixes reality within certain parameters. In this article, I share how one of God’s specific characteristics rules out him micromanaging the world.

One of if not the most primary characteristic of God is love. I believe that love is core to God’s being and his reason for creating. I believe love is therefore one of these fixed parameters so to speak. In line with what I’ve been discussing, I believe love has a specific meaning. It can’t be changed to anything and still be love.

Part of the nature of love is that it requires freedom on the part of each party. In other words, each person must have the ability to choose to act in Continue reading →

The Problem of Evil, Part 4 – The Fixed Nature of Reality

In my previous post, I shared two misconceptions about God’s power: that it is “magical” and means controlling (or micromanaging). I now want to make a case for why God’s being all power can’t mean these things.

When we say “God”, we must mean something or else we are talking about nothing. By saying God is certain things, we are implicitly if not explicitly saying God is not other things. Specifically following from this, God has a certain nature and this nature is what God is like. God can’t be anything; there are certain ways God is and certain ways God is not.

I see no reason to believe that God’s core, fundamental nature changes. To say otherwise I think would be close to not believing in God at all. (Note: people’s beliefs and Continue reading →

The Problem of Evil, Part 3 – Misconceptions About God’s Power

So far in this series I have assumed that evil does exist and that we as Christians want to believe that God is both all powerful and all good. However, it seems like we can have at most two of these three options. I want to argue that we tend to hold two misconceptions as to what it means for God to be all powerful.

The first misconception about God’s power is what I would call a magical view of God. This is the view that God’s power means that he can simply “snap his fingers” and anything he wants happens instantly. I don’t believe this view is either necessary nor most inline with the Bible and reality. But if you hold to the second misconception, it is implied.

The second misconception is that God’s being in control (all Continue reading →

The Problem of Evil, Part 2 – God Behind Suffering?

In my previous post, I introduced the dilemma caused by the existence evil.

There is another angle which is unique to people of faith: believing that God specifically wills or allows bad things to happen for some good purpose. This one which is particularly troubling because it sounds really good in certain respects so long as it is not taken too far¹. At first, it seems like the most reasonable way to resolve our dilemma.

What this response does, in an attempt to hold on to both God’s power and goodness, is effectively redefine goodness such as to include evil. Since God is good and is somehow involved (actively causing or allowing evil), the bad must in some way actually be good.

This could be seen as a way of effective Continue reading →

The Problem of Evil, Part 1 – Introduction

At first, it seems that if God is all good and God is all powerful, then there would be no evil, no wrong in the world. Now obviously there is evil in the world, so we have a problem. (A few people try to ignore or deny evil, but for the most part, all of us recognize this reality.) It appears we have only three alternatives: either evil doesn’t exist, God is not all powerful, or God is not good.

My impression is that, at least in the West, we define God primarily in terms of power. When we speak of God, we mean some supernatural being “out there” who has the power to do anything he wants. Because of this, I imagine the belief that God is not all powerful to be more or less equivalent to atheism. I can’t think of a good example of a Continue reading →

Psychology

I am far from an expert on psychology. However I think I’ve learned a few things which may be of some help. I think the basics are important enough that we should all be taught about this subject. As I understand it, psychology is essentially the exploration into the reason we do what we do.

(A word before I begin: thoughts and feelings aren’t two completely separate things. They are two aspects of one thing. We feel certain ways because of what we believe to be true.)

We all have certain psychological needs. These may not be as obvious as our physical needs. A lack of certain physical needs such as food can kill us. While we may not experience physical death if we don’t have our psychological needs met, we can experience a type of Continue reading →

2015 Year End Summary

Another year is coming to a close. I’ve had this blog for nearly ten years now. For most of this time, writing has just been a hobby. I’ve written only when I’ve felt inspired and have had the time.

I believe it was a bit over a year ago when I realized that I write more than anyone I know except for my published author friend. In recognizing this, I have been considering how I might make the most of this skill. Slowly over the course of time, I’ve tried to improve my blog and prepare for potential growth.

At the beginning of the year, I made a goal to publish a new article every week. I ended up only publishing only 33 new articles, well short of 52. The primary reasons for this are the fact that I moved to Nashville in May, and Continue reading →

Freedom Builders / Soulation

Sometimes I forget, since I don’t stay in these environments myself, that not all churches / spiritual communities are healthy. In fact, I expect that many are not at all healthy (though I don’t know how one could measure the extent of this). One big example is that many religious communities have the paradigm that they are the protectors of truth. From this perspective, any doubt or questioning may well be seen as a threat and strongly discouraged, most often through various social consequences. However, questioning and exploring is the way knowledge and understanding.

Another example is that religious groups may expect people to relate to certain others in unhealthy ways based how they’ve decided a passage in the Bible (or other Continue reading →

The Ridiculousness of the Crucifixion (Part 2)

In my previous article, I stated that we correctly desire to see the end of injustice and evil. At the end I observed that God is doing something about this. However, he does so in a previously incomprehensible way.

If you are on God’s side, Jesus’ crucifixion makes no earthly sense. (It makes perfect sense from the viewpoint of the powers of the world to subdue a disruptive person.) Why doesn’t Jesus come to earth with a display of force? Why not set up an empire with Jesus as emperor? Isn’t this what God was after—the kingdom of God? Jesus is perfect, right? So wouldn’t he have been the perfect ruler? Couldn’t he have made all the right decrees and fixed all the injustice in the world through ruling in this way? Greg Boyd argues Continue reading →

Judging People: Good Guys Fight Bad Guys (Part 1)

As I mentioned in my previous post, we all recognize that there is evil and injustice in the world. We correctly recognize when a person does certain acts which are evil and injustice. We desire for these to be corrected and the injustice removed. I think it is human tendency to judge people and place them into either the “good” or “bad” camp. However, there is a problem.

One of the problems stemming from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is that we now think we can accurately judge people. We mistakenly assume that we know who is good and who is bad. Of course much of the time, the good guys look a lot like us while the bad guys are those who are different from us. Once we divide people into these categories, we Continue reading →