I am arguing with a friend about God and the problem of evil, and he has essentially claimed that if God is responsible for all of creation, then he is responsible for evil. Here is the exact text:
How would you respond to this argument? I am trying to get through to him.
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Finally, if I get on board with the necessity of finite causality (which I'm not) and fuse that necessity to an all-everything being through which all that exists was DESIGNED and created to a tee, that being is then the being upon which all the suffering that was and ever is rests. He can not blame the "middle man." (Like a table of dominoes.) If nothing can ever occur that this first cause God did not 'intend' (key word) to occur, every murder and rape was not just allowed to occur, but both designed and created to occur. And were such a pre-planned event to ultimately not occur, God would cease to be God, for he would cease to have all-power and knowledge. Therefore, in this chain of causality it is not the domino's fault (man's fault) that it fell, but the "first cause" that pushed it. This is a primary reason I don't like first cause arguments. They make the arsonist also the savior firefighter and reduce themselves (and Christianity) to blaming the matchstick (Eve) rather than God. Ultimately, such a system (and God) makes this life unnecessary, ever cruel. |