phlogistician:
So give me a reason [that God allows evil] that does apply.
One argument is that God has chosen to create a specific kind of world in which conscious, intelligent, free-willed creatures such as human beings can exist. It may be that the natural laws put in place to govern such a universe necessarily allow natural disasters as well as permitting the existence of God's creatures.
So, if a rock falls on somebody's head and kills him or her, that is not necessarily a malicious direct act of God. It could be explained as a consequence of God's creating a particular kind of universe in which things like gravity and rocks exist alongside free-willed, intelligent, conscious human beings.
"Why did God not create a world in which rocks could not fall?" will be your next question. Such a world would have no gravity. Stars and planets would not form in a universe without gravity.
"Why doesn't God intervene to stop rocks falling on people's heads?" Perhaps he does, but in more subtle ways than altering gravity on the spot, and not all the time. Or maybe God has a greater plan in allowing a rock to strike a particular person at a particular time, even where such a strike results in death.
"Why didn't God make everybody immortal?"
I'll wait for you to come up with at least one possible reason for this. After all, I shouldn't have to do all your thinking for you.
So, there must be some other reason God might be unwilling to act to prevent earthquake deaths. Of course, that's assuming that he doesn't act to prevent some deaths, which remains to be proven.
'must' be? That sounds rather certain, when you don't have any proof of anything.
It's simple logic. If the explanation of event E is not X, then it must be something other than X.
Ah, and now you say God may save some people. We know people die, however, so the question still stands, and you have wasted yet another opportunity to acquit yourself.
Not at all. I have now asked you several times to consider why it might be that people are not immortal in a world created by a loving God. You persist in avoiding thinking about the matter.
Now you are being absurd and diversionary. One, this thread is where I ask you questions, and you attempt to answer honestly, it's not a debate where you counter with questions.
When do you plan to start thinking? There's another question for you.
Two, we've gone over and over that I have no concept of your God, so how am I supposed to assign motives to such?
That's a valid point.
Your question, then, is fundamentally about the motives of a being for whom you have no concept. Do you not find it somewhat odd to be asking about the motives of something undefined? Maybe you should just forget the whole "problem of evil" thing, because you're in no position to discuss the matter in the absence of any definition of "God".
Better to go back to square one and start working out what kind of thing a "god" might be. You can't do the advanced class without first studying the basics.
