Trilemma....

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then He is not omnipotent.
Is He able, but not willing?
Then He is malevolent.
Is He both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is He neither able nor willing?
Then why call Him God?

- Epicurus

Comments

TK said…
All thinking men should answer Epicurus' question with these three words

"I Don't Know"

Faith can not be subjected to the crucible of science or reason because it is not self evident truth. Like Gravity.

If we are going to be utilitarian about it, we NEED to believe that God is Just and Good despite of what our limited human intellect says to keep ourselves from gonig crazy and jumping off the building to prove that gravity does not exist.
April 29, 2010 7:43 PM
Ronald Allan said…
True.

Wisdom is different from intelligence in the sense that the former does not merely entail the possession of knowledge regarding a particular subject, but the also the realization that one does not know everything...and that faith is sometimes used to fill these gaps.

As for your second premise, I'm inclined to believe that God is infinite in every way that it is impossible to fully understand His true nature with our finite minds...and if we truly cannot understand, then we should rely on Faith.

Not understanding something does not make it any less real...

Like gravity as you put it. Whether I believe in it or not, whether I understand it or not, or jump from a building or not, it will always exist...

I have always held the view that God is more akin to an infinite force of nature, of the cosmos, of the universe...instead of the anthromorphized version popularized in literature and paintings of an old white-haired man in a robe standing on a cloud...but this is one for another post.
April 30, 2010 5:45 AM
TK said…
Hmm...The force is strong in this one...
May 04, 2010 9:14 PM
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