Thinking to Believe

Did you know the Bible regulates slavery rather than condemn it? How can a good God allow something as immoral as slavery? In this episode, I look at the OT data, specifically the OT teaching regarding Hebrew slaves. I argue that the kind of slavery allowed in the OT is vastly different from the kind of slavery most of us think of today. The purpose of slavery was different, how slaves were obtained was different, how long they ser...

I demonstrate that the commands to devote the Canaanites to destruction are hyperbolic rather than literal, explain why God can (but we cannot) kill anyone He wants, ask whether women and children were killed in the Conquest, and compare the Conquest to Islamic jihad. 

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Critics have claimed the Conquest of Canaan is an example of divinely commanded genocide or ethnic cleansing. I argue that the rationale for the Conquest had nothing to do with race or ethnicity, and is not an example of genocide. It’s an example of mass judgment for gross immorality. I also explain how Israel had a historical claim to the land, God waited patiently for the Canaanites to repent before judging them, and the main goa...

Many think the God of the OT is harsh and judgmental, while the God of the NT is gracious and loving. Is the God of the OT different than the God of the NT? Did God reform Himself between the testaments? No. I demonstrate that we find a God of love and justice in both testaments. 

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Christians and Jews believe the God of the Bible is morally good. Many non-believers, however, think otherwise. They claim the God of Christianity is morally evil, and thus no god at all. So is the Biblical God the epitome of moral perfection, or a moral monster? I introduce this new sub-series and provide some guiding principles to help us understand difficult Biblical issues.

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I finished my thoughts on how Christians can deal with the emotional problem of evil, which wraps up this sub-series on the problem of evil. I explored the different purposes God has for evil, give some perspective in light of eternity and the cross, and God's plan for ultimately solving the problem of evil. 

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I wrap up my examination of the Free Will Defense and conclude that it succeeds. In the course of the discussion I explore why believers will not sin in heaven. I present two different explanations that Christians have offered, and reasons for preferring one over the other. 

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Email: ThinkingToBelieve@gmail.com
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Tru...

In the last episode, I offered the Free Will Defense (FWD) as an explanation for why God might allow evil: God cannot create free creatures who are unable to choose evil. The example of God, however, calls this logic into question. He is free, and yet He cannot sin. Is the FWD cooked, or is there a reason why God cannot - but we can - choose evil? 

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I’ve demonstrated that evil doesn’t make God’s existence impossible or even unlikely, but one might wonder why, if God exists, He permits evil. What is the purpose? This is the question of theodicy. 

I cover five reasons God might permit evil:

1.       To better our souls via moral growth (soul-making theodicy)

2.       To bring glory to God

3.       To make moral freedom and love possible

4.       To make happiness possible

5.       To ...

On this miscellany episode I cover:

-- How the NYC mayoral race helps us think through our voting philosophy

-- What gerrymandering is, why it's a danger to our democracy, and which party does it the most

-- Don't assume that those who believe different than you do so because of a spiritual problem. 

-- Stop worrying about people being offended.

-- 2 pet peeves - using foreign words and performative prayer

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The evidential problem of evil falsely assumes that if God had a purpose for permitting the amounts/kinds of evil we see in the world, we would be able to discern what those reasons were. The bottom line is that so long as the existence of evil and the existence of evil are logically compatible, there is no good reason to think that greater amounts of evil make God's existence more unlikely.

I also discuss gratuitous evil. Some...

While there may be no logical incompatibility between a theistic God and evil, can certain amounts or kinds of evil make it highly unlikely that theism is true? That's the claim of the evidential problem of evil. In this episode, I examine the claim that there is too much evil in the world to think that God exists. 

Web: ThinkingtoBelieve.com
Email: ThinkingToBelieve@gmail.com
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I finish my discussion of the logical POE, showing how evil is actually one of the best evidences for God’s existence – not against God’s existence, and showing how the atheist’s answer to the problem of evil is far less satisfactory than the theist’s.

Web: ThinkingtoBelieve.com
Email: ThinkingToBelieve@gmail.com
Facebook: facebook.com/thinkingtobelieve
Twitter & Gettr: @thinking2believ
Truth: @ThinkingToBelieve<...

Is the presence of evil in our world evidence against the existence of God? How could an all-good and all-loving God allow so much evil?

In this episode, I begin to evaluate the logical problem of evil. I discuss what evil is (a privation of good), the different kinds of evil, and why the logical problem of evil does not succeed in undermining theism or proving atheism. 

Web: ThinkingtoBelieve.com
Email: ThinkingToBelieve@gmail.c...

Is the presence of evil in our world evidence against the existence of God? How could an all-good and all-loving God allow so much evil?

In this 1-N-Done episode, I tackle this problem head-on. I cover:

• Why there is no logical incompatibility between God and evil
• Evil is actually evidence for God's existence, not against it
• Theism offers a better solution to the problem of evil than atheism
• Explore some reasons God may permit e...

Many think that science has disproven God, or at least shown that He is superfluous. Nothing could be further from the case. I show how science cannot, even in principle, disprove God's existence. I also examine whether science has truly been able to explain the things God has typically been invoked to explain such as the origin of the universe, the origin of life, and the diversity of life. In the process, I talk about why Da...