Re: [asa] The Fall (humanity source of suffering)

Hi Bethany,

“Mike, if you have #2, natural evil, you run into all sorts of other problems. The entire ecological system (food chains and such) would have had to pop up over night. The same would be true of plate tectonics, air and water circulation and countless other things. Can you really blame all those on the moral choice of two humans?”

Maybe. Christian theology is rife with these dilemmas. Is God One or Three? Was Jesus God or Man? Do we have free will or is God in charge of everything? Is the Bible the word of God or was it written by men? Are we saved by grace or works? I’m not sure why anyone believes our primitive, limited, primate brains can truly understand how to seamlessly tie these together. So yes, in this case, I’d say that human beings clearly evolved, yet in some very deep sense, are also responsible for bringing the darkness into our world.

“And, could the world exist without those things?”

Nope, not our world.

“The world is dependent on those cycles in order to be able to sustain life. Is that evil?”

I did not say that Nature is purely evil, but it is a great source of suffering and evil in our world. Thanks to Nature, millions of humans suffer agonizing pain.

-Mike Gene

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Bethany Sollereder
  To: Dehler, Bernie
  Cc: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 11:37 AM
  Subject: Re: [asa] The Fall (humanity source of suffering)

  That doesn't seem very convincing to me, if only because aid after natural disasters is a relatively modern invention, as is medicine that could actually help those people.

  Mike, if you have #2, natural evil, you run into all sorts of other problems. The entire ecological system (food chains and such) would have had to pop up over night. The same would be true of plate tectonics, air and water circulation and countless other things. Can you really blame all those on the moral choice of two humans? And, could the world exist without those things? The world is dependent on those cycles in order to be able to sustain life. Is that evil?

  Bethany

  On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 9:23 AM, Dehler, Bernie <bernie.dehler@intel.com> wrote:

    You might have a point there, because even in great natural disasters, many more are killed when aid can't reach them. Sometimes (many/most times?) the aid is blocked because of politics and crime.

    …Bernie

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Received on Wed Jun 18 14:08:04 2008