1. The Problem of free Will
For the religious life to be meaningful we must have free will,
we must be able to choose between good and evil, right and wrong.
If we do not have free will we cannot be held responsible for what
we do.
According to Christians, God is all knowing — he knows all the
past, all the present and all the future. If this is so then he
must know everything we do long before we do it. This means that
our whole life must be predetermined and that we act not according
to the free exercise of our wills but according to our
predetermined natures. If we are predetermined to be good we will
be good and if we are predetermined to be evil we will be evil. We
will act not according to our will or choice but according to the
way God has already foreseen we will act. Although Christians will
insist that we do have free will, God’s omniscience simply makes
this logically impossible. The Bible also makes it clear that
everything people do, good or evil, is all due to the will of God
(e.g. Thess II:II-I2; Rom 9:19-21; Rom 9:1
.
If people are evil it is because God has chosen to make them
evil (Rom I:24-2 and caused
them to disobey him (Rom II:32). If they do not understand God’s
message it is because he has made their minds dull (Rom
II: and caused them to be stubborn (Rom 9:1.
God prevents the Gospel from being preached in certain areas (Act
16:6-7) and he fixes long before it will happen when a person will
be born and when he or she will die (Act 17:26). Those who were
going to be saved were chosen by God before the beginning of time
(II Tim I:9). If a person has faith and is thereby saved, their
faith comes from God, not from any effort or decision on their part
(Eph 2:9-10). Now one may ask “If we can only do what God
predetermines us to do, how can he hold us responsible for their
actions?” The Bible has an answer for this question.
But one of you will say to me: “If this is so, how can God find
fault with anyone? For who can resist God’s will?” But who are you,
my friend, to answer God back? A clay pot does not ask the man who
made it: “Why did you make me like this?” After all, the man who
makes the pot has the right to use the clay as he wishes, and to
make two pots from one lump of clay, one for special occasions and
one for ordinary use. And the same is true of what God has done
(Rom 9:19-22).
So apparently in Christianity a person’s life and destiny are
due purely to the whim of God and as mere humans we have no right
to complain about what he has decided for us. The idea that all our
actions are predetermined is quite consistent with the idea of an
all-knowing God but it makes nonsense of the concept of trying to
do good or avoid evil.
2. The problem of Evil
Perhaps the most potent argument against the existence of an
all-powerful and all-loving God is the undeniable fact that there
is much pain and suffering in the world. If there really is a God
of love who has unlimited power why doesn’t he put an end to all
this evil? Christians try to answer this difficult question in
several ways.
Firstly they will say that evil is caused by humans not God and
that if only we would follow God’s commandments there would be no
pain, evil or suffering. However, while it is true that evils such
as war, rape, murder and exploitation can be blamed on humans, they
can hardly be blamed for the millions who die each year in
earthquakes, floods, epidemics and accidents, all of which are
natural events. In fact, according to the Bible, the germs that
cause hideous diseases like TB, polio, cholera, leprosy etc. and
all the misery, deformity and suffering to which they give rise,
were created by God before he created man (Gen. I:11-12). So it is
not correct to say that evil and suffering are caused by
humankind.
Another way Christians will try to explain away evil is to say
that it is God’s punishment for those who do not follow his
commandments. However this implies that terrible things only happen
to bad people which are certainly not true. We often hear of
painful sickness or disasters befalling good people including good
Christians and likewise we often hear of really bad people who seem
to have nothing but good fortune and success. So it cannot be said
that suffering and evil are God’s way of punishing sinners.
Next, Christians will say that God allows evil to exist in the
world because he wants to give us the freedom to choose good over
evil and thereby be worthy of salvation. Evil, they will say,
exists to test us. At first this seems to be a good explanation. If
a man sees someone being beaten up by a bully he has a choice
between turning away (doing wrong) or deciding to help the victim
(doing right). If he decides to help then he has been tested and
found good. However, as we have seen before, an all-knowing God
must already know what choices a person will make so what is the
point of testing us? Also, even if suffering and evil exist to test
us couldn’t an all-loving God think of a less cruel and painful way
to do this? Further, it seems rather unloving and unfair to allow
pain to be inflicted on one person just so that another can have
the opportunity to choose between good and evil.
Some fundamentalist Christians will try to free God from
responsibility for evil by saying that it was not created by him
but by the Devil. This may be true but again if God is so loving
why doesn’t he simply prevent the Devil from causing suffering and
doing evil? In any case, who created the Devil in the first place?
Surely it was God.
By this stage the Christian will start to get a bit desperate and
shift the argument from logic to pragmatism. He will say that even
though there is suffering in the world we can use it as an
opportunity to develop courage and patience. This is is undoubtedly
true but it still does not explain why an all-loving God allows
babies to die of cancer, innocent bystanders to be killed in
accidents and leprosy victims to suffer deformity, misery and pain.
In fact, the existence of so much unnecessary pain and suffering in
the world is very strong evidence that there is no all-loving,
all-powerful God.
3. Why Create?
Christians claim that God is perfect. To be perfect means to be
complete in every way. Now if God really did create the universe
this would prove that he was not perfect. Let us examine why.
Before God created the universe there was nothing — no sun, no
earth, no people, no good or evil, no pain — nothing but God who
was, according to Christians, perfect. So if God was perfect and
nothing but perfection existed, what motivated him to create the
universe and thus bring imperfection into being? Was it because he
was bored and wanted something to do? Was it because he was lonely
and wanted someone to pray to him?
Christians will say that God created everything because of his
love of man but this is impossible. God could not love humans
before he created them any more than a woman could love her
children before she had conceived them. Further, God’s need to
create indicates that he was dissatisfied in some way and therefore
not perfect. Christians might then say that God created
spontaneously and without need or desire. However, this would mean
that the whole universe came into being without purpose or
forethought and therefore prove that God was not a loving
creator.
4. The problem of the Hidden God
Fundamentalist Christians claim that God wants us to believe in
him so that we can be saved but if this is so why doesn’t he simply
appear and perform a miracle so that everyone will see and believe?
Christians will say that God wants us to believe in him out of
faith, not because we see him with our own eyes. However, according
to the Bible, in the past God performed the most awesome miracles
and often intervened dramatically in human affairs so that people
would know his presence. If he did so in the past, why doesn’t he
do so now?
Christians will say that God does perform miracles today
(healing, solving personal problems etc) but being stubborn and
evil most people still refuse to believe. However, these so-called
miracles are individual and minor and leave much room for doubt. If
God performed a really impressive miracle which could have no other
possible explanation then most people certainly would believe.
The Bible tells us that when the Israelites wandered in the
desert for forty years God fed them by making food fall regularly
from the sky (Ex 16:4). During the 1980’s, several million
Ethiopian Christians died slowly and painfully from starvation due
to a prolonged drought. At that time God had the opportunity to
prove his existence, his power and his love by making food fall
from the sky as the Bible claims he did in the past.