In my opinion, the only argument for atheism that is truly challenging to respond to is the problem of pain and suffering. Why does a good and loving God allow His creation to suffer? During a recent road trip, I saw the dead bodies of young fawns that had been struck and killed by speeding cars. Didn't God love these baby deer? Why did God allow them to die? Why does God allow babies to get cancer? Why did God (allegedly) create spider wasps that paralyze spiders and lay eggs on them so the larvae can feed on the spider that remains alive? Doesn't God care that the poor spider could be suffering? Different types of pain and ache in human body. Red circles of pain in body parts. Vector Medicine Icons. Those are actually silly questions. Of course God cares about His creation. If He didn't care, we wouldn't exist. It's that simple. In our arrogance, we assume our puny human brains ought to be able to figure out the reason for creation, but I'm afraid the answers to our existential questions are held well above our pay grade. I refuse to allow myself to get upset about the idea that God is always going to be smarter and know a lot more than me. Life cannibalizes life. Living organisms consume other living organisms to survive. The only organisms that don't kill other organisms to survive are plants that use photosynthesis to produce food, but even then, those plants receive nutrients from other organisms who died and their remains fertilized the ground where the plants are growing. There is no reason to assume God's plan for the universe should not include … [Read more...]
Do miracles really occur?
[SPOILER ALERT: if you haven't seen the movie Miracles from Heaven and don't know the story but want to see it, this article will spoil the ending, so you might not want to read it yet.] Some people don't believe in miracles, because they don't believe in a supernatural God. However, only the first dictionary definition of "miracle" refers to divine intervention; it offers a more secular alternate definition that describes miracles merely as any extremely unusual event or accomplishment. Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. "Mark Twain") wrote: Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. And what is the truth? Quid est veritas? As the author of three novels and three nonfiction books and articles, let me assure you that writing non-ficton is considerably easier than creating the plot of a novel from scratch. The fictional story must appear to be plausible enough to the reader that he or she becomes willing to suspend his or her disbelief. The same isn't the case for stories purported to be true -- they simply require verifiable evidence to support any claims being made in the account. Take the plot of the movie Miracles from Heaven, for example. The main story simply sounds ludicrous -- a young girl suffering terribly from a rare, incurable stomach disease falls thirty feet inside a rotted tree, landing on her head. But the fall that should have killed young Anna Beam allegedly cured her. Though her neck should have been broken, and her skull smashed in pieces, not only does she survive with only … [Read more...]
