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Tag Archives: theodicy
David Berlinski defends God’s role in the Holocaust: “God did not protect his chosen people…[but] did…smite their enemies, with generations to come in mourning or obsessed by shame.”
Here’s David Berlinski defending God’s role in the Holocaust (from page 31 of his book, The Devil’s Delusion): “[T]he thousand year Reich…lies buried in the rubble of German cities smashed to smithereens,…[I]f God did not protect his chosen people precisely … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, david berlinski, God, philosophy, Sam Harris, the Holocaust, theodicy
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If God is Rational, Whence the Holocaust and Competing Goods (Such as the Pursuit of Beauty over Ethics)?
Thomist philosopher Edward Feser prefers intellectualism (reason leading the will) to voluntarism (the will leading reason). He thinks that neither desire nor imagination should lead our wills, and claims that God, as the supremely rational being, ought to be our example: … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, edward feser, God, philosophy, the Holocaust, the moon, theodicy, theology
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“Somewhat Religious”: Ted Turner’s Faitheism
In a recent profile of Ted Turner, now 73, in the Hollywood Reporter, his views on religion are reported in the following manner: Once virulently anti-religious, doubt rather than certainty defines his thinking now. He calls himself “a little bit … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, carl sagan, God, Jesus, life, love, suffering, ted turner, theodicy
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Japan’s earthquake and tsunami: there was a terrible noise. There was a terrible silence. There was a terrible noise. There was a terrible silence. There was a terrible noise.
The most heart-breaking and arresting sentence (or, rather, portion of a larger sentence) I’ve encountered on the Japan earthquake and tsunami was penned at Salon this morning by Matt Zoller Seitz: [W]omen and children walking and in some cases swimming through … Continue reading
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Tagged civilization, death, earthquake, existentialism, Japan, life, love, Santi Tafarella, the heart, theodicy, tragedy, tsunami
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Leon Wieseltier on Roger Rosenblatt’s Journey into Hell Mouth
Sooner or later, and in one form or another, all human beings make their journey—and on more than one occasion throughout a lifetime—into what James Wood and others have coined “Hell Mouth”—the Job-like inferno in which we encounter unavoidable and extreme anxiety, suffering, … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, Book of Job, death, evil, God, grief, Job, liebnitz, life, suffering, the problem of evil, theodicy
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More news from Chile in the immediate aftermath of this morning’s magnitude 8.8 quake
This from AP: Candia was visiting his wife’s 92-year-old grandmother in Talca when the quake struck. “Everything was falling — chests of drawers, everything,” he said. “I was sleeping with my 8-year-old son Diego and I managed to cover his … Continue reading
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Tagged chile, concepcion, earthquake, earthquakes, human suffering, life, theodicy, tragedy
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Two books for thinking about Chile’s devestating magnitude 8.8 earthquake this morning
See here and here.
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Tagged chile, earthquakes, philosophy, suffering, Susan Neiman, theodicy, Voltaire
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Chile’s earthquake and a simulation from the National Geographic Channel
Chile had a magnitude-8.8 earthquake early this morning (Saturday, February 27, 2010). Here’s a National Geographic simulation of the damage a major earthquake in Chile is capable of causing:
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Tagged chile, death, earthquake, earthquakes, humanity, suffering, theodicy, tragedy, tsunamis
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An 8.8 quake hit Chile early this morning (February 27, 2010). Will the damage and loss of life be similar to May 22, 1960 when the largest earthquake ever recorded (9.5 magnitude) hit the same area?
AP early this morning: A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake capable of tremendous damage struck central Chile early Saturday, shaking the capital for a minute and half and setting off a tsunami. . . . The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the … Continue reading
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Tagged chile, earthquake, evil, Pat Robertson, quake, suffering, the problem of suffering, theodicy, tsunami
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The Indifference of Generation-Spanning Stones to the Vissitudes of Human Experience
An introduction to Camus’s notion of the absurd, circa 1966, and a kind of theodicy prayer to the stones of Winchester Cathedral. And is the singer holding his nose?
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Tagged 1966, atheism, Camus, Darwin, evolution, God, indifference, life, nature, religion, Tennyson, theodicy
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Conspiracy Theory Taken to a New Level: The Haiti Earthquake is Now the U.S. Navy’s Fault
This today at Reason: Both Venezuelan state-owned radio and television properties zeroed in on a secret U.S. “weapon of earthquakes” as the cause of the earthquake that struck Haiti last week causing a death toll [that] could exceed 200,000 according … Continue reading
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Tagged anti-Semitism, conspiracy, conspiracy theories, Drudge Report, earthquakes, God, haiti, Illuminati, james bond, Judaism, technology, theodicy
5 Comments
Charles Darwin on the Problem of Suffering
In a letter to Asa Gray (22 May, 1860): With respect to the theological view of the question; this is always painful to me.– I am bewildered.– I had no intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, Charles Darwin, evolution, God, Hamlet, Jesus, life, nature, nature red in tooth and claw, suffering, the problem of suffering, theodicy
3 Comments
Evil is the Shadow Cast in the Very Creation of the Universe?
Does God, by his (or her) very existence, necessarily cast an evil shadow? And does the creation, to even exist, cast an evil shadow? The youthful Einstein’s observation (echoing Thomas Aquinas) strikes me as very close to the gnostic idea that … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, einstein, God, philosophy, physics, psychology, religion, theodicy
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“A Brief for the Defense”: Jack Gilbert’s Great Theodicy Poem
A Brief for the Defense Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. But we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants. Otherwise the mornings before summer … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, God, jack gilbert, Job, literature, poems, poetry, religion, suffering, theodicy
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Was God to Blame for the 2008 Chinese Earthquake that KILLED 80,000 People?
According to AlterNet today, maybe not: Last year, one of the most deadly earthquakes on record devastated China, killing over 80,000 people and rendering millions homeless. Yet last month, reports surfaced stating that the 8.0 magnitude Great Sichuan Earthquake could … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, China, earthquake, God, Jesus, philosophy, Politics, religion, the problem of suffering, theodicy
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Prometheus Unbound 