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On the History of Empires and Theology

Niall Ferguson provides a simple, clear, and insightful portrayal of the (potential) rise and fall of the American empire in his article Complexity and Collapse, Empires on the Edge of Chaos, from the March/April 2010 edition of Foreign Affairs. The thread of his analysis follows a thread provided . . . . Continue Reading »

Bailing out the Problem of Evil [6]

The last time we mentioned that if Joseph had never been sold into slavery, he would have never been in a position to become what he became.And the wily atheist — the one who admits, btw, that even he might be willing to suffer for the sake of something, like being part of the 60 million who . . . . Continue Reading »

Bailing out the Problem of Evil [5]

BTW, I’m telling you this story because this is one of the stories God tells us in His book about what kind of universe he’s running here — and the atheist needs at least to listen to the story even if he’s not willing to buy the whole thing from start to finish. Continue Reading »

Bailing out the Problem of Evil [4]

So we’re at the place where we can say a couple-four things from the existential side of the problem of evil:[1] from the perspective that pain exists, and we perceive it, we as human beings (you could say “people”) have an urge to do something about it when we see it.[2] that urge . . . . Continue Reading »

Bailing out the Problem of Evil [3]

Last time I proffered the idea that pain is a problem for the atheist because he has to figure out what to do about said pain - and some of you took that at face value, but I think some of you are rightfully scratching your heads.“Frank - big thinkin’ and everything,” you ought to . . . . Continue Reading »

Bailing out the Problem of Evil [2]

Last time I left you off with something like this — The problem is what to do about pain. See: the common argument here — which John Loftus plainly used to dismiss God — is that all pain ought to be stopped whenever possible. A universe with suffering in it precludes the Christian . . . . Continue Reading »

Bailing out the Problem of Evil [1]

The problem is what to do about pain. See: the common argument here — which Loftus plainly uses to dismiss God — is that all pain ought to be stopped whenever possible. A universe with suffering in it precludes the Christian God (he says), so the onus is now on John or anyone else who sees pain to stop pain.
Continue Reading »

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