Wisdom and Folly

One of the most challenging issues in the philosophy of religion is the problem of evil.  Put simply, the problem concerns the difficulty of reconciling the reality of evil—from immoral behaviors to diseases and natural disasters—with the existence of an all-powerful and perfectly good God.  If God is almighty, then he can prevent evil, and if God is morally perfect, then presumably he would wantto prevent it.  Yet evil exists—in massive doses, in fact.  On its face, then, the problem amounts to evidence against theism, at least as traditionally construed.  One way out would be to deny God is omnipotent, as Harold Kushner essentially does in his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People.  Another route would be to surrender belief in God’s goodness.  But these approaches contradict the biblical portrait of God.  So, it seems, the theist is in a fix.

Since the ancient philosopher Epicurus first posed the evidential problem of evil, theists have proposed many ways of eluding its logic by contriving “theodicies”—explanations as to why God would permit sin and suffering in this world.  Two of the most well-worn among these are the “free will theodicy” and the “soul-making theodicy.”  Both of these aim to deny the premise that God would not want to allow evil.  Each explains God’s permission of evil in terms of some greater goods that God wanted to achieve in this world. 

According to the free will theodicy the greater goods God desired were the various goods that depend upon human freedom, such as genuine relationships and moral qualities.  But, of course, we have misused our freedom and, well, now things are a mess.  But the risk, so to speak, was worth it, or so say defenders of the free will theodicy.  According to the soul-making theodicy, the greater goods God aims to achieve by permitting evil is higher or “second-order” virtues which can only be displayed in response to evil.  For example, forgiveness requires sin to forgive, perseverance demands difficulty to overcome, and so on.  Such traits as forgiveness, perseverance, patience, compassion, mercy, etc. are good and beautiful virtues, and well worth the price of evil to achieve.  Or so say proponents of the soul-making theodicy.

I think both of these theodicies are helpful in dealing with the problem of evil.  But is either one preferable to or more helpful than the other?  This question has been occupying my mind a bit lately, as I will be giving a presentation on it at next week’s national meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society in Providence, Rhode Island, which will be held at the Rhode Island Convention Center.  (Once it is finished, I plan to post my paper on this blog.)  If you’ll be in the New England area from November 18-21, you might want to consider checking out this conference and hearing presentations by some leading lights in the world of Christian philosophy and theology.  It’s not too late to register.  And I also invite you to consider joining the EPS or its sister organization, the Evangelical Theological Society.  In each case, membership is inexpensive and includes a subscription to the society’s journal (Philosophia Christi or the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society).

My interview with Apologetics.com on KKLA in the wee hours of Saturday morning (12-2 a.m. Pacific Time) went swimmingly.  I’ve done plenty of radio interviews, but these typically last 10-20 minutes, not two hours! Fortunately, I was armed with a stiff cup o’ tea and managed to get through it without losing my train of thought or falling asleep. You can read an edited version of the interview by clicking on the appropriate link in the column to your right. Or you can listen to a podcast of the interview by clicking here.

I want to thank the hosts of the Apologetics.com radio show, Rich Park and Steve Tsai, for having me as a guest on their program and for making the time fly by.  I had a great time!

This is very late notice, but I will be interviewed tonight (or, rather, tomorrow morning) from 12:00-2:00 a.m. (Pacific Time) on KKLA (99.5 FM), which broadcasts from San Diego to Santa Barbara in California. The interview is for the Apologetics.com program which airs every week at this time. You can listen to the podcast here at the Apologetics.com website. The hosts will drill me with a lot of tough questions, many of which are discussed in my book, Gum, Geckos, and God, and many others which are not. Should be fun.

Today’s stop on the Gum, Geckos, and God blog tour is At a Hen’s Pace. A review of the book is posted there as well. My thanks to Jeanne and the other bloggers participating in the tour! Its been a blast so far, especially since I can actually be on tour while doing projects around the house, which lately have included painting, building bunk beds, and pouring some concrete steps. Good times.

Also, below is the first response to our invitation to submit owl and ass drawings. It comes from an actual artist, Danny Wilson. You can see his work at Satellite Studio. Danny tells me it was a quick “30 second” sketch. Cool. I like how the two beasts look mutually suspicious—an accurate reflection of the relationship between wise and foolish people.

Owl and Ass by Danny Wilson

I am doing a blog tour for my book, Gum, Geckos, and God, and it begins TODAY. For the next two weeks, a dozen different bloggers will post my answers to their questions about my book, and they will share their own thoughts about it as well. The subjects and themes of the participating blogs range from theology and culture to homeschooling and family issues. But what all of the bloggers have in common is a Christian perspective and a thoughtful approach to faith and culture.

The blog tour schedule is below. I hope you’ll drop by and perhaps even join the conversation. For more information about Gum, Geckos, and God. See the “related website” link to the right.