her<\/em> cancer? If God went out of his way to save a parking space for you right by the door, why did he let all those people in West Africa die of ebola?<\/p>\nLook, I\u2019m\u00a0not an anti-theist. If you feel that God cares for you personally and is involved in your life on a daily basis, that\u2019s fine by me. But please understand that trying to convince me that God exists by telling me that\u00a0he made you lose your cell phone\u00a0which in turn made you get out the door\u00a0to your appointment late and thus you missed being involved in a major car accident on I-30 isn\u2019t going to get very far, because I\u2019m going to be wondering why God didn\u2019t\u00a0just prevent that accident on I-30. If God can hide a cell phone, surely he can prompt someone to look again before making a left turn.<\/p>\n
We hear this when there are earthquakes, or tornados, too. Look, this baby survived 22 hours in the rubble and was completely unharmed when rescuers found her! This is the work of God! Well honestly, if that\u2019s the best your God could do, I\u2019m not so impressed. Where\u2019s that God that moves mountains, and surely could prevent earthquakes from happening in the first place? Why did God choose to save that<\/em> baby, and not the dozens of other babies living nearby who did<\/em> perish in the quake?<\/p>\nI get that this is part of the larger problem of evil, and I understand that theologians have worked for centuries to find ways to explain or understand it. I\u2019m not arguing that the existence of evil and pain and suffering disproves the existence of a God (although some would), I\u2019m simply pointing out that your argument that God exists because he got you a new job at the very moment you were let go from your old job isn\u2019t going to be very convincing when there are still millions of unemployed people out there looking for work\u2014or when your equally devout brother is still out of work.<\/p>\n
Oh and also? People of every religion have these same stories of how their God (or one of a pantheon of gods) has personally helped them out, so unless you\u2019re a universalist, you may want to reconsider your entire approach here. Or you could be like the evangelicals I grew up among, and argue that when these sorts of \u201cdivine favors\u201d\u00a0happen to individuals in false religions, they\u2019re carried out\u00a0by demons intent on deceiving people and keeping them in the dark. But in that case, how are you really sure you\u2019re<\/em> worshiping God, and not also being deceived?<\/p>\nHonestly, I think these \u201cdivine favor\u201d stories tend to be more about encouraging the faithful than they are about convincing the doubters, because I can\u2019t imagine how these stories would make any headway with those not already in the group. I\u2019ll write more about this later, but I feel the same way about many other \u201capologetics\u201d arguments I learned as a child, such as the argument that the resurrection must have happened because the tomb was empty, which rests on the assumption\u00a0that the Biblical is an accurate historical account. These \u201carguments\u201d make no sense unless you\u2019re already converted.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Honestly, I think these stories are generally more about encouraging the faithful than they are about convincing the doubters, because I can’t imagine how these stories would make any headway with those not already in the group. I’ll write more about this later, but I feel the same way about many other “apologetics” arguments I learned as a child, such as the argument that the resurrection must have happened because the tomb was empty, which rests on the assumption that the Biblical is an accurate historical account. These “arguments” make no sense unless you’re already converted. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,40],"tags":[515],"class_list":["post-25564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","tag-apologetics"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n