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350-500 WORDS IS ENOUGH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQorzOS-F6w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv85tvudi7Y

http://curiousjew.blogspot.com.tr/2008/11/excerpt-from-trial-of-god.html

http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/arguments-for-atheism/the-problem-of-evil/

http://infidels.org/library/modern/mark_vuletic/five.html

Last week, we looked at various positive arguments for the existence of God.  This week we are turning to a much more difficult problem for theists which is the problem of evil.  Here’s how philosophers state it: If God is all good, all-knowing, and all-powerful, then how can there be evil in the world?  Wouldn’t a good and almighty God prevent the horrific evils in the world if he could?  And if he can’t, then how can we call God almighty?

Answer any two of the following three questions.

[1] On 9/11/11 something horrifically evil happened in the U.S. when over 3000 innocent people were killed by an act of terrorism.  How can there be a God who is good if this God allows such evil to happen?  Imagine you are sent by God to defend God’s goodness to people who lost a loved one or friend in that horror: how would you explain your faith in God here?

[2] After you read “The Tale of the Twelve Officers” (link, but also in Required Resources), explain what you find most offensive about this tale?  How does the tale relate to the question of a good God ruling an evil world?  In other words, what is the analogy of the Twelve Officers meant to prove or question?

[3] The Trial of God” (link) is a story that puts God on trial for what happened to the Jewish people (and many others) in the concentration camps under Hitler’s evil regime from 1939-1945.  Whose side do you find yourself more learning toward in the story, the prosecutor of God (Berish) or God’ s defender (Sam)?  Why?