AnthonyFlood.com
Philosophy against Misosophy
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The Intractable Problem of Evil
Earthquakes and Theodicy: Six Years Later
No need to change the substance of what I wrote to The Spectator [UK] on January 15, 2005 (appended below, posted here soon thereafter). Just substitute for the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 . . .
the Haitian earthquake of January 12, 2010 . . .
or the Japanese earthquake cum tsunami cum nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011.
The spectacle of intelligent and morally sensitive religious persons offering the lamest of rationales for why their God—who, they insist, can hold tectonic plates steady, permitted them to shift in these instances, to name no others—moves me to offer my six-year-old letter to others for their consideration.
I have come to accept that the all-knowing and all-loving lure of the cosmos lacks any coercive physical power. For me, asking why God couldn't prevent an earthquake is almost like asking why you couldn't. Almost, because you at least have some coercive physical power, albeit not enough to prevent a tectonic shift. God, however, has none, not even enough to lift a pebble.
Mainstream theists who say they cannot imagine worshiping such a deity say more about themselves than about what it takes for something to be God.
Visitors are invited to essay answers and send them to me for my edification.
Anthony Flood
anarchristian@juno.com
[February 1, 2010]
Updated March 17, 2011
