All atheists (and most believers, by the way) are aware of the seeming tension between a good, powerful God and a universe of pain. But if we start from the premise that this world is temporary and (therefore) all suffering in it is marginal by comparison with the scope of eternity, evil in this life isn’t so challenging a problem after all. Few atheists realize that the real problem is hell.
If God wants to save all men and is powerful enough to do so, why doesn’t He? Within Christianity, your answer on these three issues (God’s desire, His ability, and the results) divides Arminians from Calvinists from Universalists, really serious divisions by the way. (Each says yes to two of them and no to the third.)
But that’s the point. Even among believers referring to the same Book, we seem unable to resolve the much greater tensions within our own theology regarding the ultimate evil of hell. Does that make our God untrue? Or does it merely demonstrate that we finite and dull humans still don’t yet fully comprehend our Daddy as much as teenagers like to think they do?
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