Summer Theodicy Meme
6 June 2008 - 4 סיון 5768 by Huw
And a reminder - the posting deadline is 15 June. We’ve two respondents, anyone else?
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Now! Here’s a meme for you! I picked it up at Jspot. I’m not going to tag people because this isn’t the sort of thing we can respond to in a couple of easy blurbs.
Sign up here to respond by June 15th: post your name in the comments to this post. I will repost these questions on June 15th… and, hopefully, my own attempt at an answer. If you do not have a blog (Fr E, Donald!) and you want to respond to this meme - I will be happy to allow you a guest post on that day - or else you may post in the comment section on that day. There are some bloggers I’d like to hear from (Bp Alan, Elizabeth!), but I think this needs to be a voluntary thing.
I will repost this invitation every few days. June 15th is the day.
1. if the nature of god is omnipotent, benevolent, and anthropomorphic (that god is a person, who sees suffering as wrong, and can change all of it), why does god not act to relieve all suffering, or at least the greatest amount of suffering for the greatest amount of people the greatest amount of time?
2. if you were god, and you were omnipotent and benevolent, how would you respond to suffering?
3. if this is not the nature of god, what is the nature of god, that allows suffering in the world?
4. if these are the wrong questions to ask, what are the right ones?
I sent Huw an e-mail with some comments for the meme, incomplete as they are. So, I guess I am signing up.
Does that mean you want me to post the long note you sent (on the due date, that is) or do you want to write a new essay yourself to post on that day?
Let me try to write a small essay to send you. But, if I don’t make it, post the note on the 15th. I will admit that the note is heavy on the philosophy, so maybe I should work on it some.
I’m in. Wrote something the computer just ate (an act of God?) My reflections will be more immediate than global, close-ups from walking the Camino in Spain and now visiting AIDS projects in Malawi.
love,
donald