A Critique of My Argument on the Problem of Evil

I'm having an interesting discussion on this topic with a person named Drew Lewis here, here and also here. See how I responded to him in the comments section and judge for yourself what you think.

6 comments:

openlyatheist said...

"the atheist cannot successfully use the problem of evil against the Christian, because it is either impotent (the internal argument)... etc."

Translation:

"Atheists say, 'God should do better,' but the Bible says God is infallible, so that argument fails."

"Atheists say, 'There is no good reason for God to allow suffering,' but the Bible says God does have good reasons, so that argument fails."

As long as the apologist is in charge of what his imaginary friend believes, wants, and does, and as long as he can use one plot hole of a fairy tale to retcon another plot hole in the fairy tale, he will always imagine the ending he desires.

I've said it before: The Argument From Evil only gives the delusional a chance to flex their imaginations, thus reinforcing the feedback loop of their faith.

I think many ex-Christians will agree: Christians only become atheists when they manage to step out of this loop on their own. I really don't think they can be convinced to do so by debate, for debate fastens them into the position of guarding their feedback loop & deflecting criticism, not examining it.

david said...

I am confused by this recent decision to obligate Drew to restrict quotations in his critique. On one hand you praise him for responding directly to what you wrote, but on the other hand you request that he not cite your book extensively in the review. Why would such tactics be utilized if his arguments are bogus...would it not serve your position if all he did was misquote you and argue ineffectively against you? ;)

Honestly, is your concern really to protect your intellectual property or to limit his ability to critique you on a public platform?

If the latter, I have lost some respect for you John; I hope to be wrong. And yes I know you don't care what I think. :-)

Anonymous said...

david, I said what I did after part three of a projected seven part review of one chapter of my book. I was cautioning him. From the way it looked to me by the time he was done he would be plastering the whole chapter on the web. And I have no guarantees he wouldn't continue doing so with my whole book, chapter after chapter. That's not acceptable. You're not an author or you would understand. No I don't care what you think.

;-)

david said...

That makes sense, I'll talk to Drew and get him to edit some of the old posts to minimize the citations.

Since much of the book material is also on your blog, are you ok if with citing that?

---------------
Side note: follow-up comments on the posts are not being emailed to me for some reason. Just started happening yesterday. Anyone else?

Anonymous said...

david, he can refer to Blog material, of course. I just think it's being more responsible to summarize.

No, I don't get notifications of new posts either.

david said...

Looks like Gmail randomly decided to put all comment notifications from Blogger in the Spam box.