Why Doesn't God Reveal the Reasons For Permitting Evil and Suffering?

[Questioner] And my question is concerning...  earlier you made an allusion to the limitations   of human cognition and epistemology, and whether  or not we are sufficiently justified to determine   whether or not God is justified to permit a  particular evil from happening. And my question   is, why does God not, or why would God not, reveal  his reasons to mankind for permitting particular   evils?[Craig] Well I think there's a couple of  ways to answer that. The question was why doesn't   God reveal the reasons for which he permits evil  and suffering? Well now, think about that for a   minute; would that even be possible? Think of the  complexity! I mean is God going to really kind of   send a telepathic message to all the soldiers  at D-Day telling them all of the reasons for   the suffering and so forth that's going on? Some  of the complexity would be so impossible that we   couldn't even understand it, we couldn't grasp  it if he were to do that. It would also turn the   universe into a sort of haunted house, where  every time you stubbed your toe you got this   telepathic message from God, you know, that this  is why this is happening. I think that's just,   it's crazy when you think about it. Moreover  think about here's another thing, it might   be self-defeating if God did this. Suppose God  told you well the reason I'm going to allow your   daughter to be killed in an automobile accident,  or the reason she was killed is because I want   to bring you and your wife closer together in  your marriage through sharing this common grief,   and therefore you'll be greatly used by  me. And you might be so angry with God for   doing that that you would divorce your wife and  thereby frustrate his purposes, you see what I   mean? Some of these could lead to these sort of  self-stultifying circles where then he wouldn't   have the daughter die in the accident because it  didn't bring about the good, so it's kind of like   Scrooge in Dickens Christmas Carol, when Scrooge  says to the spirit of Christmas yet to come,   "Are these the shadows of things that will be,  or the shadows of things that may be only?" And   the spirit doesn't answer him. Silence. Why?  Well if the spirit had told Scrooge the truth,   "No Scrooge, none of these things are really  going to happen! Tiny Tim isn't going to die!"   We know that from the end of the story; well then  maybe Scrooge wouldn't have repented, right? But   then those things would have happened! So it  would lead into this kind of self-stultifying   situation. So what has God done instead? Well  this is the wisdom of the book of Job, I think.   God doesn't tell Job why he's going through all  this. He doesn't tell him the details. What he   does show him is that you can trust me as you  go through these things. Through the example of   Jesus of Nazareth and his death on the cross and  the assurances that we have of divine providence   and control over human history and life beyond  the grave, God has given us sufficient assurances   and grace to take us through the hard times  without the answers. So I think that God has   done what is sufficient to enable us to live with  suffering without this very difficult problem of   telling everybody every reason for which some  instance of suffering comes into the world.

Channel: drcraigvideos

Views: 39,240

Keywords: Why, Doesn't, God, Reveal, Reasons, Permitting, Evil, Suffering, Problem of Evil, Problem of Suffering, Reasonable, Faith, William, Lane, Craig, Doubt, Philosophy, Atheism, Theism, New Atheists, On Guard, Apologetics

Id: PTwYArFBRaY

Length: 3min 38sec (218 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 20 2012