Talk:Problem of evil

"Christian Science" does not belong under Christianity.

Christian Science disagrees with Christianity on a great many major points, including the existance of Hell or evil, and the deity of Jesus Christ (and almost everything else, except the historicity of the Bible). Christian Science is therefore not part of Christianity. In fact, I don't think they're part of Christendom, either. Editors, please keep your religions straight.192.197.54.32 (talk) 04:50, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

While Christian Science disagrees with some beliefs of traditional religions, to call it NON-Christian is not accurate. Its interpretation of the deity of Jesus is often misunderstood. It does claim that Christ did order his disciples to heal the sick and raise the dead in his name. Perhaps the critic does not know that it also accepts the virgin birth of Christ. Its concept of distinguishing Jesus of Nazareth and his Christ nature is not new. Jesus referred to his humanity when he called himself "the son of man" and his unique status as Christ when he said, "I and my Father are one." He also said when asked, "Good master...' "Why do you call me good. Matt 19:17 and the original Greek is clear even while it is ignored in several modern translations - "New International." He says, "There is none good but one, even God." "The Greek says, "Oudais agathos ei me eis o Theos." I studied both traditional Christianity and so-called non-traditional. There was much discussion in the early Church on the nature of Christ and on many doctrines that traditional Christians believe. As for a literal hell and heaven, consider what Jesus said of heaven. Luke 17:20-21 "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." This business of Christian Science as Christian or not is a hot topic, but out of scope for this topic of the problem of evil SimonATL (talk) 15:16, 26 December 2010 (UTC)

Argument for the Goodness of God

There should be some discussion in the article that demonstrates why an all powerful god should also be a good god. It could be the opposite really.Thus Spake Good (talk) 16:37, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

I have an intro metaphysics text (The One and the Many, Clarke) that addresses the goodness of God. Is this the sort of thing you're looking for? carl bunderson (talk) (contributions) 19:02, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

picture

Why is there a picture of a deer in this article? It seems completely out of place here. Sk00byd0 (talk) 04:32, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately, it's hard to get images that directly portray philosophical concepts. We don't have any pictures of a trapped, burning deer in great suffering due to events beyond its control, let alone a picture that asks "How could this be allowed to happen"?

We also have a picture of a sculpture of the head of some dead greek guy. Lacking an image that directly portrays the epicurean paradox, it's the best we can do. bobrayner (talk) 10:51, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Is it good to have a picture for something abstract like that? carl bunderson (talk) (contributions) 16:55, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Picture is way too abstract. It should be deleted. ParaRaride (talk) 19:03, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

The Bible

Under The Bible headline it states that "...I bring prosperity and create disaster: I, Yahweh, do all these things". It then goes on to say "assuming natural disasters are evil". A non sequitur? I propose eliminating the last part unless someone can produce a source for the bible stating that god only intervenes in "natural" disasters. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thafrenchman (talk • contribs) 09:40, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

== A religious, not a logical problem There is no logical 'problem of evil' and I would like this article to address that. Evil is empirically given. For instance, Epicurus probably wanted to indicate the problem with the new theoretical concept that was emerging in his days, of an infinitely good and powerful God. There was, and still is, no such problem with the classical gods. 188.126.207.212 (talk) 16:22, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Atheism

Might it be worth making a bit more of the Atheist conclusion here. In particular, if one simple assumes that there is no god, then the entire problem of evil vanishes at a stroke; the resolution is trivial. Or am I missing something? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.171.29 (talk) 06:30, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Could you clarify what you mean? Are you trying to say that the article is making an Atheist conclusion? Or that it should make more of Atheist conclusion? I don't think it's saying that if one simply assumes there is no god then evil disappears. It takes into account the paradox between a benevolent god and an evil world. Do you have a specific portion of the text you are wondering about? Jhunt47 (talk) 01:29, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Break apart

I think the article is really lengthy and quite specific. I think it would add to the information to put the "By Religion" (at least) on a separate article. Thoughts? Jhunt47 (talk) 01:32, 10 February 2011 (UTC)