Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 15:17:48 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Weigand <mweigand@usa.net>
From: mail.usa.net@usa.net
Subject: Re: Fw: God and atrocities
To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu,
        Racial-Religious-EthnoNationalist Violence
	Studies
	<revs@csf.colorado.edu>
In-Reply-To: <19951212121514480.spector@nwi.calumet.purdue.edu>
Regarding the request for information on God and atrocities, in my Sociology of 
Religion course I refer to an article by Mackie which deals with this 
fundamental flaw in Christian theology. Christian theologians generally
agree that the following statements are true: 

God exists
God is omniscient (all knowing)
God is omnipotent (all powerful)
God is is benevolent (prefers/intends goodness over evil)
Much evil exists in the world (moral evil, suffering of innocents)


Criticism of the above belief system: One of these statements must be false for 
the belief system to be logically consistent. Which statement, then, is 
incorrect?

This criticism is answered by theologians in several different ways, which I 
will not list here unless there is more interest. In any case, none of the 
theological answers is satisfactory because each answer invalidates one of the 
other statements.