{"id":1075,"date":"2007-03-05T18:32:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-05T18:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/2007\/03\/05\/problem-of-evil-the-mystery-move\/"},"modified":"2007-03-05T18:32:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-05T18:32:00","slug":"problem-of-evil-the-mystery-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/2007\/03\/05\/problem-of-evil-the-mystery-move\/","title":{"rendered":"Problem of evil – “the mystery move”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently pointed out that the fact that there’s a mystery about why there is anything at all (I’ll assume for sake of argument this is<\/span> a mystery) in no way allows theists off the hook so far as the problem of evil is concerned.<\/span><\/p>\n

To admit ignorance concerning why there is anything at all is not to concede that we can’t rationally rule certain explanations out<\/span>. It seems to me we certainly can rule out the Judeo-Christian God, as traditionally defined. Whoever created the universe, it certainly wasn’t him.<\/p>\n

Mark Vernon<\/a> defends his agnosticism by saying, in effect, “But sophisticated theists don’t say God is all-powerful and all-good. In fact they sensibly don’t say anything about him at all<\/span>. So you haven’t shown their “mystery God” doesn’t exist, have you?” Here’s Vernon:<\/p>\n

My point is that all images of God must be done away with. So, no: you can\u2019t agree on what a true God is. Again, the great theologians say this: God is always wholly other. You might approximate. But then you have to do away with your approximations too. God is beyond human comprehension else not God.<\/span><\/p>\n

But now here’s my question: what is the difference between the atheist who admits there is indeed a fascinating mystery about why there is anything at all, a mystery to which they do not have the answer, and Vernon’s theist who says there’s a mystery about why there is anything at all, and calls this mystery “God”?<\/span><\/p>\n

Surely the difference is entirely trivial and semantic?<\/span><\/p>\n

By the way, Mark seems to think that the mystery of existence is one that just doesn’t much grip atheists. Of course it does. I just spent some time reviewing Bede Rundle’s Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing<\/a><\/span> for Philosophical Review<\/a><\/span>. Rundle is an atheist, yet he’s clearly gripped by the question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently pointed out that the fact that there’s a mystery about why there is anything at all (I’ll assume for sake of argument this is a mystery) in no way allows theists off the hook so far as the problem of evil is concerned. To admit ignorance concerning why there is anything at all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-problem-of-evil","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}