Next time they say "God is evil", say THIS | John Lennox

yes the world is very Splendid but it also has in it insects whose whole life cycle is to burrow into the eyes of children and make them blind the problem with our world is that we can argue about God being all good all powerful and if he was this he could do that and none of us has ever been satisfied with that kind of an argument as I think you were essentially pointing out and that's because when we've done all the philosophical arguing we're presented with two things that I call Beauty and barbed wire the

video that we're about to watch hits on probably the biggest reason that people don't believe in God it's because we've all suffered it's because we've all faced evil in some way the question is why the even bigger question is if God exists then why is there evil in this world in this video I'm going to answer this question from both an intellectual and emotional level we're going to begin with a clip of stepen fry who you're probably familiar with then stick around pleased to hear Dr John Linux of Oxford University as he responds to the

objection that is raised you need both parts in order for this to really make sense so let's dive in suppose it's all true and you walk up to the Pearly Gates and you are confronted by God what will Steven fry say to him her or it I will basically what's known as The Odyssey I think I I'll say bone cancer in children what's that about how dare you how dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault it's it's not right it's utterly utterly evil why should I respect

a capricious mean-minded stupid God who creates a world which is so full of Injustice and pain that's what I would say and you think you're going to get in no but I wouldn't want to I wouldn't want to get in on his terms they're wrong now if I died and it was it was Pluto Hades and if it was the 12 Greek gods then I would have more truck with it because the Greeks were they didn't pretend not to be human in their appetites and in their capriciousness and in their unreasonableness they didn't present themselves

as being allseen all wise all kind all beneficent because the God who created this universe if it was created by God is quite clearly a maniac utter Maniac totally selfish totally we have to spend our life on our knce thanking him what kind of God would do that yes the world is very Splendid but it also has it insects whose whole life cycle is to burrow into the eyes of children and make them blind that eat outwards from the eyes why why did you do that to us you could easily have made a creation in

which that didn't exist it is simply not acceptable so you know atheism is not just about not believing there is a is not believing there's a God but on the Assumption there is one what kind of God is he it's perfectly apparent that he is monstrous utterly monstrous and deserves no respect whatsoever the moment you banish him your life becomes simpler purer cleaner more worth living in my opinion that sure is the longest answer to that question that I ever got in this entire series let me just say to begin with that I totally understand

why Steven's sentiments resonate with so many people if an all powerful God made the world would that not make God as stated by St fry utterly evil Steven instead chooses rather than believing in that to believe that things simply are as they are the world just is as it is but at the same time he seems very angry about it and he seems angry at God for it so the question becomes does this response in the face of evil actually make sense and does it actually take us anywhere in other words does it actually solve

the problem of evil in order to answer this question let's go to John Linux now I'll let him take it away around the world I find these days and it's very interesting even this week I've been asked to speak on the problem of evil twice out of four because I find that people are hurting they're looking for answers and they find their friends suffering either with a natural catastrophe like a brain tumor or they're raped or they're abused in some way and they're desperately trying to come to terms with it I find it a very

hard problem it's the hardest problem I face and I do not think atheism soles it except in a fairly trivial way it says well that's just how the world is but you see what atheism doesn't do is it doesn't remove the pain and the suffering and I'm faced very often with people who've just been given a few weeks to live or months to live and they want answers they want to put this into a big picture and I can understand that and if I didn't feel there was any way into this question I wouldn't sit

here for a millisecond I wouldn't sit here for a millisecond because my heart really goes out to people who are on the rough end of suffering and the problem with our world is that we can argue about God being all good all powerful and if he was this he could do that and none of us has ever been satisfied with that kind of an argument as I think you were essentially pointing out and that's because when we've done all the philosophical arguing we're presented with two things that I called Beauty and barbed wire we're presented

with a mixed World in a mixed picture and we have to try to make sense of it now I would claim that atheism superficially appears to have a solution but deep down has no solution because it leaves the Suffering The Suffering doesn't go away but it removes all hope and to come as rapidly as I can to the point because I think this is a huge question and deserves a lengthy time devoted to it I arrived in Christ Church New Zealand two days after the earthquake I had to meet people who' lost their husbands or

their wives and every interview I did on radio and television was earthquakes why and that's a very difficult question because earthquakes are necessary for the preservation of human life and when you factor that in there comes a huge question could God not have made a world in which this kind of thing doesn't happen couldn't he have made a world in which human beings don't do these awful things to one another well the answer to the latter question is of course he could we can make such worlds they're called robotic worlds but they're no humans in

them we're wishing ourselves out of existence if we say could God not have made a world in which people are incapable of doing evil because evil is the flip side of the capacity to do good and so the Deep question for me is this granted that there's Beauty in barbed wire is there any evidence anywhere in the universe that there is a God who could be trusted with it and my very brief answer um Betsy to that is this that at the heart of Christianity there is a cross and whatever that tells you if the

central claim of Christianity is correct that Jesus is God incarnate then that's God on a cross and I asked myself the question what's God doing on a cross well one thing it tells you is that God has not remained distant from the problem of human suffering but has himself become part of it now if that were the end of the story I would have nowhere to go but it's not the end of the story the central evidence for the truth of Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and that opens up the huge

possibility that ultimately Justice is going to be done and when we're talking about ethics and morality this to my mind is the most important factor in the situation that Justice is going to be done and I put it to Richard Dawkins uh that just is the first thing that comes into my head and he said well I fight for justice in this life I said so do I but Richard you've no ultimate hope of justice so that the vast majority of people who've ever lived never adjust Us in this life and there's no future existence

for them to get Justice in so they're never going to get Justice and their Cry For Justice from the gas chambers of out shets or anywhere else is proved to be an illusion I simply don't believe that and I believe there's evidence that the contrary is to there is a God who will ultimately do fairness so I think that's not a solution to the problem of evil but I believe it's a powerful way in because I've seen it change lives and give people hope this is the atheist Paradox presented in this video by acknowledging the

existence of evil atheists implicitly recognize a moral standard by which actions or events are judged as evil in other words to call something evil you must have an idea of what is good so the fact that we can actually recognize evil when we see it points to God because in order to be able to recognize evil it's suggests that there is a moral order it suggests that there is a moral law and therefore a source for that law a lawgiver now to address this Paradox atheists might adopt one of the following positions you might hear

that moral values are relative but not objective but this undermines the argument from Evil because it erases the concept of evil so if there isn't really evil then what are we even talking about what is Step even mad at God for and so on second you might hear that good and evil can exist independently of God that's also popular on the internet that perhaps they're grounded in well-being or human flourishing but there's a problem with this approach as well and that is that it assumes that well-being is inherently a good thing and good is precisely

what needs to be explained in a Godless framework so declaring that human flourishing is a moral good presupposes a standard of good that materialism cannot explain in other words if well-being is considered good one must ask why is it good what makes well-being an objective good rather than just a preference without a Transcendent Source there is no moral law there's no real good or evil and thus there's no basis for declaring well being or human flourishing as objectively good or calling it good so I hope you guys can see how this remains a circular argument

it's putting the cart before the horse I hope you can see how this is actually self refuting at an intellectual level now at a more personal level I will fully admit that being a Christian doesn't magically give someone an answer to every question or fully explain everything that happens in life some things that happen on this planet really are horrible and I would never want to gloss over that or to relativize evil in that way in fact this is one of the things that I appreciate about Christianity that I love about Christianity is that it

faces the problem of evil squarely and it shows us that God is Not absent in our suffering if Christianity is true then God has has done something for us in Christ in his death and Resurrection there is a gift offered to us that we can be forgiven for our contributions to the problem of evil there's a promise made to us that Justice will be ultimately served in the face of evil and there's a hope for the day that is coming when evil will be fully eradicated and all things will be made new for now we

see in part then we will see face to face so please please do not allow this issue to cause you to hate God use this issue as a reason to seek his face cast your cares upon him because he cares for you he was willing to die for you he's definitely willing to listen to questions and to objections and to problems that you might have with them because I also have been in this position of the person shaking my fist at God and I'm just telling you bring your stuff to God let him sort it

out he's good at doing that he's great and greatly to be praised and he can turn your mourning into dancing he can turn your sorrow into joy and he can take the things that you think are insurmountable obstacles and level them entirely at the foot of the cross and leave you in a place of Wonder and amazement and joy as you're actually encountering a living God not just an idea a living God so that's my entire Mission behind this channel is I want people to encounter the God that I have to understand the nature and

character of God through the lens of Jesus Christ through the promise of his death and resurrection and so I could go on but if you guys appreciate this type of video this type of content I strongly strongly encourage you to consider joining us in the wisdom Society it is a community of Believers from around the world who are meeting together weekly in basically digital meeting rooms like Zoom calls and we're discussing these types of difficult topics we're aiming to grow together there's a lot of of different components inside of the wisdom society that I've put

together and I constructed it in a way that I hope will be the biggest blessing possible to you guys including connecting you the audience with the experts and authors mentioned and and featured on this channel frequently so that the conversation can go a level deeper I hope you'll appreciate it and I hope that you'll give it a gander check out the link is in the description of this video if you're interested in that thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one [Music]