Hallquist's open letter on Evil

by bohm 12 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  bohm

  BTS, it is ofcourse a tautology that if there are reasons why not preventing a rape is the moral thing to do, then not preventing the rape is the moral thing to do.

  However none of the two of us (i think) can really think of any reasons that does not strongly rely on special pleading, in the sence none of us would use them ourselves or accept if a bystander attempted to justify his inactions through them. For instance: (read tammys post if you think this is a hopeless atheist making things up):

  • What other sins should i try to prevent? I cannot deside on this question, therefore i will allow this rape to happend.
  • All sins are equally bad, and since i (for some reason) do not prevent lies, i will also not prevent this rape
  • To me, all are sinners. Therefore i will not prevent this rape.
  • I am eventually going to do something about it, therefore i will not prevent this rape right now.
  • If i prevent this rape, he might rape again, or other will rape, and nothing will change. Therefore i will not prevent this rape.

  As hallquist remark, god may have reasons, and the above reasons may make perfect sence to me if i am God (but i truly hope they would not...). The relevant question to ask is how plausible we think it is that the above reasons hold water, and how reasonable we think it is to dismis Gods inactions by referring to (unknown) reasons, especially in the light of how strongly we would think of a human who also took no action in the rape-situation.
• 

  PSacramento

  Psac, we can agree that with or without God, rape is bad, period? And in the case of Kitty, the minimally acceptable thing to do for an onlooker would be to somehow try to prevent the rape by eg. calling the police? In other words, it would be entirely unexcuseable for any onlooker not to try to prevent the rape when the person can do so without being put in harms way?

  I concur that, in our way of seeing things ( for whatever reason we see things this way) it is unaccetable and inexcusable to NOT prevent or stop a rape if one can.

  And I am sure that Capt. Picard and Capt. Kirk would have wrestled with the "prime directive" under those circumstances also.

  I often wondered why God doesn't act under those circumstances and I realised that NO ANSWER is good enough for Us as humans because we firmly believe that god SHOULD/OUGHT to do something if he could.

  But why do we believe that?

  Even the atheist ( even though he doesn't believe in God in any way shape or form) should question as to way ANYONE should get involved when someone else is being wronged.

  Fact is that we dispise people that can fix wrongs and don't, YET, WE DO IT EVERYDAY !
  It is a fact that we can prevent most of the crimes that happen, the illnesses that happen, the deaths that happen ( via violence), the famines and so much more.

  We have the technology to feed the hungry, to give water to the thirsty, to fix the vast majority ( if not all) of socitied problems, so WHY DON'T WE?

  We yell and scream and judge God because, deep down we want someone to take responsibility for US and to fix things for US, but not for EVERYONE, no, JUST FOR US.

  Imagine of you will that God of the fundmenatlist or the muslim extremist as the God that decided to do just that, where would YOU be my friend?
• 

  tec

  • What other sins should i try to prevent? I cannot deside on this question, therefore i will allow this rape to happend.

    All sins are equally bad, and since i (for some reason) do not prevent lies, i will also not prevent this rape

    To me, all are sinners. Therefore i will not prevent this rape.

    I am eventually going to do something about it, therefore i will not prevent this rape right now.

    If i prevent this rape, he might rape again, or other will rape, and nothing will change. Therefore i will not prevent this rape.

  Perhaps I was not clear, but I didn't mean any of these things you said here. In fact, they sound ridiculous laid out like that. I honestly did not mean them in this manner.

  Also, I am not God, and I make mistakes (obviously with communication for certain). I trust Him, and I don't even need to know all the reasons, but I try to understand for those who do... and this - why does God let bad things happen? - is the hardest question ever posed regarding His existence or not. I'm not sure what people think He should do, mind you. No one ever seems to have an answer to that. "But he's God... He should know what to do!" I agree, He should and does. Who says He isn't doing it, though?

  As Burns stated... we don't know even a portion that God knows. We barely know ourselves.

  My guess is that the only way to stop all of the bad things is to stop all of the bad people. But how to do that once, with all people, and for all time? God knows the answer to that question. I do not. I simply trust Him. But I can only guess at the reasons. I think we must change from within, being one. Mercy being another one... and for those who want no mercy shown to some 'bad' people by destroying them, where do they think THEY would stand without God's mercy? Another reason is that God is unwilling to harm the innocent, or if not innocent, then at least those who might still come to Him through His Son.

  God does not want to weed out the bad at the expense of some of the good... so He waits. Until the time that He knows is right, to accomplish his purpose - ending suffering, grief, pain and death.

  In the meantime, we have the power to help people in trouble or in need. If we do nothing to help those in front of us as well as those far away and unseen to us... then we have no right to cast stones toward God, or even toward one another.

  Peace,

  Tammy