Monday.....Miscellaneous.....Existence Of Evil....Redux

Some analysts are saying that Israel has three days left to deal with Iran's nuclear weapons program. If the new power plant is fueled the risk of radiation exposure for the Iranian civilian population during an attack might be too great to attempt it. Ahmadinejad has strengthened his defense systems and military capabilities greatly in the past two years. An Israeli attack during the 2008 presidential campaign, if it did not go well, might have resulted in the disastrous election of Barack Obama as President of the United States! So it wasn't pursued. Barack Obama, upon his inauguration, immediately started his campaign of appeasement with a madman. Timetables and extensions of them, threats of sanctions and finally sanctions themselves followed and Israel is in a far worse situation today. The Obama presidency whose policies are ultimately dictated by political concerns is in the predicted disarray. Many opponents of Barack Obama are concerned that he has no abilities whatsoever. Falling out of favor with the public is one thing but total confusion when our national defense is concerned is another. Some commentators still talk about a second term but if a fairly capable non-leftist, non-Alinskyite challeneges, I don't even see that. His political advisers may see strong support in an Israeli attack on Iran as a way back and this would also be Hillary's hour but wisdom at a time like this is what's needed and that has only one source. Nuclear weaponry in the hands of Ahmadinejad has implications beyond Israel. They could provide terrorists with the means to attack us, either here or where our military is. The following blog is from March of 2009 and deals with the existence of evil.  By now, every American should have recognized that life, in it's entertainments and pastimes, should have been altered. Christians should certainly see that Conservative politics is only a band-aid, a salve, a tourniquet and that the infection in the wound is in our fallen nature. Israel may or may not attack Iran. Such an attack might be successful and may be "disaster." What we do know is that terror and evil in others has to be confronted, and evil in our own nature considered. Anthony Flew, of whom this blog was about, died in April of this year. He had come to belief in a God but not in the need for salvation or therefore the means that God had provided. Professor Flew was raised in a religious home and his father was a preacher. There is a great danger in belief in God if one does not consider one's original enmity towards Him.

March 29, 2009

Anthony Flew was the foremost atheist in the world....up until 2004, when he announced that he had changed his mind, there had to be a God. I just finished a book on this "change of mind." called "There Is A God, How The World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind." As of the writing of the book, he had not accepted a "personal God " but admits that the question is still open with him. It is compelling reading. I want to mention just one reason that kept him from belief in God. That issue was the existence of evil. One of the reasons Professor Flew came to theism was the dazzling and the complete interdependence of theories of physics with each other. There simply had to be a creator! Certainly, the same complete interdependence was fashioned by God in His greatest creation, man. If there is "good" there has to be "evil" or the design would be incomplete.  How would one know "love" with the absence of an alternative? How would you know "good" if there was never "bad?" Just as the universe was magnificently complete, so was God's creation of man!  The ability to "love" demanded the ability to "hate" or it would not be love. Man also has the capability to be indifferent, to neither love nor hate. Man can terrorize and take life and he can oppose terror and defend life...and he can be indifferent. The church of Laodicea was neither "cold" nor "hot" but "lukewarm" and God said He would "spit them out of my mouth." We cannot be lukewarm on terror or God's hand will surely depart and we will be consumed, both as individuals and as a nation.  There is no "evil" in heaven, nor will there be any when we are there, but we  will know what it was. We will know His love and goodness (even in a world with evil.)