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The Problem With Evil

4/23/2013

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    When the question of if God exists arises, philosophers and skeptics 
    very often will raise one question above all others. The problem of evil: 
    that is, how a God that claims to be all-good can allow evil to exist.
       
    They will bring up the holocaust in World War 2  and the killing fields of 
    Cambodia, or any instance of the plethora of evil that has shown its face 
    in our world and ask "how can your God, who claims to be both 
    omnipotent (all-powerful)  and omniscient (all-knowing) allow this to 
    occur if he is also all-good?" That is the question: how can He? If one 
    were all-good and all-powerful, certainly he would end evil- he would 
    have to.  To us, in our day and age, this is a no-brainer.  

    One need look no further than the recent uproar at Penn State, where an 
    iconic football-coach was fired because a former staffer was arrested 
    for sexually assaulting boys in the locker room over a period of years. 
    Joe Paterno was not involved, and he informed his bosses when he 
    found out -as the law required- but he did not call the police, and was 
    therefore guilty of breaking a “moral law” by allowing this to continue to 
    happen.

    How much more, then, would an all-knowing and all-powerful God be 
    guilty of such crimes? Certainly, if he were omnipotent and omniscent he 
    could not be all-good and let this evil happen.

    “In the beginning…” these are the first words of the Bible. They establish 
    not a book of science, noting facts and figures as some would have us 
    believe, nor a book of philosophy- although it certainly contains some of 
    that as well. However, the Bible is primarily a narrative, a story. From 
    this starting point, the Bible takes us on a journey through the ages, 
    ending at some point in the future in the book of Revelation.   

    To understand why God allows evil, one must put down the philosopher’s 
    pipe and clear their throat and tell a story. Not any old story, mind you, 
    but an epic story, for that is what the Bible is- the ultimate battle between 
    good and evil.

    Before man had math and science, he had stories.  We are created with 
    this love of the narrative, an innate love which no evolutionary 
    advancement has weaned us from. Only our technologies have 
    changed, moving from an oral tradition, to the printing press and now to 
    television, movies and the internet. No matter its venue, the art of story is 
    what makes us who we are and is passed on from generation to 
    generation.   

    What kind of book(s) would The Lord of the Rings be without the “black 
    lord of Mordor” or Harry Potter without “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”? 
    Any story worth its salt has a character of overwhelming evil who 
    contributes to an utterly hopeless situation; that is where the story is 
    born; it is a key element of good storytelling. J.R.R. Tolkien created the 
    world of Middle Earth, a beautiful and tragic land where millions of 
    readers get lost for days on end each time they read it. Does it make 
    him evil because he allowed evil to flourish in this land for most of the 
    book? Or, in reality, does it make him a master storyteller? If we are but 
    characters in God’s story, some of us may perish, like those in the 
    attack of Isengard, victims who fall before the great evil sweeping over 
    the land, but a few of us may play a larger role in furthering the story that 
    the Author has set before us.

    If God does exist, as the Bible insists, then there is ample evidence that 
    he uses storytelling as his way of communicating to us (the Bible). There 
    is also ample evidence that man is universally predisposed to narrative 
    as a means of communication, since it exists in all known cultures 
    throughout history. Therefore, it stands as completely logical that God 
    can remain all-good and be both omnipotent and omniscient while 
    allowing evil to exist in this world because it furthers his eternal 
    narrative.  
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Dr. Who and Jesus Christ

4/23/2013

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    There are few TV shows I refuse to miss – really there is only one, 
    Dr. Who.  To those of you have never seen this cultural icon of the 
    BBC… It is the story of a time lord, the last of his kind, a humanoid 
    alien who travels with a human companion through both space and 
    time.

    The series started in the 1960’s  and restarted a few years ago with 
    much better special effects and for the most part, a killer story 
    line.  One week he will be fighting witches with Shakespeare and 
    the next he could be stopping cat nurses in New New York from 
    breeding humans as vaccine incubators.

    Dr Who is written in an agnostic/atheistic viewpoint which makes 
    the following statement that much more ironic- pretty much in 
    every show, the Doctor reflects Jesus Christ.

    Now this is not an iron clad description – the Doctor has faults – the 
    show wouldn’t last very long on TV if he didn’t (nothing duller than 
    perfection on a TV show).  But if you look at the similarities they 
    are unmistakable:

  • Neither were what we consider impressive or superhero looking, 
    they don’t wear capes or have massive muscles, matter of fact they 
    both would be the last guy in the room who you would expect to 
    save the world.  Christ was born in a manger, son of carpenter from 
    Bethlehem. The Doctor travels in a 1950’s police box and wears a 
    bow tie.
     
  • They both love the human race- The Doctor gets giddy about 
    humans and is continually fascinated by them. He loves them so 
    much, he is willing to die for them –every week. And Christ did 
    sacrifice himself on the cross to save humanity from their sins.

  • The doctor never uses a gun, only a screw driver (a sonic screw 
    driver, no less). He is the master of the plan even if it takes forty 
    years for his plan to come together (as in Blink). Christ, too, is the 
    master of the plan but on a much larger scale (aka all of human 
    history).

  • They both conquered death.  When a time lord dies, he rejuvenates 
    into a new body (this is how the series keeps going for almost 50 
    years and with 11 different actors). But while this occasional season 
    ending phenomenon is impressive, it was even more so when Christ 
    died, because when he conquered death, he conquered it for us too.

  • The Doctor has human companions as he travels through time and 
    they help him on his many adventures, sometimes playing a pivotal 
    role.  Christ, too, asks us to be his companions in the adventures of 
    this life. He asks us to go out into the world and make disciples of all 
    men.  In many ways this is more dangerous than facing Daleks and 
    Cybermen.    

  • Though he hides it most of the time, once in a while the true power 
    of the Doctor is revealed.  He will stand up to the enemies of 
    mankind and claim this world as his protectorate and that this simple 
    human species is under his lordship.  Christ too has claimed this 
    world; he is the Lord of lords and King of kings.

    There are so many others examples I could not list them all.  From 
    end of season 3 when the entire world rose up in one voice saying 
    “Doctor, Doctor, Doctor…" (Every knee shall bow and proclaim Jesus 
    Christ is Lord), to the fact that the Doctor gives every enemy a 
    chance at repentance before he destroys them, just as Christ gives 
    us the same.

    The similarities between this work of fiction and the Messiah are 
    undeniable. Perhaps this is mere coincidence, just the happenstance 
    ramblings of a collection of gifted writers. Or perhaps it is a small 
    statement buried deep under the language and imagery of atheistic 
    secular humanism. Then again, maybe it is just the figment of my 
    own mind, searching for any straw of faith in the barren wasteland 
    of modern television. Any of these could be true, but as for me – I 
    believe.
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    Steven Van Haitsma

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