Reason For God

New book! Last week I started reading a book called Reason For God by Timothy Keller. The book is basically a pastor talking about and attempting to answer frequently heard questions about Christianity-but mainly God. Timothy makes a point of not only referencing the Bible for answers, but philosophies,  literature, real life conversations, quotes, and reasoning as well.

Something I have really been enjoying about this book is how well Timothy supports his points. For almost every point he has made (thus far) has been supported by at least 3 of the references listed above. I also enjoy the questions he attempts to answer; such as 'How could a good God allow there to be so much evil and suffering?'. I think he picked good topics and did a good job answering them!

So I want to talk mainly about that question 'How could a good God allow there to be so much evil and suffering?' and how Timothy reveals the greater problem with Non-Believers and world suffering. Here is a quote from page 26:

People, we believe ought not not to suffer, be excluded, die of hunger or oppression. But the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection depends on death, destruction, and violence of the strong against the weak- these things are all perfectly natural. On what basis does an atheist judge the world to be horribly wrong, unfair and unjust? - Timothy Keller

I thought this answer was GENIUS! I had never thought of it that way before, and then it also made me think of a quote I'd read by Einstein in answering the question ' If God created everything, then he created the evil, which means God is evil.':

Does cold exist? In fact, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat.
Does darkness exist? Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness.
Evil does not exist. It is just like darkness and cold. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart - Albert Einstein. 

This book may be quite hard to read (the writing style seems more like a lecture than a personal conversation), but it is very interesting! It is kind of an affirmer in your faith, and it is also good information to know when your faith is challenged.

Lets see how this continues next week!

Melina