We’re using the “Handbook of Apologetics” by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli to go over the arguments for the existence of God. Today, we will be covering the above referenced subject in relation to the existence of God. Dr. Kreeft teaches logic in two major universities, so his arguments tend to be clear, concise and very helpful.
Five Possible Solutions
In light of this last formulation of the problem, there are five possible solutions: atheism, pantheism, naturalism, idealism and biblical theism.
1. Atheism is the denial of proposition 1, that God exists.
2. Pantheism is the denial of proposition 2, that God is good and not evil.
3. Modern naturalism and ancient polytheism both deny proposition 3, that God is all-powerful. Ancient polytheism limited God’s power by splitting God up into many little gods, some good, some evil. (A very simple and obvious solution to the problem of evil; why doesn’t it occur to people today, we wonder?) Modern naturalism, such as “process theology,” does the same thing by reducing God to a being of time and growth and imperfection and weakness.
4. Idealism here means the denial of real evil. It comes in various forms, such as Advaita Hinduism, Christian Science and much New Age thinking. All of which say evil is an illusion of unenlightened human consciousness.
5. Finally, biblical theism (orthodox Christianity, Judaism and Islam) affirms all four propositions and denies they are logically contradictory. This can be done if and only if there are some ambiguous terms. We shall try to show in the next few pages that the terms good, evil, all-powerful and happy are used ambiguously.