Kansas City Faith Blogger Struggles With Problem Of Evil Amid Holy Week

When former newsman Bill Tammeus commits to writing about purely theological issues, he's the very best scribe on the topic in Kansas City. 

However . . . Just like most of us . . . And very much like enjoying the modeling work of hottie Candice, the temptation to delve into culture war partisan debate is often too enticing. 

Still . . . 

In his latest post, the newspaper scribe shares a thoughtful book review along with an ancient dilemma:

"A primary concern of any theology must have to do with how to explain suffering and evil in the world if God is both good and powerful. The reality is that there simply is no exhaustive answer to that, at least not one that satisfies everyone. It's common for people of the three Abrahamic faiths today simply to say that most of the evil in the world is a result of the reality that human beings have free will and often make choices that produce terrible results -- suffering, slavery, poverty, ignorance, war, crime and on and on.

"But many theologians say that that answer doesn't let God off the hook. They still want to know why God permits it. (And the joke answer doesn't tell us much: The world was God's science fair project -- on which he got a D.)"

Again . . . We really like this post . . . Our only minor quibble amid this crisis of conscience . . . Eternal questions about the nature of any deity are deeper than just outright objection to those who would claim that "choice" is the root cause of evil. 

There's also the problem of evil as it pertains to those who had no choice in their suffering and cases wherein a choice wasn't inflicted upon them . . . Youngsters coping with cancer or any kind of serious illness is an all too common circumstance wherein even people of profound faith struggle to answer the evil/choice dichotomy.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

 Faith Matters Blog: Another season of struggling to explain evil, suffering