Michael Rea - Skeptical Theism

If God exists and if God is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-good, why horrendous evil? If it is good to know God, why is God hidden? Skeptical theism is the claim that we puny humans, with three-pound brains of corruptible meat, cannot comprehend a Creator God. Or is skeptical theism another religious rationalization trying to explain the unexplainable?



Michael Rea is Rev. John A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame.


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[celsogoncalves]

The thing with theism is that it's mostly not concerned with academical reasoning.
People don't go to church to seek a reform of the foundations of their religion because people are suffering somewhere.

[uremove]

Seems to me sceptical theism is only like “we don’t know” in science. For example “How do we reconcile the different predictions of Quantum Mechanics and Relativity?”
We don’t know! It doesn’t mean science is fatally flawed, it’s just - a problem.
Defences like the “free will defence” are possible solutions, like quantum gravity might be for QM and Relativity. However, they may not satisfy everyone.

[Daniel-ibnt]

I totally agree to the point that if an all knowing god exists, there most certainly will be things whose consequences we cant understand. Therefore it can totally be plausible that the best and most honest answer is: "We dont know", so this answer is no logical issue which can be used to refute gods existence. Nevertheless, I also dont think that this argument can be used to gain credibility for the existence of god. There are far less possible scenarios in which it would be appropriate for god to allow evil and therefore other theories (without a god) are far more likely.

[johnjumper]

My problem is Ive pondered this for years and now Im just tired of the whole circular discussion. Im definitely a christian but feel very fatigued of late.

[michaelhall]

Some years ago there was a big earthquake in a South American capital that trapped a small boy and his grandfather in their building’s basement when the upper floors collapsed on top of them. The grandfather was likely already dead by the time rescue workers heard the child’s faint cries, and after several days of frantic digging the boy also died before they could reach him. Rea insists that we don’t “know” enough or are too limited to judge God’s willingness to let him perish of dehydration after all that time spent terrified in the dark with his grandfather’s corpse; perhaps he’s even right. But he deceives himself if he thinks that essential dodge is any whit more sophisticated or satisfying than “God works in mysterious ways, ” whatever fancy rhetoric he chooses to employ to defend it. As a Christian confronted with the question of why God allows (or even inflicts) suffering he might do better to quote God’s answer to Job and just leave it at that.

[youtubetrailerpark]

If we were able to know and understand everything, then we would be Gods. "But there is no God", you say. See the problem? It's pretty arrogant and unreasonable to believe we can understand everything.

[readynowforever]

Okay, let’s just say that kind of “god” exist, the one that allows horrific sufferings, because this “god” has reasons far beyond the intellectual comprehension of Earthly humans, well okay, but what would justify praying to this kind of “god”, because it pretty much seems like this “god” has its mind made up?

What sense does it make for us to pray for something we want, doesn’t this omniscient “god” know what’s best...(I mean that’s the argument that is made here to justify this “god’s” inaction on atrocity)...(& let me repeat my first question) and isn’t this omnipotent “god” going to do what this “god” wants to do anyway at the end of the day ?

[dustinellerbe]

The most honest postion to hold, is to not make excuses for your God belief, and change your mind based on the evidence against your position.

[paulbrocklehurst]

How is this guy sceptical of his faith AT ALL? He's asked a simple question: _How could any all loving God permit so much evil being perpetrated against the innocent?_ e.g. Child abuse by priests again & again & again & simply stand back acting *precisely* as if he is imaginary & be thought of as just? His answer: _"Well who are we to judge?"_ (i.e. Answering with a question) to which I say: _Well who are we _*_not_*_ to when all of these scenarios are indistinguishable from what we should expect if there were no god at all?_

[jamessmith]

Only One God has shown His love for us... John 3:16

[nathanwest]

I have never before heard a solution to the problem of pain that I find compelling. But I have thought of one. Hypothetically, if this is a simulation. And if those of us who are conscious are Source players, then the problem of pain could be explained easily. To choose to play the game of life is to consent to the suffering for the sake of the experience. These three points. Suffering is consensual, temporary, and illusory. I’ve already addressed consent. It is temporary because the illusion of time is a fundamental quality of this matrix dream. And illusory because no real harm is happening to the player, only to the aviator meat machines we call our bodies. This is a good answer. But it depends entirely on rather we are in a simulation or not. I think probably are

[SRAVALM]

I wonder if Robert could ever consider making a video regarding himself, reflecting on his journey and the many stones he's flipped over, contemplating on what path of direction he's most intrigued to continue seeking. I want to hear his wisdom, insight, conjecture, interpretation concerning the All.
After 900 videos I feel sad that Robert found nothing other then a question leading to another question.
I don't think science will make a person believe in the Divine, but those who do, Science streghthens their connection to the Supernatural. Atleast for me it does.

[lauterunvollkommenheit]

The problem is the Bible contains many answers to the question "why is there suffering in the world?". True, they're mostly horrible, but I don't think a Christian can pretend not to know them.

[rumidude]

@6:42 "I don't know enough ..."
Yep! And yet he resists applying that to the rest of his beliefs.

[xspotbox]

Every god in history turned out to be evil in one way or another, without a single exception, either because they were stupid, destined to fight arch nemesis or they simply didn't like the world at some stage.
God doesn't exist, but most people still believe they suffer because they were not good enough and must have done something wrong. It's like things are good and bad, except we think bad must be condemned and punished somehow. Why do we separate good and bad in a first place, specially if it's of no concern to us personally?
God is all powerful, so only thing he can be angry at are his own mistakes. Nobody ever talk about if God can make a mistake, it's normal and we don't have any idea how creation works anyway, so we can't tell if it could be done better or not. God doesn't need to explain anything, we have our problems and he has his own troubles.
Worst evil is corrupt government, not nature or bad people. We can't do much against nature, but can fight back if attacked by other person. Except this is not quite true, civilians are not allowed to solve own problems, every society is governed by professionals who investigate, judge and punish evil instead of civilians. They also praise and reward people who are supposed to be good, those are usually government employees. So we should ask ourselves, what happens if corrupt government prosecute and torture good people and reward bad guys, how can we stop that kind of perversion? I don't think we can, because "we" the people doesn't really exist, human beings need some sort of hierarchy to organize and lead crowds.
This means many times we know a true evil, but we're not allowed to take revenge or even stop it. And many times we think we do good by fighting against evil, but we're actually manipulated to attack and repress good man who tried to worn us of a real danger, those being the leaders and authorities in who we trust. And it's all because of that myth i mentioned at beginning, good God is always a totally destructive and incredibly violent force or nobody would respect him. Evil exist or not, something is wrong with us humans in general.

[paulweston]

Evil exists, and is perpetuated by human beings. When a Lion eats a gazelle, it is not doing it from malice, it is doing it to survive. It does not have the capacity to have empathy for it's food. Only humans have malice, we have the free will to have empathy or not. We do have that capability, I do not have to kick you when you are down, I simply choose to, or give you a hand up. If there is a devil, he can be found in the nearest mirror.

[johnbrzykcy]

I'm still trying to "wrap my head" around the idea of skeptical theism. I think it may be a reasonable view because in many areas of life we use skepticism as a means to "explain" our lack of knowledge. But of course what is hidden today may be knowledge tomorrow.

[bozo]

There's no evidence that God didn't completely screw up the Creation.

[owencampbell]

There's a battle field out there that evidently reveals the testimony of what he mentioned being raised believing, and that's the main point I mean we should focus on. Then each individual has no other choice if he ain't aware that, that's the main reason for why he thinks in a certain way and cannot let go of the inserted informations from birth on. We should by now begin, to understand why, all human way of thinking is manipulated through very simple teachings at a stage, were the mind had its most free space on the main ports that are responsible for our decissions. The way we try to explain reality is just taught to us, blinding the truth of our perception, because the discoveries made but not correctly understood seem to be the answer to problems and no other explanation. But we see and can comprehend that the more we discover, we are lead through manuals of our life and not our own decissions, we develope a wrong view and awareness. It's no big harm, it's just a manipulated life aside reality. The problems it brings are the battle fields today, about reality, beliefs, perceptions, mathematics etc.

[mykrahmaan]

The rabbit I caught definitely had only three legs. The capacity of humans to invent new ways to defend fatalism is inexhaustible.