The Problem of Evil and Suffering | William Lane Craig

In this clip, William Lane Craig discusses and debunks the idea that pain, evil and suffering disprove the existence of the good Christian God.

William Lane Craig is an American analytic philosopher, Christian theologian and apologist, and author. He is a Professor of Philosophy at Houston Baptist University and a Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology (Biola University).

At age 16, as a junior in high school, he heard the message of the Christian gospel and yielded his life to Christ. He has spent his career contributing to theological debates, including updating and defending the Kalam cosmological argument for the existence of God.

William Lane Craig has authored and edited over forty books and over two hundred articles published across professional philosophy and theology journals, including The Journal of Philosophy, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Faith and Philosophy, Erkenntnis, and American Philosophical Quarterly. His most recent book is 'In Quest of the Historical Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration'.
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William Lane Craig:
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[larrygerry]

Using his logic, he cant disprove the spaghetti monster behind the moon

[williamvorkosigan]

Atheist's can't disprove god. Facepalm. You can't prove a negative. The claim is yours to substantiate.

[aussiesam]

Asan atheist I don't claim to disprove God. I say that I have not seen sufficient evidence that a god exists. I'm very comfortable with this position. I don't mind if someone else believes in God.

[rexross]

Those who assert must prove. Atheists dont need to prove good doesn't exist, religion needs to prove that God does exist and they simply can't.

[robertholland]

I can prove there are fairies riding unicorns in my garden.
Seen them myself through my hallucinants eyes!

[Coops]

The closing comments say it all. It is because of free will granted to man by God that suffering comes into being. Without suffering there can be no true choice. We could opt to be colourless meaningless robots that have lives where nothing goes wrong. Even God knows suffering when he sent his son to redeem mankind

[hmmmahroof]

Suffering is not a problem of God. Because I am not suffering.

[mimetype]

You can't disprove the existence of Elves. Not even by employing the same dodgy semantic sleight of hand. Bertrand Russell's teapot is real.too, and beckoning you to worship it.

[brookvalley]

If "God" has given us free will, then, perhaps, all suffering is optional. What causes one person to suffer, may not phase another person. Whether or not a person suffers, depends upon how he views the situation. Therefore, a person may use his free will to choose to suffer.

For example, a young man may want to become a Navy Seal. His father points out to him that this will involve a lot of suffering. The young man replies that he knows that this is true, but he is willing to suffer to become a Navy Seal. In fact, learning to endure suffering is part of the attraction of becoming a Navy Seal. And the fact that we can learn to endure suffering demonstrates that our level of suffering is a choice.

The less a person knows about and accepts "Human Nature", the more likely they are to suffer as they are constantly surprised by human behavior. The more experienced person suffers little, because they are no longer surprised by human behavior.

When someone says that something is evil or inhumane, it simply means that they have been surprised.

Therefore, the presence of suffering confirms that God exists and has given us free will to suffer or not to suffer depending upon how we decide to perceive the situation.

[williamlennie]

Of course, none of this is an argument for God. Merely the tired old game of “well you can’t prove He doesn’t exist”.

Atheists, in general, don’t care to prove God doesn’t exist, just as this fellow doesn’t care to disprove the existence the Rainbow Serpent, Mbombo, Pangu, Lord Brahma, the plethora of other theistic creators, or indeed any of the non-creator origin stories of the universe.

To quote Dawkins: "We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."

[Lex-Hawthorn]

Sick of arguing this moot point. Not going there again.

[LordEriolTolkien]

/rolls eyes

Existence cannot arise from non-existence
Existence Exists
Therefore, Existence is Eternal

Thus, it follows that ''Creation'' is both unnecessary and impossible.

God is merely a name for the eternal nature of existence, which is fine, I guess, as far as a it goes, but attributing anything to that name is mere projection of the human imagination.

[mcmendez]

it's ok, they can't disprove, you can't prove 😂

[geraldharrison]

I think Professor Craig is quite right. But I think we can go a step further and say that if there is evil, then God exists (a claim Craig has also made). Ironically, evil creates a logical problem for atheism. Evil is a moral property. But moral properties can't exist in the absence of God. Thus, if there is evil, then God exists. The atheist cannot eat their cake and have it. If atheism is true, no evil exists. But if evil does exist, then atheism is false.

[KevinSolway]

You can't disprove something that is never defined.

Nor can you believe in something that is never defined.

[existnow.]

The only logic is that humankind need to get on top of dying gracefully. We are born. We live. We die. We have such an opportunity to exist and experience life now.. why is now never enough. Because it is. And it is all we have.

[KurtBoulter]

(Romans 1:18-21) "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; {19} Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. {20} For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: {21} Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."

[billyroland]

William isn't actually listening.
When John was making a point in apparently in support of Craig
(About the solder)
finishing of the story Craig interrupts.
Without fully acknowledging what John said.
He just wants to push his view.
William seems more smug.
Than convincing.

[RemusKingOfRome]

If you keep pushing religion, I'm going to have to leave. Glad the Voice was defeated but.

[yarpos]

I am an atheist and don't need to prove or disprove God. I just dont' beleive it. There is also of course the logic fail of putting the onus on atheists to disprove anything, as they are not the ones making the God claim. The onus lies with those making the claim.