The Problem of Evil (was Re: [extropy-chat] Re: John Wright Finds God)

[Brett Paatsch]

John Wright wrote:

> My question to my respected fellow atheists (if I may so call you,
> for I have only departed your company recently) is this: what does
> an honest and rational man do when he has a supernatural experience? 

To me, or perhaps for me, a supernatural experience is or would be
a contradiction in terms. All my experiences, however surprising and
unexpected must be natural to me by definition. My experiences *are*
the stuff out which of I construct my world view. I was a theist before
I became an atheist.  

There is an infinitesimal chance that the Christian God exists. Also that
unicorns exist and that mermaids exist etc.  I think these do not exist.

If I encountered what seemed to be a unicorn or a mermaid I would be
unsettled and I would look for an explanation that would enable me to 
have a cogent world view once again.  In the case a unicorn or a mermaid
I'd probably look for a trick.  If I had an experience that *I* thought 
could be a visit from the Holy Spirit, then I'd keep an open mind but I 
think I'd suspect that something was going wrong with my senses or 
with my mind.

Just about the least likely explanation would be the one that I've been 
culturally primed for.  Perhaps I'd laugh out loud that of all the unlikely
deities the Christian deity which comes with so much baggage would
be the one that my mind was messing with. 

I'd remember lucid dreaming, I'd remember deja vu, and I'd remember
reading or hearing about a bunch of stuff by folk like Carl Sagan, Hume,
and William James that would offer alternate explanations.  

> I ask this in all seriousness. What does one do when overwhelming
> evidence suddenly breaks in on you that your entire system of the
> world, so carefully constructed by materialist rational philosophy 
> over many years of painstaking thought, is utterly wrong and 
> discredited? 

If your entire system of the world gets blown away then you probably
had a pretty shaky world view to begin with. Ultimately no one can
discredit your *entire* world view but you whilst you remain you.
(Think of Descartes method of hyperbolic doubt. Even an evil 
demiurge can't convince you you are wrong in thinking you have
a viewpoint whilst you have it. Your own existence is always your
bedrock certainty even if you do not know what it is that you 
are).  

Atheists and theists have some things in common. They both *know* 
that they exist to have a perspective a viewpoint on the world (whatever
it is) with greater certainty I think than they know anything else.

And there is a consequence of this for you if you become a theist.

You know you exist. You know (I presume) that suffering exists.

(Pace Leibniz with your best of all possible worlds). 

If you believe in the traditional Christian God as the creator, then
you will, if you are a serious thinker, probably have to come to terms
with the problem of evil.  This is NOT a problem for the atheist. 

i.e.. How could evil come to be in a world created by an omnipotent
loving God? 

Brett Paatsch