“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”
–Epicurus Read on…
The first point to take up is what the question asks. Does it mean: “Is God part of the world, do we have rational–and thus communicable, non-mysterious and not inherently private–justification for believing that the claim is true?” Or does it mean the somewhat different question, “Is God real?” And if the latter, what criteria of reality is to be applied to searching out the answer? A problem in approaching the issue is that, as many believers maintain, God is … Read on…