We have read about Joshua Coffin praying that God's will be done. But there is another way to look at it.
Coffin's companion, Jan Svoboda:
"Defeat rose in Svoboda's throat like vomit. He told the knowledge over and over, a kind of litany to the malevolent God who had arranged matters in precisely this way." (p. 150)
SM Stirling has argued in earlier comboxes on this blog that we have been naturally selected to discern motives in each other - one man approaches with a smile, another with a frown - and, as an extension of this, we also attribute motives to non-human phenomena. Our ancestors tried to placate gods of the weather.
Many of us now think, on scientific and philosophical grounds, that the causes of natural events do not include any "will," whether benevolent, malevolent or inscrutable.
Coffin and Svoboda can, if they want, argue the matter after the event.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
No, God is the first cause of all things that exist. But He also acts thru or permits secondary causes, such as the natural laws discerned by science, reason, evolution, etc.
Of course we all have to respond to others with some wariness. A man might be smiling and still be dangerous; or a man might be frowning and not be a danger. Bona fides needs to be established before strangers can relax.
Ad astra! Sean
No.
Kaor, Paul!
You should at least agree with my second paragraph, on the need for wariness.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Yes. My "No" was in response to your first paragraph where your "No" was followed by a proposition which you know to be philosophically debatable. I will never start a paragraph with a flat statement like, e.g., "No. God doesn't exist..."! But I will, when appropriate, raise serious philosophical questions about theism.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
We agree at least about the prudence of the need to be wary of strangers--till mutual bona fides were established.
As for theism, there ate at least as many arguments in favor of that as those opposing it.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I know that there are arguments but we each assess them and give our reasons for what we think.
Paul.
Post a Comment