Think Free

Let’s put aside the scientific evidence that we can’t really choose between good and evil; what we do is totally determined by physical events in our brain and environment. Since most of us seem to be determinists of that stripe (or accept a soupçon of quantum indeterminacy), we reject that notion outright as incompatible with the scientific facts. But even if one could choose freely—and some theologians counter that God could have given us a kind of free will that doesn’t permit our choices to produce evil—this doesn’t explain any of the evils that don’t result from human choice. Those include every disease that is painful, debilitating, or fatal (e.g., childhood leukemia), and all the natural evils that kill millions (tsunamis, earthquakes, etc.). Theologian Alvin Plantinga argues that the latter are part of the natural order of the earth, but an omnipotent God could let the tectonic plates slide smoothly, eliminating earthquakes and tsunamis, and obviate all the needless suffering of animals. As John Loftus notes, a good God would have made all animals vegetarians.