The taste of the tempting...

I'm currently working through a Sunday School class where the class is sorting out some implications of God's self-love. Last week, we started getting into the 'tough stuff' and were talking about God's providence. As class got into the real fun stuff (God's governing providence and natural and specific evil), things got really tense, as they often do. Ideas abounded and comments came freely, and I caught myself reflecting and wondering why it is that the things that are the most empirically obscure are the things that everyone wants to know the most?

I mean, I often get into discussions and debates with non-Christians and the problem of the loving and sovereign God and evil comes up as much as the attacks on Biblical Creation. So many non-Christians approach the problem of God and evil as this anvil upon which all apologetics are smashed and yet even the best scholars don't have a systematic and comprehensive answer for the dilemma. There are definitely some GREAT answers out there, but I constantly wonder how the anti-theist ignores all their gigantic philosophical and epistemological dilemmas and focus on one major 'mystery' of Christendom; the specific plans of God. I mean, secular philosophy has all but abonded questions of epistemology, orgins, metaphysics and everything else...they don't believe that there is any absolute truth, they don't believe that there are true answers to any question, they don't know who they are, why they are here, or even if there is a 'here' in the first place...BUT they demand to know the hidden purposes of God. Is that ironic or what? Hmm...I have a several hour drive coming up in a day and I suspect that I'll have some more time to reflect on this. None the less, mankind is pretty silly and hypocritical, at least in the areas of intellectual pursuits:

"We don't believe that there are any answers to anything but we demand that you give us the answers to the ultimate questions!"

Ha! Life sure must be frustrating for the Pagan...that must be why there's so much entertainment. If one removed the entire entertainment and professional sports and music industries so that all that free time would be spent as time to reflect and think, there would probably be a lot more depressed people in society...no wait. Almost everyone is already depressed. I guess there'd be a lot more crime and suicides...hmmm. I'll have to think more on this. Any comments from all you folks who laid it down on 'the truth about E'? I know you're out there! Until Next Time,

The Armchair Theologian