Many believers strive to demonstrate that an all good God can exist, even in a world where evil occurs every millisecond.
In a YouTube video at 23:40, John Lennox made an astonishing claim in response to why is there evil and suffering in the world.
To justify the existence of moral evil (evil caused by human actions), he said :
Surely, God could have created us, if there is a God, without all this capacity for moral evil. Of course, he could. You can do it.
You can create a robotic world where there’s no morality at all, and there’s no good and no evil. But, and here’s this here’s the catch.
God could create a world of robots and machines, but you wouldn’t be in that world because you are a human being.
I think CS Lewis was dead right here. I found him so helpful in many things, that if you’re going to have a world where love is possible, it must be a world where hate is possible.
You cannot avoid that.
CLAIMS:
1. We would be a robots in a world where there’s no good and no evil.
2. If you’re going to have a world where love is possible, it must be a world where hate is possible.
Analyze:
John Lennox seems unaware that he undermines fundamental religious truths.
Lennox said : ” We would be a robots in a world where there’s no good and no evil.“
In almost all religions, heaven is depicted as a place where evil does not exist and where humans cannot commit evil acts. It is often described as a state of perfect harmony, peace, and union with God. Pain and suffering does not exist at all. The Bible describes heaven in great detail in Revelation chapters 21–22. We have the promise that, in the eternal state, we will never experience death, sorrow, crying or pain . Does this even look like a robotic world at all ?
So, the conclusion is : God can indeed create a better world where everyone would be happy, full of energy, satisfied, and, of course, not be robots.
One more thing. If you can’t do something, it doesn’t mean you are a robot. I have a free will to choose to run faster than the speed of light, but I can’t. Am I robot than? If God made me in such a way that I can’t do evil, would I be a robot than? Of course not, in fact, I would become a better version of myself. What would be different, I would have options to do only good deeds.
Lennox said : ” If you’re going to have a world where love is possible, it must be a world where hate is possible.“
This statement is not true. Religious philosophy has contributed to this misconception to a great extent. Opposites are not natural laws, like the law of motion, for example. For a body to be in motion, a force is needed to push it into a state of movement. The body would move infinitely if no opposing force acted upon it.
We cannot apply the same principles to love and hate. If you were once in love but you are no longer, it is not because hatred acted upon you as an opposing force. You can love someone for a certain period and then stop loving them without feeling any hatred toward them in the process.
Actually, love and hate doesn’t have to be connected at all. If I don’t love someone, it doesn’t mean I have to hate them. It would be love and no love. That’s it.
I can easily imagine a world without hatred and evil. John Lennox can’t, because he has to justify an all-loving God who created and allowed evil to happen.
