Keller on the Problem of Pain

In December 2004, a massive tsunami killed more than 250,000 people around the rim of the Indian Ocean. Over the following weeks, newspapers and magazines were full of letters and articles asking "Where was God?" One reporter wrote: "If God is God, he's not good. If God is good, he's not God. You can't have it both ways, especially after the Indian Ocean catastrophe." Despite the confident assertion of the columnist, the effort to demonstrate that evil disproves the existence of God "is now acknowledged on (almost) all sides to be completely bankrupt." Why?

... Just because you can't see or image a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn't mean there can't be one. Against we see lurking within supposedly hard-nosed skepticism an enormous faith in one's own cognitive faculties. If our minds can't plumb the depths of the universe for good answers to suffering, well, then, there can't be any! This is blind faith of a high order.

... If you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because he hasn't stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have (at the same moment) a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can't know. Indeed, you can't have it both ways.

Excerpt from 'The Reason for God' Chapter 2 - How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?

On Absolute Claims

You can't say, "All claim about religions are historically conditioned except the one I am making right now." If you insist that no one can determine which beliefs are right and wrong, why should we believe what you are saying? The reality is that we all make truth-claims of some sort and it is very hard to weigh them responsibly, but we have no alternative but to try to do so.

From the Leap of Doubt: Chapter 1 - There Can't Be Just One True Religion

Keller & the Reason for God

I've just finished reading Timothy Keller's The Reason for God. Keller pastors Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhatten, which has nearly 6,000 regular attendees, mostly young adults of ranging ethnicities.

In summary, the book is written in two parts, with each part consisting of seven chapters.

In Part One, Keller puts forward his case that skepticism is actually based on a set of beliefs...

"But even as believers should learn to look for reasons behind their faith, skeptics must learn to look for a type of faith hidden within their reasoning. All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs. You cannot doubt Belief A except from the position of faith in Belief B... Every doubt, therefore, is based on a leap of faith."

The first half of the book reviews the seven biggest objection and doubts about Christianity, the second half examines the reasons underlying Christian beliefs. The key points are outlined below:

Part One: The Leap of Doubt
1. There Can't Be Just One True Religion
2. How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?
3. Christianity is a Straitjacket
4. The Church is Responsible for So Much Injustice
5. How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
6. Science Has Disproved Christianity
7. You Can't Take the Bible Literally

Part Two: The Reasons for Faith
1. The Clues of God
2. The Knowledge of God
3. The Problem of Sin
4. Religion and the Gospel
5. The True Story of the Cross
6. The Reality of the Resurrection
7. The Dance of God

Over the next week I will post some excerpts that I found particularly brilliant. I encourage any thinking Christian to grab a copy for yourself, particularly for any young person embarking upon university studies.