THE TWO WAYS GOD "PERMITS" EVIL ARE APPALLING

The religionists say that things happen that are really bad under God's watch.

Some religionists and some theists judge the Holocaust and terrible plagues and blame God.  If evil and God don't fit then either there cannot be a God or he is a bad one.

Suppose an orphanage full of children is on fire.

God does not intervene to tell you where to get the water.

The children burn horribly and slowly to death.

Danaher (2014) says God permits this to happen.

He outlines what this means.

Empowering Permission (EP) is when God stands by for it is up to us to find a way to save them and think of it.  This presumes that if we can't do anything we are wrong and stupid for God surely would not be letting it happen unless he gave us the resources to find the answers ourselves.  This tells us that our own freedom and initiative are greater goods.

Non-Preventive Permission (NPP) refers to God letting the terrible tragedy happen for there is something good that is worth it.  I'd add that it might only be slightly worth it.  It might be neutral. 

The two are different but can overlap and merge.  It can be that EP might be largely about NPP - eg showing us that we should take responsibility and not be wanting God to fix disasters for us.

Now as God creates all things and our choices only exist because of him it is hard to see how permission fits in.  The knife is wielded by me so if I stab with it I cannot say I gave it permission to wound.  But God's role as creator in what we do is far deeper and more involved even than that.  If I own the use of the knife just by holding it how much more does he by creating it from nothing?  Psychologically we cannot feel God is permitting if we take his creator role seriously.  Religion says it is a mystery but what use is that?  That is what it would say anyway and all superstitions use that trick.  Our brains process it as God arranging rather than permitting.  Real permitting is really letting things act without you.  God as creator cannot do that.

Interestingly, we say we should live in the now. God is not living in the now.  We are out of line with him if we do that.

We see that God cannot really tell us what responsibility means exactly and how to implement it.  EP and NPP are nonsensical.  EP is a flat out lie as regards us being responsible.  NPP is also a lie for if being responsible is a good thing and does not happen then God letting bad things happen for a greater good means nothing if we don't have that good.



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