[Vision2020] God's problem: Hawkins Mall

[Ted Moffett]

If God is an omnipotent, all knowing and all good being, God does not have a
problem.  Only limited beings that lack the capability to comprehend such
infinite capacities have a "problem."  Having said that, the problem of
evil, or suffering, in a universe created by "God," as it has been parsed in
the history of theology and philosophy, is a subject that it is difficult to
say anything new about.

There are far more opportunities to say something new about environmental
sustainability, alternative energy, the problem of CO2/fossil fuel induced
climate change, and the connections to these problems with the USA's out of
control consumer culture, now to hit the Palouse with an inspiration to
attain even higher levels of wanton consumption, with the Hawkins Mall.

If someone has something new to say about the problem of suffering, or the
problem of evil, given certain assumptions about a creator "God,"
theologically speaking, please, enlighten us.

Otherwise, perhaps we should focus on the critical problems of how humanity
is to make peace with Nature, before we slide off the cliff of species
extinction, ecosystem collapse, and resource depletion, as the human
population keeps expanding, as we worship at the alter of materialistic
consumption as the primary goal of the human race, as anthropogenic climate
change portends to remake our planet into a world unrecognizable to the
current generation.

The Hawkins Mall is a local focal point for these critical problems the
human race is facing.  And to deny this is to deny the reality of the
impacts materialistic consumerism is having on the very fabric of life on
our planet.

Hey, what do I know?  I just read the latest science on environmental
consequences of human activity and industry, and connect the dots to what we
are doing here to the impacts globally.  We are all a "wholly owned
subsidiary" of the Earth as a living system.

I'll be long gone when we have reaped what we sow... In the meantime, yes, I
am a beneficiary of the capitalist consumer culture, so to some extent, I am
criticizing the hand that feeds me...

Ted Moffett

On 2/20/08, Ralph Nielsen <nielsen at uidaho.edu> wrote:
>
> RALPH NIELSEN
>
> Here goes the old librarian again. Yesterday on NPR Fresh Air there
> was an interview with Bart Ehrman about his latest book "God's
> Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question."
>
> It deals with the age-old problem of theodicy: why is there
> suffering in the world?
>
> The web site is
>
> <www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19096131>
>
> Or go to <www.NPR.org>, then to the "Top emailed stories," and click on
> Bart Ehrman. You can download the interview or listen to it there.
>
> We religious skeptics ought to know about this problem ourselves. We
> can't leave it to God, can we?
>
> I found myself almost completely agreeing with him. I certainly agree
> with him that Ecclesiastes is one of the best books in the Bible.
>
> Good listening and good reading.
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20080222/be635232/attachment.html