THREE ATHEISTS AND THEIR QUESTIONS FOR GOD (2)

  (Some months ago I promised this follow up, so here it is finally):                                         

Three men were there again. Same bar, same table, same drinks but not the same men. Well, not exactly. Professor Aletor was there and so was Dr. Douglas but the third man wasn’t Professor Michaels.

Professor Michaels had very recently lost a long-drawn battle with hypertension, and had passed on. The third man here now was Professor Leigh, a Catholic Priest and Philosophy Professor.

Prof. Aletor: Uh, Prof., I must say that it really is a pleasure to have you here. Thanks for honoring our invitation. We planned to do this over a month ago, in a more public and academic fashion, but the sudden passing of one of our dear friends, Prof. Michaels-

Prof. Leigh: Oh, yes, yes, I heard about that. What a loss. I knew the man. A very brilliant mind, if there was any.

Prof. Aletor: Yes he was. So thanks again for agreeing to meet us at this ‘unholy’ venue. I must say,  I didn’t expect you to agree to come here,

Dr. Douglas: And not only did you come, Prof., you are also actually exploring the wonders of Arthur Guiness! That’s a pleasant surprise.

Prof. Leigh smiles, nods but doesn’t say anything. Dr. Douglas continues.

Dr. Douglas: We invited you here for a little intellectual cum philosophical exchange. A discourse on the perennial issue of God, theism and what not. As you know, Prof., we do not believe in the existence of any God, whether Allah, Jehovah, Jesus-

Prof. Leigh: Of course, Doc, Your atheism is internationally known.

Dr. Douglas: As is your theism. Your apologetics and  arguments-if I can call them that- for the existence of God, while not novel, are quite passionately enunciated, so I—eh, we felt that hey, come on, let’s invite the good Prof, and hear each other out.

Prof. Leigh: Fair enough.

Prof. Aletor: As he said, Prof, we don’t believe in God, but let’s assume there is a God, I put it to you that he is a sadist, a kill-joy, and a villain. I mean, what will you call a God who took, or allowed the taking, first of Prof. Michael’s wife, and then the good Prof himself, making his children orphans in this cruel world! How do you describe a God who made a hell fire, and can’t wait to send majority of humankind, who He claims to have created, into it for endless aeons?

Prof. Leigh: Now, esteemed colleagues we are here once more tackling the intractable Problem of evil, a problem you and I know can never be resolved, not in this world, neither you, the sceptical atheist, nor I, the theistic believer, can satisfactorily resolve all the quandaries inherent in this problem.

Dr. Douglas: Agreed.

Prof. Leigh (continuing): Having said that though, suffice it to say that just as there is evil in this world, deaths, disasters and what not, there is also good. Sacrifice, benevolence, love, justice, etc; we complain about the evils but take for granted the good. Listen, Sirs, this is earth, not heaven! Religion, well Christianity, does not teach that in this world we will not experience pain, it teaches that there will be pain, but, unlike what you seem to think, God is touched by our griefs and pains-

Prof. Aletor: Yet he does nothing to end them!

Prof Leigh: There is one who exists solely to kill, steal and destroy.

Dr. Douglas: Satan?

Prof. Leigh: Yes. He is the author of much of the evils, disasters, diseases and so on which we experience.

Prof. Aletor: Yes, but why does the ‘omnipotent’ God seem helpless in stopping this devil in his tracks?

Prof. Leigh: To fully explain that I will need to go into some theological expatiation but suffice it to say here that God gave man freedom, volition, and all, man used this freedom, and still uses it against God, thus giving the devil much authority to do pretty much what he likes on the earth except…

Dr. Douglas: Except what, Prof?

Prof. Leigh: Except the saints- humans- pray.

Prof. Aletor: So, like Augustine, you blame man for all the evil in the world. I find that unacceptable and irresponsible on the part of the omnipotent God who claims to love us. Besides, Prof, a lot of ‘saints’ prayers go unanswered.

Prof. Leigh: I can understand why you must feel that way and I honestly don’t have a satisfactory answer or explanation for you. However, to your second question about how a good God could have prepared hell for his creation. Let me ask you, Prof. Who prepared heaven?

Prof. Aletor: According to you guys, God did.

Prof. Leigh: And God also made hell. What does that show you? Balance. Justice. In every State for instance do we not have freedom, and yet there are jails where people’s liberties are taken as punishment? You see, we are often hypocritical. We blame God for the things we also do. He’s a sadist for creating hell, but yet we are just to have jails, Guatanamo Bays and lethal injections.  Just as the state is not excited to sentence a criminal to death or to a lifetime in prison but has to do it for security and justice to take its course, so also it is with God. We don’t have to go to hell, we can choose to go to heaven, can’t we?

Dr. Douglas: Can we, really? Prof, the conditions for this heaven you talk about can only be met by masochists. I mean, anyone who hopes to live a complete human existence taking life’s pleasures and enjoying  natural freedom cannot go to this your heaven. If I drink I go to hell, if I have sex I go to hell, yet the tendency for arousal is in my nature just as the tendency to get hungry, I came to realize myself with these tendencies but yet I’m to be punished for them?

Prof. Leigh: These pleasures you talk about were created by God. I’ve heard people say, like you, Prof, said earlier, that God is a kill-joy and heaven will be a very boring place, but take a look at the pleasures in nature, examine even these sexual  pleasures you just talked about, the devil didn’t initiate or create them, God did! He loves us to have fun healthily and pleasurably live our lives as human beings, not animals. But the anarchical nature of humankind relishes uncontrolled and unfettered liberty and he calls this ‘freedom’. Freedom is not anarchy, freedom is a choice to abide by natural law, and divine law. To be truly free is to be responsible and under control!

Dr. Douglas: I hear a lot of illogicalities and contradictions in your statement, Prof, but I fear I cannot take you up on them just right now.  My wife and I have an appointment with the doctor in thirty minutes so I’m afraid I must leave.

Prof. Aletor: Prof, this discourse, as you said, is intractable. But I suggest we meet again and talk about these issues, particularly the concept of freedom.

Prof Leigh: Its been a pleasure being with you, gentlemen. I look forward to next time.

Prof. Aletor: Yes, Prof, maybe next time you can tell us why God let the devil live in the first place after he left from being Lucifer, the singing cherub, to Satan, the terrorist. After all, didn’t Obama eliminate Osama?

They all laugh…

                                             To be continued