Quotes About Theodicy

Theodicy ... what is involved is not a theoretical answer to the enigma of evil ... but an answer of faith ... the abstract questions of theodicy fall away in the shadow of the event of the cross.

Premise one: If Yahweh Elohim is all-powerful he could destroy evil. Premise two: If Yahweh Elohim is all-loving he would destroy evil. Premise three: Evil is not destroyed. Conclusion: Yahweh Elohim is either unable or unwilling to destroy evil." Now it was Enoch's turn to pause for dramatic effect. He milked it with relish.

God killed my little sister. That's right, Lev. A little girl, suddenly sick and dead. Everything He touches is destroyed. Casagemas, Apollinaire, Eva, Max Jacob. How do you worship Him, Lev? He's the true destroyer. Satan works out in the open, cards on the table. He gives it to you straight, no games. God plays at sweetness and goodness, and kills you. Who's worse, Satan or God? Satan at least has the decency to show us his real face. So I pay God back with my paintings.

The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.

If we were to suppose that mankind never can or will be in a better condition, it seems impossible to justify by any kind of theodicy the mere fact that such a race of corrupt beings could have been created on earth at all.

How could a good God create a world full of innocent suffering?

If God is good, how is it that the weed of evil takes root everywhere, and what is there to keep us from murdering each other in despair?

I'd ask [God] why he keeps trying to kill us all with disease, pestilence, and natural disasters. I'd ask why 99% of all species there ever were are now extinct -- if God works in mysterious ways, that way is mysteriously genocidal.

Is he willing to prevent evil but not able? Then is he impotent. Is he able but not willing? Then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?

the God of birds and trees would have to be also the God of birth defects and cancer.

I do not understand how God, the father of men, can torture his children and his grandchildren, and hear them cry without being tortured himself.

This is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce good.

I hate you, God. I hate you as though you actually exist.

Only a completely unintelligible God can be said to be absolutely good and absolutely powerful yet tolerate the world as it is.

If a human artist or employer made children suffer so that something immensely impressive or valuable could come to pass, we would put him in prison. Why then should we excuse God for causing such undeserved pain, no matter how wonderful the ultimate result may be?

Why did they say that? Why did they assume that they were somehow responsible for this tragedy? Who taught them to believe in a God who would strike down an attractive, gifted young woman without warning as punishment for someone else's ritual infraction?

It is necessary to believe that the mixture of evil has produced the greatest possible good: otherwise the evil would not have been permitted.

This world could not have been the work of an all-loving being, but that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings.

The query: "At Auschwitz, tell me, where was God?" And the answer: "Where was man?

That's what's so striking about the title of Kushner's book: When Bad Things Happen to Good People. How is that fair? Well, the answer to that is that there are no good people.

St. Augustine says, "If God is, why is there evil? But if God is not, why is there good?

Do freshman philosophy classes nowadays debate updated versions of the age-old questions? Like, how could a merciful God allow AIDS, childhood cancers, tsunamis and Dick Cheney?

people have trouble with the existence of evil not because it poses any logical challenge to Christianity, but because they are overwhelmed by the emotions that the topic generates, and these emotions disable the minimal level of judgment and intelligence that they normally exhibit.

I believe Christians walk a mental tightrope and are in constant danger of falling in one of two directions. On this subject, errors in thinking can have tragic results. The first error comes when we attribute all suffering to God, seeing it as his punishment for human mistakes; the second error does just the opposite, assuming that life with God will never include suffering.