A philosophy professor confronts his class with the question of the existence of God: “Is God good?”
“Sure! God’s good,” replies a student.
“Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?”
“Yes,” the same student replies.
“Are you good or evil?”
“The Bible says I’m evil.”
The professor grins knowingly. “Aha! The Bible!” He considers for a moment. “Here’s one for you. Let’s say there’s a sick person over here, and you can cure him. Would you help him? Would you try?”
“Yes, sir, I would.”
“So you’re good.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“But why do you say that? You’d help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn’t.”
The young man hesitates; a few snickers are (barely) heard. The student does not answer, so the professor continues. “He doesn’t, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Can you answer that one?”
The student remains silent.
“No, you can’t, can you?” the professor exclaims. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax. “Let’s start again, young fella. Is God good?”
“Er … yes,” the student says.
“Is Satan good?”
The student doesn’t hesitate on this one and replies, “No.”
“Then, where does Satan come from?”
The student falters. “From God,” he admits.
“That’s right. God made Satan, didn’t he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?”
“Yes, sir, evil’s everywhere.”
“And God did make everything, correct?”
“Yes.”
“So who created evil?” the professor continued. “If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.”
Again, the student has no answer.
“Is there immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?”
The student squirms on his feet. “Yes,” he admits.
“So who created them?” The student once again does not answer, so the professor repeats his question. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized. “Tell me,” he continues with another student. “Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?”
The student’s voice betrays him and cracks. “Yes, professor, I do.”
The old man stops pacing. “Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?”
“No, sir, I’ve never seen Him.”
“Then tell us if you’ve ever heard your Jesus?”
“No, sir, I have not.”
“Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus, or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God, for that matter?”
“No, sir, I’m afraid I haven’t.”
“Yet you still believe in him?”
“Yes.”
The professor continues his barrage, “According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?”
“Nothing,” the student replies. “I only have my faith.”
“Yes, faith,” the professor repeats. “And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence of His existence, only faith.”
The student stands quietly for a moment before asking a question of his own. “Professor, is there such a thing as heat?”
“Yes.”
“And is there such a thing as cold?”
“Yes, son, there’s cold too.”
“No sir, there isn’t. You can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, megaheat, unlimited heat, white heat, or a little heat, but we don’t have anything called ‘cold.’ We can get down to 458 degrees below zero F, which represents no heat at all, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we could be colder than minus 458 degrees cold. Absolute zero (–458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel when we have insufficient heat.”
“This is going to be a good semester,” thought the professor.
The student continued. “Professor, does darkness exist?”
The professor responded, “Of course it does.”
The student replied, “Once again, sir, you are wrong. Darkness also does not exist. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. We can study light, but we cannot study darkness. In fact, we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color, but we cannot measure darkness per se. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. A single candle eliminates darkness. How can you know how dark a certain area is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used to describe what happens when there is no light present.”
The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain. Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer. “This is going to be a great semester,” thought the professor, who was quite fair-minded—a person who believed that whoever has the best evidence in hand is the person we should believe, even if he disagrees with us. He begins to smile at the student in front of him.
