The absurdity of atheism

[Gorgias]

Let’s take this step by step. Feel free to disagree where this sequence of statements breaks down.

Sure.

1. Everything that happens is therefore God’s will. That is, nothing happens that is NOT God’s will. Or to put it another way, nothing happens that God did not want to happen.

Stop: this is where your logic breaks down. At best, it seems that you’re suggesting that, since God sustains existence, every activity and circumstance in that existence is a manifestation of God’s explicit will. That doesn’t follow.

From a Catholic standpoint, it would be asserted merely that God allows circumstances to exist. He knows about them (i.e., ‘omniscience’), but that does not mean that he chooses or causes them. If you want to try to prove that this allowance implies even endorsement (let alone an explicit manifestation of His will!), you’ll have to show how that is the case.

Your prayer should be for God to do whatever is right, even if that means your child should die. Let’s face it, it’s not your call, is it…

Yep. That sounds about right: “your will be done” is a prayer that someone pretty important prayed at a critical point in his life…

 

[Gorgias]

**I do not accept the NT so the whole “ask and it shall be given, etc…” doesn’t apply, in my opinion.

Funny you should mention that. I was just thinking about that verse yesterday. The first reading at Mass yesterday was from the 1st Letter of John, in which we find the following:

We receive from him whatever we ask,
because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

That really struck me. In other words, when we are given something that we’ve asked God for, we don’t get it solely because it was requested; rather, we get it because it’s something that pleases God. It seems that, as we grow in our faith and knowledge of God, and put these in action, we align ourselves with God. Therefore, it’s less a matter of “Dad, can I have ice cream as my dinner?” than it is “Dad, can I have some more of the green beans, please?”