Saw Jonathan Miller’s A Brief History of Disbelief last night on BBC4.
Fantastic !
Miller discussed and investigated the philosophical basis and long history of atheism and disbelief.
He, as I am, is a secure atheist who finds belief in a God an unfathomable state of mind. His exploration of the arguments for atheism and his conversations with philosophers, historians and thinkers were fascinating and very illuminating.
He reviewed the Greek philosophers and their thoughts on the existence of God. Here is a question posed by Epicurus 400 years before the birth of Christ. No one has yet come up with a satisfactory answer…
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?
Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; Or he can, but does not want to; Or he cannot and does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. But, if God both can and wants to abolish evil, then how come evil is in the world ?
Food for thought…
So yeah... 