The Daily Banner, Greencastle, Putnam County, 10 September 1966 — Page 3

Religion in AMERICA By LOUIS CASSELS Atheism’s strongest case against God is summarized in this assertion: If there were a God, infinite In power and love, He would have created a perfect world. All of his creatures would be happy. They would not bring misery on themselves through

moral evils such as war and racial hatred. They would not suffer from dreadful diseases such as cancer. They would not be at the mercy of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. Since evil, pain and trouble are abundantly manifest in this world, the atheist concludes, it cannot be the work of an allwise, all-powerful. all-loving Creator. It can only be regarded as a product of blind chance, a working out of impersonal material forces which are indiffer-

ent to the happiness of such sentient creatures as may evolve within their midst. Anyone who thinks that this argument is logically unanswerable should proceed at once to his bookstore and place an order tor “Evil and the God of Love” by John Hick (Harper & Row). Dr. Hick is a British philosopher on the faculty of Cambridge University. His book is scholarly but within the intellectual reach of the intelligent

.layman. It is by far the best ' treatment of the “problem of : evil” that I have ever encounItered. “Those who use the problem I of evil as an argument against ; belief in God almost invariably 1 think of God’s relation to the j world on the model of a human ! being building a- cage for a pet j animal,” he says. “If he is humane, he will naturally make his pet’s quarters as pleasant and healthful as he can. Any respect in which the cage falls

short of the veterinarian’s ideal, and contains possibilities of accident or disease, is evidence of either limited benevolence or limited means, or both.” The fallacy in all this, says Dr. Hick, is that it completely misreads God’s purpose and his attitude toward humanity. “Men are not to be thought of on the analogy of animal pets, whose life is to be made as agreeable as possible, but rather on the analogy of human children. who are to grow to adult-

hood in an environment whose primary and overriding purpose is not immediate pleasure but the realizing of the most valuable potentialities of human personality.” “This world was not intended to be a paradise ... it is a place of soul-making.” But why must “soul-making" ! be accompanied by so much j travail? Couldn’t an omnipotent | God have created men who were spiritually perfect to beIgin with?

The Deify Banner, Greencastle, Indiana Saturday, September 10, 1966

Theoretically yes, says Dr. Hick. But the automatic goodness of ready-made saints evidently is less precious to God than the flawed and sweaty goodness achieved by fallible men through meeting and eventually m a s t e r i ng temptations, by rightly making responsible choices in concrete situations.”

To keep ironing to a minimum, remove linens from the dryer promptly, then smooth and fold carefully.

For prettier elbows, treat any discoloring with lemon juice. Rub with a pumice stone gently to erase rough spots and apply a film of petroleum jelly.

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