Saturday, April 26, 2008

God. Yes or No?

On the night of April 25th, I had the oppurtunity to see and hear the debate between the ahiest Peter Singer, and the Christian Dinesh D'Souza. Both men have a long sheet of credentials and have studided their way into being some of the great minds of our generation. The debate was on the issue of the existence of God and a sub-topic of human and animal suffering. As these two brilliant minds duked it out, I went on a learning journey of my own. This was by far one of the most interesting conversations i have heard.
Peter Singer was born in Australia and has studied at the University of Oxford and the University of Melbourne in Australia. He has also published many books on his beliefs and spoken to many different types of audiences. Dinesh D'Souza was born in India and did the majority of his studying at the University of Dartmouth. He has also written many books and many national bestsellers. His ideas have caused some of the most controversial battles over thoughts of any one man.
The debate had a different vibe to it then i thought of when I decided to attend. Peter Singer mostly brought up the idea of suffering and how a all-loving, all-knowing God could allow such suffering to occur in our universe. Dinesh D'Souza responded in a hidden matter by saying that in a Darwinian universe nobody would care about suffeing, after all we're simpy machines. This thought was rebuddled by Singer as one of the hardest topics of the night. Neither man really gave an objective answer to the problem of suffering nor the problem of evil. This non answering technique muddled me that even the topics I struggle with, as do these men.
Many people had the oppurtunity to ask questions to either Singer or D'Souza. The main questions were still on the problem of suffering and the problem of evil. My viewpoint on these two issues is this: Suffering was caused by man's choice to reject the Father's leadership and thus caused a perversion of the human creative order and a distortion of man's relationship with God. The same is to be said about the problem of evil. Man's choice to reject led to the evil in this world. Now a common argument to this idea is that, in that case God must have created evil. My response is no, because God gave us a free will to choose Him, instead of forcing love upon Himself from us. God did not create evil. Though He may have created the potential for evil, in giving us free will and choices. This issue I myself do not have the knowledge o explain. Only God knows the exactness and the details of His creation. Scientists may come closer and closer to knowing the world we live in, but only the Father knows exactly.
As the debate came to a close, each man had a concluding statement. Singer cleaned up his argument by saying that neither man had answered the problem of suffering and evil. Dinesh refuted by syaing that Peter had not answered the idea of compassion coming as a Christian moral. These two men I believe, got so caught up in beating the other, that the Gospel had an oppurtuinty to be shared, and it was not. D'Souza had some amazing ideas and arguments, but in the end, they were all technical aspects of the spectrum that he based his debate upon. Singer was the same way, his arguments were all based on the physical aspects of this world instead of the deeper idea, of does God exist?