More good stuff from Apologetics 315. (H/T Apologetics Junkie)

By the way, I notice that Brian is offering some FREE BOOKS to anyone who fills out a teeny, tiny little survey.

The MP3 file for the interview is here.

Topics:

• about Clay Jones’ area of interest and publications
• how did Clay become a Christian?
• how did Clay get interested in the problem of evil?
• what is the deductive (logical) problem of evil?
• the popular version of it: why do bad things happen to good people?
• what are some good books on the intellectual problem of evil?
• what’s a good book for people who are struggling with suffering?
• how can Christians defend against the problems of evil and suffering?
• can God perform logical contradictions?
• is God’s top priority for the world to make us have happy feelings?
• what good reason is there for God to permit evil and suffering?
• can God prohibit evil and still let us have free will?
• can God prohibit evil and still prepare us for Heaven?
• why do people even raise the objection from evil and suffering?
• why do people find the slaughter of the Canaanites so troubling?
• what kinds of sins were the Canaanites committing?
• do people really understand how much God hates sin?
• how much does suffering really matter on an eternal scale?
• how can Christian apologists convince themselves that people really sin?
• what is the “the banality of evil”? Are normal people capable of evil?

Two things that I got out of this lecture: 1) When people ask “why do bad things happen to good people?” you can ask them who is a good person? And ask them why they think that God would want “good people” to be happy in their own way instead of having a relationship with him. And 2) his advice that Christians should read about real evils like genocide and mass murder, to understand that ordinary people are capable of incredible cruelty, and capable of rationalizing it, too. It is very rare that anyone really stands up to their culture, like pro-lifers and pro-marriage people do today. It’s really hard to do! Especially when the bad guys make it harder to do the right thing.