If God is good…

Has anyone heard of this book before — If God is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil by Randy Alcorn? The editorial review on Amazon says:

The crossover fiction and nonfiction author of the half-million–selling Heaven throws down a heavy response to a spate of recent bestselling atheism books. Because the main argument of atheists against the existence of God is suffering in the world, Alcorn lays out a weighty and classically reasoned argument to the problem of suffering in this thoroughly modern book. His biggest trump card is that atheists were hardly the first to ask about suffering and evil. Ancient writers did, and the fact that the Bible raises the problem of evil gives us full permission to do so. Evil and suffering are addressed in tandem but approached differently. Evil comes from human rebellion or sin, and suffering is a secondary evil brought on by that primary evil. By granting free will to humanity, God allows for an eternal good that humans don’t always see now but will experience in the life to come if faithful. Not academic but well-reasoned, Alcorn may not convince atheists, but apart from them readership is wide open.

I haven’t read it, but I might try to find it in the library this summer if anyone thinks it would be a worthwhile read. It looks like this review lays out the key argument already, though: “Evil comes from human rebellion or sin, and suffering is a secondary evil brought on by that primary evil.”

Does Alcorn deal with natural disasters — tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes? Does he have anything to say about diseases, either hereditary (like Tay-Sachs disease or cystic fibrosis) or infectious (like HIV/AIDS, ebola, malaria, or tuberculosis)? Does he have any sin-based explanation for drought and famine? What human rebellion causes animal attacks? (Did God change his mind about Genesis 1:28?)

This is all apart from the pain suffering that animals inflict on each other as part of the circle of life. God could have made all animals vegetarian, but instead, he apparently must have chosen to have his own creations viciously destroy each other in order to survive. Cute.

(Thanks to Rhetorical Bullshit for the video and Defaithed for pointing out that it was up.)

So, what’s all this about free will and human sin? Unless you agree with Pat Robertson that the earthquake in Haiti was caused by a supposed pact with Satan … I just don’t see how you could argue that all this suffering is caused by humans. If Randy Alcorn has some brilliant insight on this issue, I’d love to hear it, but it doesn’t seem like he even addresses the concept.

By the way, what is up with the comment that the problem of evil is “the main argument of atheists against the existence of God”? There are so many arguments, I hardly know how I would choose the “main” one. … Additionally, the idea that the problem of evil has been raised since ancient times is hardly a “trump card” in Alcorn’s favor. If philosophers have been puzzling over it for thousands for years and we still don’t have an answer, it probably really is a problem with the claim of a benevolent and omnipotent God!