Closer To Truth

Is God Responsible For Evil?

MEANING - How on earth could God be reconciled with massive, monstrous Evil? If God is all-powerful and all-knowing, and if God is the creator, wouldn’t God be responsible for evil?

Does Evil Disprove God?

MEANING - Theologians have no tougher task than explaining evil, its enormity even more than its existence. Give the clergy their due: they've devised clever, even profound, rationale. But at the end of the long day, do these explanations, or rationalizations, really work?

Did God Create Evil?

MEANING - Whoever believes in the existence of God must explain the presence of evil. To theists, it's "the problem of evil," which they struggle to resolve. To atheists, it's "the argument from evil," which they wield like a sword. Moreover, if God is all-powerful and all-knowing, how could God not have created evil?

Is Death Final?

CONSCIOUSNESS - Death is the ultimate defeat. No matter our successes, we are all doomed to suffer the final failure. But some claim that death is not final. Can the defeat be defeated?

What's Wrong With Immortal Souls?

CONSCIOUSNESS - Do human beings have immortal souls? Science dismisses anything nonphysical, and even some theologians reject immortal souls. But if no immortal souls, what happens to eternal life?

Immortality and Eternal Life

CONSCIOUSNESS - I'd like to live forever. Wouldn't you? But what would "living forever" mean? Almost every religion offers life after death. What would immortality and eternal life be like?

What Things Are Conscious?

CONSCIOUSNESS - Consciousness is the great mystery of inner awareness. Where does it exist? Humans, obviously. Animals? Which animals? Chimps, elephants, dolphins, dogs? Termites, snails, amoeba, bacteria? What about non-biological intelligences like super-supercomputers of the future?

How Free is God

MEANING - God is supposed to be all-powerful, all-knowing and all good. In addition, is God is supposed to be 'all-free'? What does it mean for God to be perfectly free? Can God do literally anything? Can God make choices or must God always do the 'best', whatever 'best' may mean for each action? Are there any limits on God's freedom?

Eternal Life is Like What

MEANING - How to imagine the experience of eternal life? Would we sense ourselves? How would we feel? Whom would we know? What would we do? What would God do? Living forever seems so absurd, yet eternal life is the promise of almost every religion. But if we cannot even imagine what eternal life will be, how can we have hope in its reality?

How Do Humans Differ From Other Animals?

CONSCIOUSNESS - Physically, humans and animals seem similar. Mentally, humans seem so superior. What's so special about human nature?