There’s something snide about attempting to rebut a charge of incompatibility between God and evil with, “How do you know what evil is? You have no basis on which to call something evil, if you don’t believe in God.” Of course, the rebuttal is trying to show that a concept of evil and making moral judgments using it make sense only if one has a standard of good to measure up against (i.e., God). True enough, but are people of whatever (non-)religious ilk not permitted to peer into the Christian “system” and bring up an apparent contradiction for discussion? Certainly they should be allowed and even encouraged to do so without expecting to receive snide and shallow rebuttals that amount to little more than question dodging.

photo credit: eskimoblood