Heavy Rocks

Civilized states spend more than half their revenue on killing each other's citizens... Are these abominations ... really evidence of an intelligent creator? ... The world in which we live can be understood as a result of muddle and accident; but if it is the outcome of deliberate purpose, the purpose must have been that of a fiend. [Bertrand Russell: Why I am Not A Christian]

It does no good to assert that God may not be all powerful and thus not able to prevent evil. He can create a universe and yet is conveniently unable to do what the fire-department can do -- rescue a baby from a burning building. [B.C. Johnson: God and the Problem of Evil]

1. If God exists, then there would be no evil in the world.
2. There is evil in the world.
3. Therefore, God does not exist.
[Epicurus: The "Inconsistent Triad"]

If divine laws are right just because God says they are right, then God could tell us to murder or steal, and by definition it would be right. On the other hand, if God simply informs us of their rightness, that implies He is not the source or cause of such rightness, but merely an enforcer. In other words He is not omnipotent. [A common objection to the ethical theory of Divine Law]

Could God create a rock so heavy that even He could not lift it? [The paradox of Omnipotence. ] (A brief explanation: if He could make such a rock, He could not lift it, so He would not be omnipotent, or all-powerful. If He was not able to make such a rock, He would similarly not be omnipotent.)

If one less person had died in the holocaust, would we still have learned a lesson from it? [A common response to the theodicy that we cannot judge suffering as evil, since it may be part of God's greater purpose]