Einstein and the professor

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Analyzing the story:

In the third last paragraph, “Einstein” says: “Evil is simply the absence of God.” Note that “Einstein” first assumes the existence of God in order to prove the existence of God. He is saying that God exists and thus God exists. This is circular reasoning, and makes his analysis meaningless.
The story attempts to prove God’s existence as follows:

“Einstein” asserts: “Evil is simply the absence of God.”
By implication, good is the presence of God.
Good and evil exist in the world.
Thus God must also exist.

However, an alternate initial statement would be that “Evil is simply the absence ofgood.” I suspect that if you asked many people what the antonym of “evil” is, the vast majority would respond “good.” Very few would respond “God.”

By substituting “good” for “God,” the argument collapses.

Another approach would be to realize that no consensus exists over what is good and evil in a given situation.

Some people believe that capital punishment is evil because it terminates a person’s life prematurely usually without the person’s consent. Other feel that it is good because its use lowers the area’s homicide rate.
Some believe that spanking children is good because it is mandated by the God’s Word, the Bible, and because it is the only effective method of disciplining children. Others feel that spanking is evil because they feel it terrorizes children and realize that it causes higher rates of depression, anxiety, alcohol abuse and drug abuse among adults who were spanked as children.
The leaders of Nazi Germany felt that the Jewish Holocaust was a noble calling that would make a major contribution to the betterment of European society by making the area Juden-Frei (free of Jews). Essentially everyone today condemns the Holocaust and all other forms of genocide as the most serious evil possible.
Some feel that same-sex marriage is a profound evil because if it becomes widely available, more people will choose to become homosexual, and because it will damage or destroy the institution of marriage. Others feel that same-sex marriage is good because it extends all of the advantages of marriage to persons with a homosexual or bisexual orientation, and would lower the level of anti-gay bigotry.
There are obviously very different views of good and evil in the world. Most individuals probably believe that absolute truth exists for them, and perhaps even for their culture and religious denomination or tradition. But when comparing the absolute truths as claimed by different individuals, cultures, and denominations, we observe great diversity and much mutual exclusivity. There is no agreement on what is good and what is evil.If we equate goodness with God, as was done in this story, then it is obvious that a multiplicity of Gods would have to exist. This would not be difficult during ancient times when different Gods and Goddesses were assumed to be in charge of different cultures. However, the argument collapses if one is trying to prove that only a single deity exists.


 
 

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