God Only Knows By James Bowman

The recent debate, sponsored by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, between Christopher Hitchens and Professor Alister McGrath on the existence of God was rather a disappointment to me. I thought that Mr. Hitchens clearly had the better of it, but only because Professor McGrath chose to fight on his opponent's ground. The Hitchens argument in essence boiled down to this: if God existed, He would have to be as much of a liberal humanitarian as I am. Since the misery in the world and the violence in the Bible show that He obviously isn't any kind of a liberal humanitarian, it must be equally obvious that He doesn't exist. Q.E.D. The tautological nature of this argument appeared not to have been noticed by the professor who was, perhaps understandably, reluctant to concede the point that the Author of the moral law -- along, of course, with everything else -- might not be "ethical" in human terms.

God Only Knows ...

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