The God dilemma, as I describe it, is this: How can there be a God when the world can be so miserable? I’m not saying the world is universally miserable but it certainly can be miserable, and the world has been miserable for lots of people over time; and the world is miserable for some people today. Other people don’t have a miserable experience in the world all the time but they do have some miserable experiences. A few people consider the world to be just a wonderful joy and that’s obviously great for them. But these folks are, in my opinion, a small minority. Everyone else has at least some familiarity with a miserable world and it’s fair to ask why this should be if there’s a God. As I see it there are four possible explanations for the God dilemma.
One explanation is, God creates miserable conditions. This would immediately raise the question of why — why would God create miserable conditions? I believe there are only two possible reasons: God is evil or God is carrying out punish…