I noticed a link to a short post in Medium by Barry Lyons, a freelance writer. It is called “Ten Questions that a Theist Can’t Answer.” You might look at it, & I wrote replies to 3 of them.
Ten Questions that a Theist Can’t Answer
Hi Barry, thanks for laying out your questions!
Two or three ideas:
#2: You mentioned there is no evidence for a super-natural source to have created the universe. I see you refer to evidence elsewhere too. Just so I follow, what counts as evidence to you? What doesn’t, & why?
Also on #2, have you considered the kalam cosmological argument for God’s existence?
# 6: “Many theists believe that our moral sensibilities are essences or qualities that were given to us by a supernatural source (“God”). There is no evidence to support this claim…” [emphasis mine]
I’ve written an academic book on this specific topic: In Search of Moral Knowledge: Overcoming the Fact-Value Dichotomy (InterVarsity Press, 2014). I’d like to see what you think, if you like. In it, I argue that God is the best explanation for, & thus is the ground of, goodness.
# 9: If my argument in that book is cogent, & no other alternative basis for morals can actually preserve core morals that we know are good & right (e.g., justice is good, love is good, rape & murder are wrong), then it seems that God is the ground for goodness. To be truly good, God must be love, & also just. But, there’s evil …
First, I think evil is [metaphysically] best explained as the privation/absence of goodness, & thus not a thing God created. Since God is truly good & just, God cannot permit evil to be in his presence. Second, I think that if God is just & love, God would do something about evil [& yet be consistent with his love & justice] — to provide a way for humans to be able to freely choose to come into a relationship with him.
Still, with that free will, there are people who will choose not to be with God, & letting people make that choice reflects God’s respect of them as inherently valuable. I think hell is reserved for such people. And, yes, I think God foreknew various people would make that choice. But, I don’t think that foreknowledge entails determination (cf. arguments for “middle knowledge”).
Hope these are helpful!