Comment 10 by Liminal

2) How do Christians justify the callous cruelty of Nature, if made by an all good and caring creator? Predators must kill to survive, parasites must cause suffering and disease, the strong victimise the weak to keep themselves strong. None of this can be explained as a result of any "Fall" caused by man, For the simple reason that the "design" of claws, teeth, barbs, fangs, venoms etc., were integral to these species, yet must predate the first "Man" (even if Mike takes Genesis as literal truth). So, who put the cruelty into Nature?

But the Christian would turn the whole thing round and argue that its the atheist who is promoting a cold, cruel, and indifferent universe. And would equally as well argue ( and I've had this argument many a time ) how does one explain that. Even Dostoevsky could not resolve the absurdity of it all, despite arguing from all sides of the matter in books such as The Brothers Karamazov

There's a 'rationale' that gets built around the metaphysical script. It is lacking complete consistency, but it has enough to keep religion going. That is why I've increasingly come to the conclusion that arguments against God are pointless.......and that the best approach is quite simply to point out the absence of positive evidence.