The "Friendly Atheist" blogger, Hemant Mehta, wrote a blog post that, in essence, criticized Christians for praising God for good things, but not blaming God for bad things. Specifically, the blogger criticized two Christian women for crediting God for the fact that they were able to save a child from a hit-and-run. Hemant had this to say: “Let’s all state the obvious together: If God really was there for Peyton, maybe He shouldn’t have let the child get hit by a car.”[i] The atheist shared the post on his Facebook page, and as expected, his humanist allies were very supportive of the post. They reveled in an imaginary victory of intellectually defeating the Christian worldview. One of the more popular comments (due to the number of "likes") came from BF, who compared God to a serial killer. Another humanist, SL, replied to his comment and piled on, using the same false analogy. I jumped in the thread and provided a comment back to both BF and SL. Below is Part 1 of 5 of the Blame and Praise Debate.
BF:
Also does God get the blame for the kids who are hit by cars but don't live? Like praising a serial killer for the people they don't murder.
SL:
"After a year long, nation wide search for Mr Killer Mcmurdington, the serial killer accused of the deaths of hundreds, the FBI finally has him in custody. Mr Mcmurdington has been severely thanked for not killing everyone else in the country."
Me:
BF and SL: I assume the point you are trying to make is this: Christians are contradicting themselves when they praise God for lives that are saved, but don’t “blame” God for lives that are lost. First, if you are talking about the God of the Bible, then your likening of God to a serial killer and “blaming” God for death and suffering is a strawman fallacy. Death and suffering is a consequence of man’s evil actions, so mankind ultimately deserves the “blame” for the 100% mortality rate (Genesis 3, Romans 5:12, etc.), not God. Life, and especially eternal life through Christ, is an undeserved gift (Ephesians 2:8), so God gets the praise for that. With that being said, it’s interesting that you lament the supposed contradiction. Regarding the law of non-contradiction, God created the laws of the universe (Jeremiah 33:25), cannot “deny” Himself (2 Timothy 2:13), and upholds the universe by His power (Hebrews 1:3). Consequently, the law of non-contradiction is expected within the Christian worldview. Therefore, here is my question for you: in your materialistic, evolutionary worldview, how do you account for the law of non-contradiction? For example, why can’t two plus two equal four and not equal four simultaneously in a universe that came to exist via random, material processes?
BF replies later on in the debate, but he does not answer my question. I didn't see any response from SL. I waited about an hour and a half after my first comment and did not see any responses. I had to go to bed after that, and four other humanists apparently joined in on the thread in the middle of the night (perhaps they live on the west coast?) and offered replies to my comment. I saw their comments the next day and replied to all four of them. I know at least one of the six (total) humanists saw my rebuttals, and this debate takes quite the twist toward the end. I will share the rest of the debate over the course of four more blog posts.
[i] Hemant Mehta, "If God If God Gets Credit for Saving Hit-&-Run Victim, Blame Him for Letting It Happen." Patheos, 15 January 2018. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/01/15/if-god-gets-credit-for-saving-hit-run-victim-blame-him-for-letting-it-happen/