#145 The Problem of Evil and how Progressives Fail to Give a Meaningful Answer, w/ Doug Groothuis
The Alisa Childers Podcast
Alisa Childers
4.9 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2022
⏱️ 45 minutes
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Summary
Is it possible to find meaning in suffering? This was a question philosopher Doug Groothuis had to grapple with not just from an intellectual standpoint as a seminary professor and author of a respected apologetics textbook. He had to wrestle through this question emotionally when his wife Becky was diagnosed with a rare form of dementia that would take her life. His insights are powerful and profound and ultimately put the goodness and sovereignty of God on display.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And then we tried to figure out what was wrong. |
| 0:03.4 | Eventually she had to be hospitalized for depression. |
| 0:07.4 | And it was at that point where we found out that she had a very rare form of dementia called primary progressive aphasia. |
| 0:15.4 | But it was very odd because I, when I sat down to write the book, it was almost like the book was writing itself. |
| 0:22.4 | It was very odd. It was actually a very easy book to write. |
| 0:25.0 | In some ways it was the easiest book to write and the hardest experience to live. |
| 0:47.0 | Welcome to the Alisa Childers Podcast. |
| 0:49.0 | One of the biggest reasons people cite as reasons either they've deconstructed and walked away from their Christian faith, |
| 0:56.0 | or reasons that they think Christianity is untrue, is what we refer to in apologetics as the problem of evil. |
| 1:03.0 | The idea that when we look out into the world we see so much suffering and evil. |
| 1:08.0 | And then how do we make sense of that within the framework of a God that not only exists, but one who is also good and also all powerful. |
| 1:17.0 | I have an expert guest to bring to you today to talk about this topic. |
| 1:21.0 | And we're going to talk about the problem of evil and more specifically how movements like progressive Christianity really fail to give a satisfying answer to the problem of evil. |
| 1:32.0 | So I want to welcome to the podcast Dr. Doug Grotis, professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary. |
| 1:38.0 | He's a member of the Evangelical Philosophical Society. |
| 1:42.0 | He's a sad that you joined us today to talk about this really heavy topic, but one that you are well equipped on many levels to talk about. So welcome. |
| 1:50.0 | Thank you. I'm happy to be here. |
| 1:52.0 | So you've written on a vast number of topics from the new age to general apologetics to suffering. |
| 1:59.0 | And you've also I noticed lately I've I follow you on on social media. |
| 2:03.0 | And I've noticed that you started to review a couple of books written by progressive Christians, more specifically the universal Christ by Richard Roer. |
| 2:11.0 | And I've noticed by Nadia Bullt's Weber. Those are two books that I've also read and interacted with. |
| 2:17.0 | And you also I want to talk about a book that you have coming out. |
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