Hey friends, Alisa Childers here. With all the pain and all the suffering in our world,

it can sometimes be difficult to imagine that a good God exists. And if he does, why

does he allow so much evil in our world? Answering this question is called the Odyssey.

And it's a question that not only keeps some people from faith, but it's a question that

Christians wrestle with as well. So we have a special guest to help us wrestle with it

on today's podcast.

Today's guest is the Associate Professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University.

He's author to Apologetic Software as well as written some encyclopedia and journal articles.

He's got a really great, really informative blog at his personal website, clayjones.net.

You really want to check out his blog. You'll be glad you did. So fun fact, he formerly hosted

a nationally syndicated talk radio program called Contend for Truth in which he debated

Buddhists, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientologists, Mormons, Humanists, and PETA. So

he's no stranger to controversy. So it's no surprise that his recent book touches upon

a very sensitive and controversial topic. Why does God allow evil? In fact, that is the

title of the book. And it's really fantastic. I just finished reading it. And you can get

that on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Christianbook.com. So clayjones, Clay, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me, Alisa. Now, okay. So I have to ask you to start out with,

Scientology is really big in the news right now. What was it like debating a Scientologist?

Well, the guy didn't stand a chance, frankly. And I don't, I might be a funny way to put it, but

they're not used to really having their ideas challenged. And for instance, Elwan Hubbard once said,

before he started Scientology, he said, writing for a penny of word, he was a science fiction writer,

he says, writing for a penny of word is ridiculous. He says, if anybody wanted to really make a lot

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