Bertrand Russell and the dying child (William Lane Craig)

[Reformed Covenanter]

Bertrand Russell once remarked that no one can sit by the bedside of a dying child and still believe in God. But when I was in Paris, I met a young American minister who had been trained in seminary and worked in counseling dying children. What would Bertrand Russell have said to those children? I wondered. What could he say? Too bad? The cruelty would be unimaginable. If there is no immortality, then the capriciousness of death is a tyranny of the bitterest sort.

William Lane Craig, The Son Rises: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2000), p. 14.

N.B. Obviously, I am no fan of William Lane Craig's theology as a whole. His apologetic material is often useful, however.

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

Another useful observation from the same source:

Man is oriented toward the infinite, for any lesser goal would not satisfy his endless striving. In this sense, man is oriented toward God. Only in the infinite being of God can man’s fundamental striving be fulfilled. I am reminded of Augustine’s words, “You have made us for Yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in You.”

William Lane Craig, The Son Rises: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2000), p. 16.

 

[Miss Marple]

I don't think I could sit beside a dying child and not believe in God.

See the wicked results of our sin. Know the hope of God's mercy. See the image of God in the child.

 

[LilyG]

I don't think I could sit beside a dying child and not believe in God.

See the wicked results of our sin. Know the hope of God's mercy. See the image of God in the child.

I often think the same thing when the objection of evil and suffering arises. How is it not a megaphone that something has gone terribly wrong?