Dialogue of Good, Evil, and the Existence of God by John Perry

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Dialogue of Good, Evil, and the Existence of God by John Perry

In John Perry's book Dialogue on Good, Evil and the Existence of God, he used three characters in the dialogue in order to clarify the positions of the three characters (Weirob, Miller, and Cohen), the arguments they provide in support their positions and the "end state" of their discussion. This allows us to examine our understanding of the good, evil and the existence of God.

Perry shows a clear position of Weirob, Miller, and Cohen. Weirob is a philosopher who is not a Christian. She does not believe God exist. She only believe evil exist without God. She thinks if God really exists in this world, then God is a monster (evil) because God lets her suffered. She challenges with Miller's belief and claims that there is no God exist. She wants Miller to proof there is possibility of his beliefs. Miller is a Christian who believes in God. He thinks evil and God can both exist in this world. Therefore, he has to convince Weirob to believe there is possibility that God and evil are both exist in order to win the debate and also pray for her. Cohen is a neutral one between them. He is the judge. He helps Weirob and Miller to figure out what is their own point of view all the times and also he raises some useful ideas to solve their arguments. It seems that he is so helpful in this debate.

Weirob does not believe in God, so she does not admit Miller to pray for her. First, Weirob claims, "how in the world does a prayer help?" (p.2) to raise the debate of good, evil and the existence of God. She thinks Miller simply would be communication to his omniscient God for what God already knows, thereby wasting God's time and his ...

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...te. But he is really helpful to them because he raises some useful ideas during the debate. Finally, he does not really show up what is his thinking, but his ideas are very convincing us to think he believes there is God exists.

After reading this book, I know the author Perry tries to use these dialogues of three characters to explain that we have freedom to choose our own beliefs and also the definition of good and evil can be difference because different people will have different point of views. Especially other creatures and human maybe have different definition in good and evil, joy and suffering. Furthermore, he convince us that there is no inconsistent between good and evil, suffering and pleasure because two things seem contradiction to each other but actually they could be fit together with an actual providing of a possible big picture.

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