ilable forordinary human concerns. Thus the great trade-off: A God who is trulyGod (in the Western sense) isn't of much practical use; a god who is oneof many scheming, self-interested gods doesn't inspire much awe.MONOTHEISM'S THREE-PRONGED PROBLEM Monotheism also contains another essential problem--one withimplications for the future. The Western God of theJewish-Christian-Islamic tradition illustrates the core difficulty inmonotheism, a philosophical conundrum that has been called the theodicyproblem. It is formulated as a trilemma and can best be illustrated thisway: Among the following three statements, it is logically possible toreconcile any two of them, but the agreement of two implies that thethird is false. The three statements are: 1. God is omnipotent. 2. God loves us. 3. Evil exists. In the first instance, if God can do anything (create the universe,for example), and if the universe contains natural and moral evils(hurricanes and Hitlers, for example), then it would seem that God lackscompassion for the victims, especially when these victims are innocentsufferers. Dostoyevsky's character Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov makesthis case eloquently when he tells the story of innocent childrentortured by cruel soldiers in front of their parents. How could a lovingGod allow this? The second case is the acceptance of a loving, concerned God and theexistence of evil in the world. This implies that even God cannot find away to eliminate evil, or at least reserve it as punishment only forthose who deserve it. A God who cannot do this is less than omnipotent. Finally, one can believe in the omnipotence of God and His lovingcompassion, but then some explanation is required for the evil andsuffering we see around us. It may be that suffering is a test from God(but surely an omnipotent God would know the outcome of such a testbefore it were given), or that suffering is used by God for greaterpurposes (but then God'...
