Nice dodge, but no sale. You’ve put all your eggs in one basket, theodicy, and that basket must be examined. Theodicy is the primary weapon of the atheist. How could a holy God allow the holocaust to occur, at all? The atheist concludes that God is either not holy or not all powerful, and therefore in either case not God.
The problem of how evil can happen in a universe created by a holy God is not exclusively a Calvinist problem. It is a problem for all monotheists. For all your swagger, I am shocked you seem unaware of this.
And this is pragmatic to me personally. I have been an atheist. I am now a Christian. But my wife, whom I love dearly, has been through some very hard struggles, wherein the pleasant imaginations of her youth have been set aside for harder realities. Every day she wonders, with great pain, why God let it all happen. Do you think some unbiblical humanistic philosophy about free-will satisfies her? No, it does not.
There is a book I acquired, I can’t recall the name of it, surveying spiritual life among the Jewish survivors of the holocaust. Modern Judaism is comfortable with the idea of free-will. So how did it help? Not too much. There is a sharp division in the holocaust population. For some there was an increase of faith. But for many others, this problem of “Why, God?” could not be answered with glib platitudes of any kind. The holocaust was a gut-wrenching experience that turned many believing Jews to atheism.
Still, I understand if you don’t want to address it head on. It’s a very hard problem and it is not for the weak-kneed. If you would draw people to your position on emotional rather than logical or theological grounds, you should avoid it. Some of the rest of us will continue to struggle with it because it is in our life and we must deal with it one way or another.
But I must admit I am disappointed you didn’t respond to my Biblical question about Pilate versus Jesus. Is it that you can’t, or that you won’t? Just as a reminder, in case you are interested, the passage is here:
Act 4:27-28 “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.”
The passage applies to our theodicy problem because what Pilate did was clearly evil, yet God clearly meant it for good, the greatest good ever. Your “system” has no explanation for that? It wouldn’t surprise me. But if you wish not to respond, the choice is yours.
The problem of evil is a one religion has to reply to, yes.
The atheist says “God did it.” The Calvinist agrees.
Earlier I said that, IMHO, Calvinism has created more atheists than Christians. This is one of the reasons.