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How
Can we Reconcile More Than 525,000 COVID-related USA Deaths with the Concept
of a Loving God?NEWS PROVIDED BY
Premier Christian Radio
April 1, 2021
LONDON, April 1, 2021 /Christian
Newswire/ -- Since the first reported case of COVID-19 in the United States
back in January 2020 more than 525,000 people have lost their lives to the
pandemic.
For many, including those with religious affiliations, suffering and death can
raise many profound questions around the existence of God.
So, is it Christianity or atheism which makes best sense of who we are? That's
the topic for the first episode of Season 3 of The Big
Conversation – a series of video debates featuring some of the world's
biggest thinkers – from a religious and atheistic perspective.
Available from Good Friday 2nd April 2021 (1pm Eastern and 10am Pacific) the
opening episode will explore the most pertinent questions: in particular,
whether human suffering and tragedy leave room for a caring, loving God.
In the first of the 6 episode Big Conversation series
Brierley welcomes Los Angeles-based
Bishop Robert Barron (founder of Word on Fire) whose popular
YouTube and social media ministry reaches hundreds of thousands of skeptics
along with
Alex O'Connor who is a Philosophy & Theology student at Oxford University.
As an increasingly well-known voice in online atheistic circles O'Connor's
YouTube channel
Cosmic Skeptic boasts more than 400,000 subscribers.
In the discussion O'Connor presses Bishop Barron on the problem of suffering in
light of the pandemic saying "100,000 people who have died of COVID [in the UK]
have done so because God allowed it."
Bishop Barron says that to blame God would itself require "a God-like
perspective on all of space and time."
He responds: "Like anybody who's lived more than 2 years on planet earth I've
suffered in my life and wondered 'why?' I totally get the emotional power of
that.
"I think we hardly ever see the reason why, but we might get glimpses. As a
pastoral minister, I've seen lots of examples of beautiful expressions of love
that have occurred in the midst of this pandemic. Now is that the reason? No. I
might get one little hint of one move on the chessboard of a good that has come
from this. Yet in faith I can place suffering within the context of God's
purposes."
You can watch a short promotional video
here.
The series is produced by Premier Christian Radio in partnership with the John
Templeton Foundation.
SOURCE Premier Christian Radio
CONTACT: David McCavery, +44 (0)773-963-1540,
david.mccavery@beattiegroup.com