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Natural evil, or surd evil, is a term generally used in discussions of the problem of evil and theodicy that refers to states of affairs which, considered in themselves, are to be avoided and not to be promoted, and for which no agent is morally responsible. It stands in contrast to moral evil.

Nature of natural evil[link]

Moral evil results from a perpetrator, or one who acts intentionally and in so doing has flouted some duty or engaged in some vice. Natural evil has only victims, and is generally taken to be the result of natural processes. The "evil" thus identified is evil only from the perspective of those affected and who perceive it as an affliction. Examples include cancer, birth defects, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, acts of god, and other phenomena which inflict suffering with apparently no accompanying mitigating good. Such phenomena inflict "evil" on victims, but with no human perpetrator to blame for it.

Natural versus moral evil[link]

Jean Jacques Rousseau responded to Voltaire's criticism of the optimists by pointing out that the value judgement required in order to declare the 1755 Lisbon earthquake a natural evil ignored the fact that the human endeavour of the construction and organization of the city of Lisbon was also to blame for the horrors recounted as they had contributed to the level of suffering. It was, after all, the collapsing buildings, the fires, and the close human confinement that led to much of the death.

The question of whether natural disasters such as hurricanes might be natural or moral evil is complicated by new understandings of the effects, such as global warming, of our collective actions on events that were previously considered to be out of our control. Certain such disasters, however, such as damage caused by a meteorite, cannot be ascribed to the actions of humans.

Another common argument, espoused by Alvin Plantinga, is that everything that appears at first glance to be natural evil could in fact be moral evil committed by freely acting supernatural beings, such as fallen angels.

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Ravi Zacharias
Born	1946 (1946) (age 66) Chennai, Madras Presidency, British India
Residence	Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Nationality	Indian, Canadian and American
Occupation	Christian apologist, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
Religion	Christian
Website
http://www.rzim.org

Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias (born 1946) is an Indian-born, Canadian-American evangelical Christian apologist. Zacharias is the author of numerous Christian books, including Gold Medallion Book Award winner Can Man Live Without God?^[1] and bestsellers Light in the Shadow of Jihad^[2] and The Grand Weaver.^[3] He is the founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, host of the radio programs Let My People Think and Just Thinking, and visiting professor at Wycliffe Hall of Oxford, where he teaches apologetics and evangelism.^[4] Zacharias studied as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University and held the chair in Evangelism and Contemporary Thought at Alliance Theological Seminary from 1981 to 1984.^[5] Commentator Chuck Colson referred to Zacharias as "the great apologist of our time."^[6]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Zacharias was born in Madras, India. Zacharias claims descent from a woman (of the Nambudiri Brahmin caste) and a low caste Boatman^[7]. Missionaries spoke to one of his ancestors about Christianity and thereafter the family was converted. Zacharias grew up in a nominal Anglican household,^[7] and he himself was an atheist until the age of 17, when he unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide by swallowing poison. While in the hospital, a local Christian worker brought him a Bible and instructed his mother to read to him out of John 14. Zacharias says that it was John 14:19 that touched him and caused him to commit his life to Christ.^[7]

He immigrated with his family to Canada in 1966, earning his undergraduate degree from Ontario Bible College in 1972 (now Tyndale University College & Seminary) and his M. Div. from Trinity International University. In May 1972, Zacharias married Margaret ("Margie") Reynolds, whom he met at his church's youth group.^[7] They have three children, Sarah, Naomi and Nathan.^[8] He was later ordained by the Christian and Missionary Alliance and commissioned as an international evangelist.^[9] He founded Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in 1984 to pursue his calling as a "classical evangelist in the arena of the intellectually resistant."^[9]

Ministry[link]

Zacharias was invited to spend the summer of 1971 in Vietnam, where he evangelized to the American soldiers, as well as to POWs and Viet Cong.^[7] After graduating from Ontario Bible College, he began an itinerant ministry with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada.^[7] In 1974 the C&MA sent him to Cambodia, where he preached only a short time before its fall to the Khmer Rouge.^[7] In 1977, after graduating from Trinity, Zacharias was commissioned to preach worldwide.^[7]

In 1983, Zacharias was invited to speak in Amsterdam at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's annual evangelists' conference. It was here that he first noticed a lack of ministry in the area of Christian apologetics.^[7] After Amsterdam, Zacharias spent the summer evangelizing in India, where he continued to see the need for apologetics ministry, both to lead people to Christ and to train Christian leaders. In August 1984 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries was founded in Toronto, Canada. Today its headquarters is located in Atlanta, Georgia, and has offices in Canada, England, India, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.^[7]

In 1989, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Zacharias was invited to speak in Moscow. While there he spoke to students at the Lenin Military Academy as well as political leaders at the Center for Geopolitical Strategy.^[7] This was the first of many evangelism opportunities towards the political world. Future events included an invitation to Bogota, Colombia in 1993, where he spoke to the judiciary committee on the importance of having a solid moral foundation.^[7]

Zacharias took a sabbatical in 1990 and spent part of that year as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University. There he heard lectures by men such as Stephen Hawking and studied under professors such as John Polkinghorne and Don Cupitt. He also wrote his first book, A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism.^[7] In 1993 Zacharias was invited to speak at his first Veritas Forum at Harvard University,^[7] and later that year was one of the keynote speakers at Urbana.^[10] Zacharias continues to be a frequent guest at these forums,^[11] both giving lectures and answering students in question and answer sessions at academic institutions such as the University of Georgia,^[12] the University of Michigan,^[13] and Penn State.^[14]

Zacharias attracted media attention when in 2004 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) opened its signature pulpit at the Salt Lake Tabernacle to him for a series of messages. Zacharias delivered a sermon on "Who Is the Truth? Defending Jesus Christ as The Way, The Truth and The Life" to some 7,000 lay-persons and scholars from both LDS and Protestant camps in an initiatory move towards open dialog between the camps.^[15]

Some evangelicals criticized Zacharias' decision not to use this opportunity to directly address the "deep and foundational" differences between the historic Christian faith and that of the LDS church. He responded by asserting that Christians should not immediately condemn Mormonism's theological differences but "graciously build one step at a time in communicating our faith with clarity and conviction". He said this is just as effective as showing someone the faults of their faith.^[16] The speaking engagement was nearly sabotaged by a claim by event organizer Greg Johnson, president of Standing Together, that Zacharias had nothing to do with editing the book The Kingdom of the Cults and had only loaned his name to the latest edition. Johnson later apologized for his comment.^[17]

Zacharias is a frequent keynote lecturer within the evangelical community at events such as the Future of Truth conference in 2004,^[18] the National Religious Broadcasters' Convention and Exposition in 2005,^[19] the National Conference on Christian Apologetics in 2006.^[20] On successive nights in October 2007, he addressed first the students and faculty of Virginia Tech, then the community of Blacksburg, Virginia, on the topic of evil and suffering in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre.^[21] Zacharias has represented the evangelical community at occasions such as the National Day of Prayer in Washington, DC, the Annual Prayer Breakfast at the United Nations, and the African Union Prayer Breakfast in Maputo, Mozambique, and was named honorary chairman of the 2008 National Day of Prayer task force.^[22]

Zacharias was interviewed in Focus on the Family's Truth Project. In November 2009, Zacharias signed an ecumenical statement known as the Manhattan Declaration calling on Evangelicals, Catholics and Orthodox to engage in civil disobedience with regard to laws which the declaration claims would force them to accept abortion, same-sex marriage or other matters that go against their religious consciences.^[23]

Philosophy[link]

Zacharias states that a coherent worldview must be able to satisfactorily answer four questions: that of origin, meaning of life, morality and destiny. He says that while every major religion makes exclusive claims about truth, the Christian faith is unique in its ability to answer all four of these questions.^[24] He routinely speaks on the coherency of the Christian worldview,^[25] saying that Christianity is capable of withstanding the toughest philosophical attacks.^[26] Zacharias believes that the apologist must argue from three levels: the theoretical, to line up the logic of the argument; the arts, to illustrate; and "kitchen table talk", to conclude and apply.^[27]

Zacharias's style of apologetic focuses predominantly on Christianity's answers to life's great existential questions,^[28] with logical and scientifically inclined defense of God. In some discussion Zacharias appropriates to scientific matters, he answers the question of human origin. He has voiced skepticism over what he believes to be inadequate empirical evidence in the fossil records for an honest endorsement of the theory of evolution. He believes that evolution is incompatible with the second law of thermodynamics, saying that the two are inconsistent and irreconcilable.^[29] This view is rejected by many in the scientific community.^[30]

Ravi Zacharias also believes that in Christianity homosexual acts are an “aberration” and “violation” of human sexuality and that though some people may have a homosexual “disposition,” they are not justified in expressing that disposition.^[31]

Works[link]

• A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism (1994, 2004) ISBN 0-8010-6511-9
• Can Man Live Without God? (1994, 1996) ISBN 0-8499-3943-7
• Deliver Us From Evil (1996, 1998) ISBN 0-8499-3950-X
• Cries of the Heart (1998, 2002) ISBN 0-8499-4387-6
• The Merchant and the Thief (1999) (Children’s) ISBN 0-7814-3296-0
• The Broken Promise (2000) (Children's) ISBN 0-7814-3451-3
• Jesus Among Other Gods (2000, 2002) ISBN 0-8499-4327-2
• Jesus Among Other Gods (Youth Edition) (2000) ISBN 0-8499-4217-9
• The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks with Buddha (2001) ISBN 1-57673-854-X
• Sense and Sensuality: Jesus Talks with Oscar Wilde (2002) ISBN 1-59052-014-9
• Light in the Shadow of Jihad: The Struggle For Truth (2002) ISBN 1-57673-989-9
• Recapture the Wonder (2003) ISBN 1-59145-276-7
• Is Your Church Ready?: Motivating Leaders to Live an Apologetic Life (2003) (Editor, with Norman Geisler) ISBN 0-310-25061-7
• Who Made God? And Answers to Over 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith (2003) (General Editor, with Norman Geisler) ISBN 0-310-24710-1
• The Kingdom of the Cults (2003) (Editor) ISBN 0-7642-2821-8
• I, Isaac Take Thee, Rebekah: Moving From Romance to Lasting Love (2004) ISBN 0-8499-0822-1
• The Prince and the Prophet: Jesus Talks With Mohammed (Copyright 2004, to be released posthumously) ISBN 1-59052-319-9
• The Lamb and the Führer: Jesus Talks with Hitler (2005) ISBN 1-59052-394-6
• Walking From East to West: God in the Shadows (With R.S.B. Sawyer) (2006) ISBN 0-310-25915-0
• The Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives (2007) ISBN 0-310-26952-0
• Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend (2008) ISBN 0-8499-1968-1
• The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists (2008) ISBN 0-310-28251-9
• Is There Not a Cause (2008) (National Day of Prayer Feature Book)
• New Birth or Rebirth: Jesus Talks with Krishna (2008) ISBN 1-59052-725-9
• There is a Plan (2009) (excerpts from The Grand Weaver) ISBN 0-310-31849-1
• Has Christianity Failed You? (2010) ISBN 0-310-26955-5
• The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks with Buddha (2010) ISBN 1-60142-318-7
• Why Jesus? Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality (2012) ISBN 978-0-89296-319-5

References[link]

External links[link]

	Christianity portal
	Biography portal

• Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
• Ravi Zacharias Radio Broadcasts Just Thinking and Let My People Think

David A. Kyle (born February 14, 1919) is a Potsdam, New York-based science fiction writer and prominent member of science fiction fandom.

Professional career[link]

With Martin Greenberg, Kyle founded Gnome Press in 1948. He has written two pictorial histories of science fiction (A Pictorial History of Science Fiction and The Illustrated Book of Science Fiction Ideas and Dreams) and three licensed novels set in the Lensman universe (The Dragon Lensman, Lensman from Rigel and Z-Lensman).

He appeared with Paul Levinson, Greg Bear and many others on the History Channel's 2002 documentary, Fantastic Voyage: Evolution of Science Fiction.

Fandom[link]

Kyle, an active fan since the earliest days of organized science fiction fandom, was an original member of New York's Futurians.

He attended the first Worldcon, and both wrote and printed the "Yellow Pamphlet" condemning the organizers. The manifesto led chairman Sam Moskowitz to ban several prominent members of the Futurians from that convention.^[1][2]

Kyle chaired the 1956 14th World Science Fiction Convention (NyCon II), inspiring the fan catchphrase, "Dave Kyle says you can't sit here." He was created a Knight of The Order of Saint Fantony in 1961, and was awarded the Big Heart Award in 1973. Kyle was also Fan Guest of Honor at ConStellation, the 41st World Science Fiction Convention, in 1983.

In addition, he has written hundreds of articles for various fanzines, including regular articles for Richard and Nicki Lynch's Mimosa.

Kyle married another fan, Ruth Evelyn Landis (whom he had met through fandom), on August 31, 1957; for their honeymoon they flew to England for the 1957 Worldcon there, together with 53 friends and in-laws, on a specially chartered flight.^[3] They remained married until her death on January 5, 2011. They had a son Arthur and a daughter Kerry.^[4]

References[link]

1. ^ Kyle, David. "The Great Exclusion Act of 1939". Mimosa no. 6.
2. ^ Kyle, Dave. "Caravan to the Stars". Mimosa no. 22, pp. 4–8.
3. ^ Kyle, David. "A Fan-Tastic Honeymoon: An Air Wonder Story". Mimosa no. 30, pp. 25–27.
4. ^ "Obituaries: Ruth Evelyn Kyle, 81, formerly of Potsdam". NorthCountryNow.com, January 6, 2011.

External links[link]

• Detailed biography and links to Kyle's articles for Mimosa
• Information on Kyle's three authorized "Second Stage Lensman" novels
• Articles about Futurians and old Fandom by David Kyle
• David Kyle at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

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This article about an American science fiction writer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

For others of the same name, see Kyle Johnson (disambiguation).

Albert Kyle Johnson (born December 15, 1978 in Wheaton, Illinois) is an American football fullback who is currently a free agent. He was originally drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the fifth round of the 2002 NFL Draft. He played college football at Syracuse.

High school career[link]

As a senior at Woodbridge High School in Woodbridge NJ, Johnson won second team All-State recognition, All-County honors, and All-Area honors.^[1]

College career[link]

Johnson played collegiately for Syracuse. However, an ankle injury ended his season in the opener but still had 20 touchdowns; he was subsequently granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA.

Kyle was drafted by the Carolina Panthers as the 10th pick in the 5th round of the 2002 NFL Draft. He was cut by the team after training camp and spent time on the New York Giants and Detroit Lions' practice squads.

He was signed by Denver to their active roster in late 2002, but was inactive for the remainder of the season and spent the next year being shuffled between the active roster and the practice squad. He began 2004 with the Broncos as a backup and special teams player; however, injuries led to starting fullback Reuben Droughns being moved to tailback, leaving the fullback spot to Johnson. However, after three starts, he suffered a season-ending injury to his right ankle.

On September 1, 2007, Johnson was cut from the Denver Broncos. He resigned with the Broncos on November 22, 2007 when guard Isaac Snell was cut to make room for Johnson due to the injuries of Travis Henry, Selvin Young and Paul Smith. He was cut again on November 27, 2007.

External links[link]

• Denver Broncos bio

References[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2008)

Colin McGinn (born March 10, 1950) is a British philosopher currently working at the University of Miami. McGinn has also held major teaching positions at Oxford University and Rutgers University. He is best known for his work in the philosophy of mind, though he has written on topics across the breadth of modern philosophy. Chief among his works intended for a general audience is the intellectual memoir The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century Philosophy (2002).

Biography[link]

Colin McGinn was born in the town of West Hartlepool, England in 1950.^[1] He enrolled in Manchester University to study psychology. However, by the time he received his degree in psychology from Manchester in 1971 (by writing a thesis focusing on the ideas of Noam Chomsky), he wanted to study philosophy as a postgraduate. By 1972, McGinn was admitted into Oxford University's Bachelor of Letters postgraduate programme, in hopes of eventually gaining entrance into Oxford's postgraduate Bachelor of Philosophy programme.

McGinn quickly made the transition from psychology to philosophy during his first term at Oxford. After working zealously to make the transition, he was soon admitted into the B.Phil. programme under the recommendation of his advisor, Michael R. Ayers. Shortly after entering the philosophy programme, he won the John Locke Prize in 1972. By 1974, McGinn received the B.Phil degree from Oxford, writing a thesis under the supervision of P. F. Strawson, which focused on the semantics of Donald Davidson.

In 1974, McGinn took his first philosophy position at University College London. In January 1980, he spent two semesters at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a visiting professor. Then, shortly after declining a job at University of Southern California, he succeeded Gareth Evans as Wilde Reader at Oxford University. In 1988, shortly after a visiting term at City University of New York (CUNY), McGinn received a job offer from Rutgers University. He accepted the offer from Rutgers, joining ranks with, among others, Jerry Fodor in the philosophy department. McGinn stayed at Rutgers until 2006, when he accepted a job offer from University of Miami as full time professor.

Work[link]

Although McGinn has written dozens of articles in philosophical logic, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language, he is best known for his work in the philosophy of mind. In his 1989 article "Can We Solve the Mind-Body Problem?", McGinn speculates that the human mind is innately incapable of comprehending itself entirely, and that this incapacity spawns the puzzles of consciousness that have preoccupied Western philosophy since Descartes. Thus, McGinn's answer to the hard problem of consciousness is that humans cannot find the answer. This position has been nicknamed the "New Mysterianism". The Mysterious Flame: Conscious Minds in a Material World (2000) is a non-technical exposition of McGinn's theory.

Outside of philosophy, McGinn has written a novel entitled The Space Trap (1992). He was also featured prominently as an interviewee in Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief, a documentary mini-series about atheism's history. He discussed the philosophy of belief as well as his own beliefs as an antitheist.

He is cited by Michio Kaku in "Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize The 21st Century" and in "Physics of the Impossible" regarding the subjective experience that arises from matter or the impossibility of building machines that can think: "is like slugs trying to do Freudian psychoanalysis, they just don't have the conceptual equipment."

Books[link]

A partial list of books by Colin McGinn:

• Mindfucking (2008). Acumen, ISBN 1-84465-114-2.
• Shakespeare's Philosophy: Discovering the Meaning Behind the Plays (2006). HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-085615-7.
• The Power of Movies: How Screen and Mind Interact (2005). Pantheon, ISBN 0-375-42317-6.
• Mindsight: Image, Dream, Meaning (2004). Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-01560-6.
• Consciousness and Its Objects (2004). Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-926760-X.
• The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century Philosophy (2002). HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-019792-7 (first edition). (Reprint edition, 2003, Harper Perennial, ISBN 0-06-095760-3.)
• Logical Properties: Identity, Existence, Predication, Necessity, Truth (2001). Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-924181-3.
• The Mysterious Flame: Conscious Minds in a Material World (1999). Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-01422-4.
• Knowledge and Reality: Selected Papers (1998). Oxford University Press.
• Ethics, Evil and Fiction (1997). Oxford University Press.
• Minds and Bodies: Philosophers and Their Ideas (1997). Oxford University Press.
• Problems in Philosophy: the Limits of Inquiry (1993). Blackwell.
• The Space Trap (1992). Duckworth.
• Moral Literacy: Or How To Do The Right Thing (1992). Duckworth. Hackett, 1993.
• The Problem of Consciousness (1991). Basil Blackwell.
• Mental Content (1989). Basil Blackwell.
• Wittgenstein on Meaning (1984). Basil Blackwell.
• The Subjective View: Secondary Qualities and Indexical Thoughts (1983). Oxford University Press.
• The Character of Mind (1982). Oxford University Press. (Second edition, 1997.)

Selected articles[link]

A partial list of articles by Colin McGinn (emphasis on scholarly philosophical articles):

• "Another Look at Colour" (1996). Journal of Philosophy.
• "Consciousness and Space" (1995). Journal of Consciousness Studies.
• "The Problem of Philosophy" (1994). Philosophical Studies.
• "Must I Be Morally Perfect?" (1992). Analysis.
• "Conceptual Causation: Some Elementary Reflections" (1991). Mind.
• "Can We Solve the Mind-Body Problem?" Mind, 1989.
• "What is the Problem of Other Minds?" (1984). Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society.
• "Two Notions of Realism?" (1983). Philosophical Topics.
• "Realist Semantics and Content Ascription" (1982). Synthese.
• "Rigid Designation and Semantic Value" (1982). Philosophical Quarterly.
• "Philosophical Materialism" (1980). Synthese
• "An A Priori Argument for Realism" (1979). The Journal of Philosophy.
• "Single-case Probability and Logical Form" (1979). Mind.
• "Charity, Interpretation and Belief" (1977). The Journal of Philosophy.
• "Semantics for Nonindicative Sentences" (1977). Philosophical Studies.
• "A Priori and A Posteriori Knowledge" (1976). Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society.
• "A Note on the Frege Argument" (1976). Mind.
• "On the Necessity of Origin" (1976). The Journal of Philosophy.
• "A Note on the Essence of Natural Kinds" (1975). Analysis.
• "Mach and Husserl" (1972). Journal for the British Society of Phenomenology.

External links[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Colin McGinn

• Colin McGinn's Blog
• CV — curriculum vitae.
• To Be Or Not To Be: Colin McGinn Dissects The Philosophy of Shakespeare's Plays
• [2] — scroll down for transcript of an interview with McGinn on the 2006 PBS program "Bill Moyer on Faith & Reason".
• Conscious Entities — information on McGinn's views on consciousness.
• Colin McGinn in ZhurnalyWiki — a review of McGinn's autobiography.
• "Apes, Humans, Aliens, Vampires and Robots". In Paola Cavalieri & Peter Singer (eds.), The Great Ape Project, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1993, pp. 146–151.

References[link]

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2008)

• McGinn, Colin. (2002). The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century Philosophy. HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-019792-7 (first edition). (Reprint edition, 2003, Harper Perennial, ISBN 0-06-095760-3.)