2A Problem of Evil and Suffering

Question 1

What is evil?

Answer 1

Anything that causes suffering

Question 2

What is moral evil? Give three examples.

Answer 2

• Suffering brought about through the actions of a free will-agent.
• Murder, rape, terrorism

Question 3

What is natural evil? Give three examples.

Answer 3

• Suffering brought about through events outside of the control of free-will agents; most commonly occurring as part of the natural order.
• Earthquake, tsunami, disease

Question 4

Why is evil a challenge to the God of Classical Theism? (Basic answer)

Answer 4

• Followers believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving creator of the universe, but evil does not fit comfortably with human experience.
• Why does creation suffer appalling extremes if God has these qualities?

Question 5

Who is associated with the classical problem of evil? Give a quote from him.

Answer 5

• Epicurus.

* “If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked.”

Question 6

What are the three components to the inconsistent triad?

Answer 6

• Omnipotence, omnibenevolence, evil exists: logically inconsistent for all three statements to exist simultaneously

Question 7

Who is the inconsistent triad associated with?

Answer 7

John L. Mackie

Question 8

Triad: If God was omnipotent, he…

Answer 8

• Would have the power to remove evil
• Could have created a world w/o evil
• Would have “unqualified omnipotence”, incorporating omniscience: omnipotence w/o any restrictions due to constraints of the world

Question 9

Triad: If God was omnibenevolent, he…

Answer 9

• Would remove evil so that creation does not suffer

* Idea that he would tolerate evil/suffering = anathema to concept of omnibenevolence

Question 10

Triad: Does evil exist?

Answer 10

• Existence is so tangible in its effect and scope that any denial of its existence would be nonsensical

Question 11

What is a possible solution to the inconsitent triad?

Answer 11

Remove one of the three points.

Question 12

Triad: What are the effects of removing omnipotence?

Answer 12

• He wants to remove evil but does not have the power, ∴ we can see why evil exists
• Process theologians believe that God was part of the universe ∴ while he started the evolutionary process, he does not have the power to remove evil (regarded as “The fellow sufferer who understands”)

Question 13

Triad: What is the problem of removing omnipotence?

Answer 13

God = responsible for creating the universe ex nihilo ∴ is greater than the universe

Question 14

Triad: What are the effects of removing omnibenevolence?

Answer 14

• Having the power does not mean he wants to
• Why should he care if his creation suffers?
∴ Considered malicious and may enjoy seeing his creation suffer

Question 15

Triad: What is the problem of removing omnibenevolence?

Answer 15

• So far from the imagination of all Classical theistic religions

Question 16

Triad: What is the effect of removing ‘evil exists’?

Answer 16

• Our preception is wrong, we cannot see that suffering has a purpose and ∴ is not evil
• Some ‘evils’ are better than actual evil, e.g smacking a child’s hand away from a boiling pot

Question 17

Triad: What is the problem of removing ‘evil exists’?

Answer 17

Effects of evil are too widely felt to be dismissable

Question 18

What is Mackie’s ‘Paradox of Omnipotence’?

Answer 18

Theists maintain that there are no limits to what an omnipotent being can do, but the solutions/theodicies limit God’s power while misleadingly keeping the term omnipotence ∴ changed premise

Question 19

Mackie: “Can an omnipotent being make things which he subsequently cannot control? Or…make rules which then bind himself?”

Answer 19

• “Cannot be answered satisfactorily in either the affirmative or the negative”:
• Yes: “He is not omnipotent once he has made them.”
• No: “immediately asserting that there are things which he cannot do [∴] He is already not omnipotent.”

Question 20

What is the only solution to the ‘Paradox of Omnipotence’? What is the problem of this?

Answer 20

• “Deny that God is a continuing being” or “by putting God outside time”
• Any solution to the problem of evil that involves free will is immediately compromised

Question 21

What is Aquinas’ response to the problem of evil?

Answer 21

• Our ‘goodness’/’evil’ may be different from God’s as ours is relative to time/culture whereas God is a perfect, immutable being ∴ his concepts of good/evil are likewise unchangeable
• ∴ no logical contradiction in triad
• ∴ omnipotence is not questioned

Question 22

Summarise William Rowe’s evidential problem of evil.

Answer 22

• His approach involves consideration of whether, and to what extent, the existence of evil can be used as evidence to argue against God’s existence
• Seems reasonable to allow limited suffering for growth/development but “intense” + animal suffering is not reasonable
• If God = omnipotent+omniscient+omnibenevolent, He would know when suffering is about to take place and could/would want to prevent all suffering that does not have a purpose
• As such evil/suffering exists, God probably does not exist.

Question 23

What example does William Rowe use to illustrate his point?

Answer 23

A fawn caught in a forest fire

Question 24

Summarise Gregory Paul’s statistical problem of evil.

Answer 24

• Estimated 50 billion children have died naturally before reaching “the age of mature consent” + 300 billion prenatal deaths (“The Holocaust of the children”)
• Millions of children die every year from natural/evil causes and they are too young to make choices about God.
• No all-loving, all-powerful being would permit this
God does not exist