3.1 The Problem Of Evil And Suffering

Question 1

What is meant by natural evil?

Answer 1

Evil caused by the natural state of things e.g. the 2018 Indonesian earthquake

Question 2

What is meant by moral evil?

Answer 2

Evil that has come about as a direct result of human intentions and choices e.g. murder, theft, rape etc

Question 3

Which of the evils is easier to explain for religious believers?

Answer 3

Moral evil as it is caused by humans exercising their free will

Question 4

What is the logical problem of evil?

Answer 4

Put forward by the pre-Christian Greek thinker Epicurus and focuses on the INCONSISTENT TRIAD

Question 5

What is the inconsistent triad?

Answer 5

• the premises that god is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent are inconsistent with the fact that evil exists.
• if god is omnipotent, he can stop evil
• if god is omniscient, he knows about evil and how to stop it
• if god is omnibenevolent, he would want to stop evil

Question 6

What does Hume add to the logical problem of evil?

Answer 6

As evil does exist, the god of classical theism doesn’t

Question 7

What does J L Mackie propose in “Evil and Omnipotence”

Answer 7

There are adequate and fallacious solutions to the problem of evil

Question 8

What are the adequate solutions to the problem of evil according to Mackie?

Answer 8

• changing the nature of God/limiting the meaning of omnipotence
• either god isn’t capable of doing the logically impossible OR evil is not a thing
• HOWEVER in practice they reassert the proposition that god is omnipotent

Question 9

What are the fallacious solutions to the problem of evil?

Answer 9

• offering ways to solve the problem while retaining the theistic concept
• claiming that evil is necessary for free will, or the counterpart to God BUT whilst they claim to keep the theistic concept they don’t try to hide

Question 10

What is meant by the paradox of omnipotence?