3.2 Theodicies and solutions to the problems of evil and suffering Flashcards

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1
Q

Key Points

A
  • Free Will Defence
  • Augustine’s Theodicy
    -Soul Making Theodicy (Irenaeus & Hick)
  • Process Theodicy
  • Leibniz argument of best of all possible worlds
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2
Q

The Free Will Defence

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  • One of the key themes of Augustine’s theodicy.
  • Evil is the result of human or angelic free will, rather than God’s will.
  • Theme has been developed into its own theodicy.
  • FWD provides a logical reason for the existence of moral evil in the world & removes blame from God by placing it on humanity.
  • Centres on the idea that for humans to have a meaningful relationship with God LOVE MUST BE EARNED. We are free to love God or not.
  • Genuine free will -> genuine posibility of evil. For God to take away the possibility of evil he would also take away our free will.
  • PoE is resolved by arguing moral evil occurs when humans abuse God-given free will (G not accountable).
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3
Q

Manichaeism

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The Belief that God is omnipotent but the dark of evil and sin disrupts the pleasure and light of his good creation.

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4
Q

Ex Nihilo

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out of nothing

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5
Q

privatio boni

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lack of good

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6
Q

Augustine Quote

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Even out of evil ‘God could work good’

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7
Q

Augustine’s theodicy introduction

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  • Roman Catholic heavily influenced by Manichaeism.
  • Taught that God created the universe ex nihilo and perfectly good.
  • Postulates the ‘principle of plenitude’ (fullness/completeness), which argues that a world created from a wide range of being, from highest to lowest (e.g. rocks to humans), is a richer and better universe than one which contains only one type of perfect creature.
  • Augustine does not see evil as an independent force. If the universe was made ex nihilo, evil cannot have come into existence from outside it; evil is PRIVATIO BONI - some things in creation cease to be what God intended.
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8
Q

Applying the PRIVATIO BONI of Augustine’s argument

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