Assignment Flashcards
Intro
All around the world everyday people suffer-abuse, terrorism, death etc.
is there someone behind this?
PoE- troubling the world for several decades now and is very controversial
God believed to be omnipotent…
argued- 3 characteristics contradict themselves=> why is there so much suffering in the world of an omnipotent… God exists
To believe that God exists as well as evil and suffering=illogical
over many years philosophers have come up with theodicies to argue against this atheist view
in this essay i will discuss how an omnipotent… God can exist despite the immense suffering in the world
Epicurus
“…” shows that if an omnipotent… God exists then evil doesn’t, but there’s a lot of evil and suffering in the world
therefore god doesn’t exist
also shows if god does exist without his key characteristics then there’s no point in being faithful in him as he’s not trust worthy as he allows people to experience immense suffering
doesn’t believe in the existence of God and has a very strong argument to prove this
William Rowe
asks the question of why we must suffer so intensely- even if suffering was necessary- it isn’t necessary to suffer at the level we are and so an omnipotent… God cannot possibly exist
“…” shows he believes if Gods real and has the character traits he’s said to have he’d prevent the occurrence of any intense suffering
pointless for animals to suffer
God doesn’t exist in a world full of immense suffering- he’d prevent this meaningless pain
very logical=> strong argument when disproving Gods existence
Christian view
existence of evils necessary for certain kinds of good
no. of character traits only valuable if evil exists e.g. compassion only exists if there’s suffering, bravery only exists if we sometimes face danger
suffering can bring people closer together and closer to God
God created us in such a way we’d depend on one another and be drawn together to form a community
if self-sufficient, free from suffering- great goods wouldn’t be possible
power for evil(God) also power for evil (devil or satan)- causes evil and suffering and so isn’t Gods fault, taking the blame away from him
argument seen as weak as no prof if the devil exists so may not cause evil and suffering
Richard swinburne
british philosopher of religion-university of oxford-supports compatibilism-belief that freewill and determinism are compatible ideas and possible to believe both without being logically inconsistent
believes reason for evil and god has the right to allow evil-extreme dependence people have upon him and gods allowed infinite good in the world and be with god forever=>world belongs to him=>able to do whatever he wishes without being questioned for it
God provides people with the choice between good and rejection of good-persons responsibility not God
good can’t occur without some evil “…” shows evils necessary in the world and in the end will benefit the greater good of society
theological points don’t undermine his main theses; however…
despite his rejection of certain beliefs related to God-does believe and argues he permits evil and suffering in the world for a reason
theodicy weak-existence if evil seems inconsistent with existence of good
St. Augustine
claims God gave us freewill
genesis 3-‘The Fall’- Adam+Eve placed in perfect garden of Eden by God-imposed 1 rule- not to eat fruit from ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil’- gave into the temptation=> sin entered the world
shows God allowed sorrow-punishment for mans sin-as he’s away of all sorrow in the world=> infact omniscient
from story augustine concluded everyone’s born sinful=> humans cause all suffering and evil and so are to blame not God
reject notion of evil existing in itself and instead regards it as corruption of goodness by humanities abuse of freewill. Gods goodness and benevolence remains perfect and without responsibility for evil and suffering=> humans are to blame due to abuse of freewill
as no proof of the fall or if God exists- may not have given us freewill argued that this is a weak argument
Alvin plantinga and J.L mackie
AP-along with augustine supports freewill and believes God created beings that are free to make their own decisions without intervening and good can’t exist without evil. satan’s responsible for natural evil
J.L M-strongly disagrees- inconsistent triad-evil and God who is omnipotent and omnibenevolent not compatible as we can prove evil exists God doesn’t
if Gods omnipotent he should be able to give freewill and ensure no immense suffering occurs
is this truly freewill? “…” shows if God was to slightly control what we do-wouldn’t be freewill
platinga- reasonable to believe in an omnipotent…God despite evil and suffering in the world due to freewill-some atheist argue that this is illogical making it weak
JL M-considers platingas theodicy unreasonable- an omnipotent being should be able to do anything-even the logically impossible-can be as weak-no one can do the logically impossible including God
Irenaeus and John Hick
I-believes humans were created imperfect- choose freely to become good and turn to God, result of our freedom and choice to develop into a child of God we cause and created moral evil. He created his own “soul-making theodicy”-how he saw the world. believes evils necessary to aid people development into a child of God. Saw evil as a necessary part of life-will eventually make us into better people
JH-theodicy based on I-developed this further and renamed “vale of soul making” agreed humans were created imperfect, so they could grow and develop into a child of god. Developed this further by explaining through hardships and difficulties humans gave throughout life they’re able to develop virtues
unlike augustine-bleh es humanity abuse their freewill and destroyed a perfect world, I and JH say that the perfect worlds one to look forward to. as both of these theologians humans are created by God as imperfect they reject the traditional story of the fall-pictured humans perfectly created by God-fell away from
Both theologians believe God allows suffering in the world due to the benefits which can occur
as there’s no evidence God exists both theodicies can be seen as weak
conclusion
PoE always be wildly debated topic with no clear answer as there’s a wide range of different and controversial viewpoints
despite no. of strong arguments both for and against- existence of God-never fully proved
in my opinion God doesn’t exist and if he’s omnipotent…he wouldn’t allow the world to be filled with immense suffering
although humans are the cause of evil and suffering-one of Swinburnes key arguments-a God shouldn’t allow severe events of suffering such as the holocaust where around 6 million Jews died
surely a God who’s all loving would’ve intervened and prevented the killing of innocent people
like epicurus i believe if God isn’t omnipotent… then i wouldn’t want to intil trust in him
overall-extreme tragedies which occur everyday disprove Gods existence-why would he want his ‘child to suffer
as many views the question of “if God exists why is there so much suffering in the world” will remain unanswered
