Augustines Thedoicy Flashcards
Evil as a privation
-Evil does not exist, it is a privation or inversion of good-the result of the fall and Lucifer using his free will to corrupt humanity and to tempt Adam and Eve, not Gods creation-God created matter from nothing and matter is perfect-because God is not responsible for the existence of evil he is still all loving
Moral Evil and the free will defence
-God allows moral evil to happen because of free will-God created humans with free will out of grace as its better to have free will than to not have free will as we would not be autonomous-true free will involves having the capacity to do evil, moral evil is thus a misuse of free will, it is not Gods fault or responsibility thus he maintains his omnipotence
Natural Evil and inherited original sin
-Natural evil is a deserved punishment from God given to humanity due to the original sin of Adam and Eve who corrupted the material world, making us bound to sin and death etc, natural evil is thus a deserved punishment given to humans as they genetically inheret the original sin of Adam-God is still omnibenevolent as he has the right to inflict punishment on his own creation
Strengths: Biblical Support
-It is based on Biblical scriptures and teachings in Genesis, God did create the universe perfectly and humans are responsible for original sin-persuasive argument for Christians as it has biblical support
Limitation of the FWD-God created us with the capacity for evil-is responsible for evil-a truly loving God would stop evil to the best of its ability
The free will defence fails because God is still ultimately responsible for the existence of evil, God created humans with the capacity to do evil actions-Hume suggests Humans cannot be blamed for being placed in the position to act and made with the capacity to inflict evil-God created humans and thus is responsible for the existence of moral evil
-It could be argued this is necessary as without free will we could be robots, but God could have created us without free will without the capacity to commit such evil and only with the capacity to commit lesser evils, the fact God created us with the capacity for evil suggests he is responsible and thus subtly undermines his omnibenevolence as why would an all loving God create us with (and thus be responsible for) things like rape, murder etc-Suggests he is not omnibenevolent and thus cannot solve the problem of evil
Limitation of evil as a privation-evolution-Dawkins
(In a 30 marker)
-Evolution undermines the idea of original sin-the world was never made perfect to begin with thus we cannot be responsible for the fall of man and thus do not deserve punishment- a truly perfect would would be incorruptable-the idea that humans are responsible for the existence of evil fails-evil predates humanity.
The argument natural evil is a punishment fails-a truly loving God wouldnt punish his creation
-The justification for natural evil fails, the theology of the argument is immoral and the opposite of omnibenevolence
-Using the logic of the argument a small child with cancer is given cancer by God as a deserved punishment for being born and inhereting original sin which they have no control over-it is barbaric and immoral to punish a child for something they didn’t do and suggests God is not all loving as a truly all loving God would not inflict suffering onto his creation but would be able to forgive-the fact the thedoicy suggests God directly inflicts and is responsible for natural evil suggests he cannot be omnibenevolent as a truly omnibenevolent being would stop suffering, not inflict it-weakening the thedoicy
C: It could be argued God dictates what is moral and what is not moral, God can decide to inflict a punishment onto his creation whilst still being all loving-However, there is no way to argue a being who directly inflicts barbaric punishments like cancer can also be omnibenevolent-its logically contradictory-cant make the existence of evil compatible with the attributes of God thus fails as a thedoicy
