Evil And Suffering Flashcards
Moral evil
Evil acts committed by humans
Natural evil
Naturally occurring evil beyond humans control
Natural evil examples
Hurricanes
Earthquakes
Floods
Moral evil examples
Bullying
Rape
Murder
Genesis and evil
Adam and Eve brought moral sin by disobeying God
Punished by a flood - natural evil
What are the two problems of evil
Logical
Evidential
What is the logical problem of evil
The problem that God and evil cannot exist at the same time
What is a God of classical Theism
What we expect God to be like
Omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient
Three important scholars for logical problem of evil
Epicurus
Hume
Mackie
What did Epicurus say for the logical problem of evil
Is God willing to prevent evil but not able then he is not omnipotent
is he able but not willing then he is not malevolent is he both able and willing then whence evil
What did David Hume say about logical problem of evil
Either God is not omniscient/omnipotent
Or God is not omnibenevolent
Or evil does not exist
Since evil exists, God does not.
What did Mackie create for logical problem of evil
Inconsistent Triad
God is (a) omniscient/omnipotent and (b) omnibenevolent
However (c) evil exists
Therefore either (a) or (b) must be logically inconsistent and therefore wrong
What are the three solutions to the logical problem of evil
Denying Gods omnipotents
Denying Gods omnibenevolence
Denying evil exists
What is the solution to denying Gods omnipotence
If God is not omnipotent than the solution is simple he is not able to control evil and so cannot be blamed for its continued existence
What is the problem to denying Gods omnipotence
God who is not omnipotent would not be worthy of worship
A none omnipotent God would not be a God
What is the problem of denying Gods benevolence
Unthinkable
God is good and loving is a support to those who experience evil and the basis of future hope for life in heaven
Quote to show Gods omnibenevolencew
God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes
Solution to denying evil exists
Proposed by Augustine
Evil is privation of Good doesn’t exist in its own right but in absence of good
Problem to denying evil exists
Insensitive
This who have experienced power of evil see it as being as Tangible as goodness
What is the evidential problem of evil
Evil that is overwhelming in quantity and quality
Unnecessary/ pointless evil
How is the problem of evil made worse
Gods omniscience
He knows and still allows evil and suffering to continue
Natural evil example of the sheer amount of evil
Permion Triassic extinction
90% marine 70% land species disappeared via natural disasters including asteroid strike
Quote for permion Triassic extinction
NASA “almost the perfect crime”
William Rowes metaphors for pointless evidential problem of evil
Fawn died in forest fire cause we by lightening strike
Burnt in pain and agony for several days
Pointless suffers and dies alone
No human knows so no good can come from it
How can God still be omniscient
What is free will
Human beings free to make one choices in life
Free will defence
God had given up control over human actions in order to bring about greater good
Humans choose own actions and so morally responsible for those actions
What is genuine free will
Need all three Permission Ability Opportunity Take away one of these and free will in relation to God is an illusion
To defend the FWD you have to prove…
Free will necessarily leads to moral evil - intrinsically linked
Results of having free will are worth the price
Criticisms of FWD
Mackie says”:
Logically possible for God to make human race both free and good
God didn’t do this therefore he isn’t a God of classical Theism or he doesn’t exist
Response to Mackie a criticism of the free will defence
Logically inconsistent point
God can’t do the logically impossible to make someone both free and always do good is contradictory
What was Mackie account of the FWD
3rd order good - god gave us free will
2nd order good - our action
1st order good - feelings if good or bad
Who is Mackie
An atheist
Who is Swinburne
British philosopher
Philosophical arguments on the existence of God
Swinburne on the free will defence
Logically necessary for human development we have the freedom to choose both good and evil
How did Swinburne Contradict himself
Believed God could perform miracles
So why doesn’t he intervene in the immense evil for example the Holocaust
What does Swinburne say the problem of evil is
Humans abusing their God-given free well
For Swinburne why does God allow us to have free will
Moral and natural evil are necessary for human development
Freedom to make choice between good and evil
God chooses to allow free will so we can live enriches life
Gif plan
Libertarianism
We have a degree free well so we can be held morally responsible for our actions
Casual determinism
Every action or event has been determined by a prior action or event so humans don’t have free well
Who is Alvin plantinga
American Philosopher
Planting as criticism to Mackies criticism of the free will defence
You clearly would never be free at all never free to choose
must have a real choice between options
Three points to Augustinian theodicy
Gods goodness and the goodness of the world
Original sin
Evil as a privation
Who developed the Augustinian theodicy
At Augustine
Early Christian and philosopher and theologian
What is theodicy
An argument that suggests God is right to allow the existence of evil and suffering because in some way or another they are necessary
Augustinian theodicy
Gods goodness and the goodness of the world
God is good God created a perfect world “so what I made and it was good” evil did not come from God God made a perfect world evil comes from decisions made by humans
Augustinian Theodicy
Original sin
Humans lost immortality and felt consequences of misusing free will
Adams descendants inherited first sin
Punished for our immoral doings
Seminally present - sperm of Adam passes original sin on
Augustinian Theodicy
Evil is a privation
Evil isn’t really a thing in itself
Absence of good
Privatio buni
Three criticisms of Augustinian theodicy
Moral
Logical
Scientific
Moral criticism of Augustinian theodicy
Not fair
Why should we be paying for the mistakes of Adam
Logical criticism of the Augustinian Theodicy
If God created perfectly good world could never go wrong humans are able to choose between evil
So evil must’ve existed in the first place God didn’t make a perfect world then
therefore God is to blame for evil and suffering
Scientific criticism of Augustinian theodicy
Nature - survival of fittest things dies so others can live. God must have made it this way
Belief of Genesis challenges evolution
Seminally present in Adam - no dna helix for original sin
Strengths of Augustinian theodicy
Explains why we have desire to do wrong - original sin
Gods omnibenevolent - Jesus’ crucifixion + gods plan
Weaknesses of Augustinian theodicy
God is unjust by allowing humans to be punished by Adams sin
Existence of hell contradicts omni benevolent God
Hell being a part of the universe design shows that God knew there be evil in the world so why would he still allow it to happen
Not reasonable to say that evil is not a thing
Soul making
Suffering ultimately makes people develop into better human beings
Who is Saint Iranaeus
Early church father
What is the irenaean theodicy
God deliberately created an imperfect world
So humans could develop into perfect beings
So evil and suffering are apart of gods plan for humanity
Strengths of the iranaean theodicy
Biblical based mankind made in image of God so support by Christians
Shows why God allows evil. God can’t compromise our development by intervention
Evil is necessary and worth it
Provided a goal to strive for
Gradually develop - evolution
Criticism of iranaean theodicy
Suffering does not always result in positive human development can cause misery
love can never be expressed by allowing suffering to happen
why does God allow the suffering of the innocent
What is an epistemic distance
God keeps his distance from humanity in order to not overwhelm them
Counterfactual hypothesis
I’ve got interferes than humans cannot develop
Who is hick
Philosophy of religion and theologian
Who was Hicks inspired by
Agrees with iranaeus point that humans were not made imperfectly in the beginning we have the ability to develop spiritually by God
Hicks theory
God allows humans to develop themselves
If God made us perfect then we would have the goodness of robots
God wants humans to be genuinely loving and therefore give them free will
And Hicks argument why is there a distance between God and humans
If God interfered humans wouldn’t be to make free choices and wouldnt benefit from the development process
Counter factual hypothesis God created humans are an epistemic distance from himself a distance of knowledge
List objections to hicks theodicy
Does not address animal suffering as they cannot develop spiritually
epistemic distance doesn’t resolve
pointless evil
it doesn’t justify the worst evils
Hicks response to his theodicy not addressing animal suffering
Pain warns animal of danger
animals do not fear death
animals exist to stop us from realising our special nature and they have to suffer to an extent that is beyond our understanding
Hicks responding to the criticism of the epistemic distance not resolving pointless evil
Gods plan remains a mystery in order for us to freely choose a relationship with him
Hicks response to the criticism of his theodicy not justifying the worst evils
If the worst evils be removed then something else would become the worst evil the more evil remove the less free we will be
Hicks quotes on his theodicy
Vale of soul making
Not to be robots
Who is whitehead
English philosopher
Who is griffin
Took the process of theology and turned it into a process theodicy
American philosopher
In a nutshell what is process theology
Belief that God is not omnipotent
the world isn’t creation Ex nihilo 
University is continually part of the unfolding process of creation
God is apart of creation
Whiteheads quote
The fellow sufferer who understands
Grifffins quote
It is necessarily the case that God cannot completely control the creatures
Criticisms of process theodicy
Denies God is omnipotent - worth worship?
Not omnibenevolent - can’t be as he doesn’t know everyone’s
Allows suffering and wrong doing
Animals don’t understand why they suffer - means nothing to them that God is a fellow sufferer
Abandons Christian concepts of creation
Why did he start a process he can’t control
Strengths of process theodicy
God doesn’t stop suffering because he can’t
God suffers which is encouraging that he is going through the same thing as us
No certainty God will triumph in the end so why join the fight
God is not transcendent so cannot intervene to eliminate evil
God did not create the universe out of nothing but chaotic matter
What is process theodicy 
Pantheistic belief Gods soul is the universe
The world is connected with God
He’s only partly involved with creation
He does not process total control he is persuasive

