Evil and suffering Flashcards
What is the problem of evil?
Mackie’s Inconsistent Triad
What is the Augustinian Theodicy?
-Augustine’s response to the problem of evil
-Claims evil and suffering does not disprove the existance of an all-loving God
Main themes of the Augustinian Theodicy
-Evil is an absence of good
-God is good and created a perfect world
-Evil came from humans who chose to misuse their free-will and turn away from God, it did not come from God
-Humans are made in God’s image
-Humanity has true moral autonomy (this led to the Fall)
Evidence supporting Augustinian Theodicy
-“God saw all that he had made, and it was good” (Bible)
-Original Sin (Bible)
-“Seminally present in Adam”
What are criticisms of the Augustinian Theodicy?
-F.Schleirmacher = if God created a perfectly good world then it could never go wrong + evil had to have existed in the first place if humans were able to choose it.
-God is unjust for allowing humans to be punished for one human’s sin.
-Hell is a place of eternal pushishment and suffering (contradicts omnibenevolent God).
-God designed the world so that suffering is needed for survival.
-Inconsistent Triad
Irenaeus’ argument
-Soul-making theodicy
-God deliberately created an imperfect world so that humans could, through trial and adversity, develop into perfect beings.
-Evil and suffering is part of God’s plan for humanity.
-Humans can develop from the ‘image’ of God, to the ‘likeness’ of God.
-God’s ultimate goal is for humans to develop into mature and virtuous individuals who choose to love and follow God freely.
Criticisms of Irenaus’ argument
-Suffering doesn’t always result in positive human development
-Suffering can produce misery, resentment, anger etc.
-Why are there such extremes of suffering?
-“love can never be expressed by allowing suffering to happen” - Philips
-God is omnipotent so could’ve created humans to be perfect in the first place.
What is the Evidential problem of evil?
-There are known facts about evil that are evidence against the existance of God.
-The evidential problem of evil is made worse by the problem of God’s omniscience.
-There are two main types of evil which supply such evidence: evil is overwhelming in quantity and quality + evil is pointless because it serves no useful purpose
Evidence to show natural evil is overwhelming in quantity and quality.
-‘The Great Dying’ - mass extinction 251-252 million years ago, 90% marine species and 79% of land species disappeared as a consequence of natural disasters.
-Perpetrator appears to be God as he is Creator and therefore responsible for the evolution of life on Earth.
Evidence to show natural evil is pointless.
-William Rowe
-Uses example of a fawn trapped in a forest fire. The fawn’s suffering is seen as useless because it dies alone and no human ever knows about it.
-No eventual good comes from it and it neither preserves human free will nor develops human character and virtues.
What is the Logical problem of evil?
-The existance of evil is logically incompatible with the existance of an omnipotent, omnibenevolent God.
-Epicurus says “Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God”, referring to God’s response to evil.
What is John Hick’s Theodicy?
-The Augustinian Theodicy is no longer credible. “Utterly unacceptable” (Hick)
-God created humans imperfect so they can learn from mistakes to become good people and learn to love him. Humans are ‘children of God’, and no parent can force their child to lobe them.
-‘Two-step process’ of creation and development:
• Step 1 God creates the human race
• Step 2 God allows it to develop itself until every being develops the likeness of Christ.
-The world is a place of soul-making where everyone becomes a ‘child of God’.
-Humans are at an epidemic distance from God. If they knew God existed, their freedom would be lost as they would do whatever God wanted them to do.
-We must be free to choose the good.
Criticisms of Hick’s theodicy
-‘End justifies means’, is the goal of heaven worth the level of suffering?
-Animals suffer but don’t go to heaven.
-Goes against mainstream/official doctrines e.g heaven/hell
-Epistemically distance - why is God inconsistent with keeping his distance (sometimes steps in/sometimes doesn’t).
Mackie quote
“The obviously better possibility of making beings who would act freely but always go right”
Platinga’s argument
-Mackie’s free-will defence doesn’t work
-There can be no world where humans are always free and always make good choices
-In a world with no evil, humans wouldn’t be truly free at all
