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Philosophy A-level > Evil And Suffering > Flashcards

Evil And Suffering Flashcards

1
Q

What did J.L Mackie say about the problem of evil?(Inconsistent Triad)

A

God is(a)omniscient/omnipotent and (b)omnibenevolent. However(c) evil exists. This means that either (a) or(b) must be inconsistent and therefore wrong

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2
Q

What did Epicurus say about the problem of evil”

A

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing. Then whence evil?

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3
Q

What did David Hume say about the problem of evil

A

Either God is not omnipotent/omniscient or God is not omnibenevolent, or evil does not exist, and since evil does exist, then God does not.

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4
Q

What is the logical problem of evil?

A

The idea that the mere existence of evil is logically incompatible with the existence of a good God. Since God is good, we would assume that He has the desire to eliminate all evil. But this isn’t true if some evil is necessary for a greater good.E.g unless we felt pain, we old never learn endurance . So being good, God does not desire to eliminate all evil, so the mere existence of evil is not logically incompatible with the existence of God

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5
Q

What is the evidential problem of evil?

A

The idea that evil is overwhelming in quantity and quality and evil is pointless because it serves no useful purpose. e.g.the Permian-Triassic extinction and the fawn in a forest fire analogy. A fawn is trapped in the fire and suffers and dies alone. The fawns agony appears to be pointless as it suffers and dies alone so no human being ever knows about it and no eventual good comes out of it.

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6
Q

What does theodicy literally mean?

A

‘Righteous God’ or ‘Defence of God’

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7
Q

What is the main idea of Augustine’s theodicy?

A

-Evil and suffering are both necessary in this world.
-God is right to allow evil and suffering as they play a part in out nature and development as humans.
-God is just and allows suffering to happen as a result of human sin

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8
Q

What is the first part of Augustine’s theodicy?

A

God created the world perfectly
Evil does not come from God. It comes from the decisions made by the beings to whom God has given free will and who, as a result, have chosen to turn away from God.
Evil is the result of the sin of Adam and Eve
Misuse of free will leads to sin/evil/suffering

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9
Q

What is the second part of Augustine’s theodicy?

A

Augustine’s argues that evil isn’t really a thing I itself, but is actually a privation of good.
God gives man a second chance by accepting Jesus so we are led to paradise.

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10
Q

What are the criticisms of the Augustinian theodicy

A

Logical: Schleiermacher-How can a perfect world have the possibility of evil. Either the world was never perfect to begin with or if it was perfect,God must’ve purposely created evil
Moral: God is unjust in allowing humans to be punished for Adam’s sin
Scientific: The whole theodicy relies on the story in Genesis as a fact which is inconsistent with scientific discoveries of the origins of humans(evolution)

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11
Q

What is the main idea of the Irenaean Theodicy?

A

Claims that God created the possibility of evil but did it for a soul making purpose
Evil is necessary to appreciate good
God purposely made humans imperfect but gave them free will in order for them to reach perfection through their own free choices. Im order for them to reach perfection, they must make the right choices to get there. But in order for there to be good choices, there must be bad choices and these bad choices is what leads to evil

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12
Q

What is the main idea of the Irenaean Theodicy?

A

Claims that God created the possibility of evil but did it for a soul making purpose
Evil is necessary to appreciate good
God purposely made humans imperfect but gave them free will in order for them to reach perfection through their own free choices. Im order for them to reach perfection, they must make the right choices to get there. But in order for there to be good choices, there must be bad choices and these bad choices is what leads to evil

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13
Q

What are the criticisms of the Irenaean theodicy?

A

-It only accounts for moral evil, not natural evil. Why are there so many earthquakes and tsunamis for example
-Why is there an unbalance to suffering. Someone might experience an extreme form of suffering, whereas someone might only experience a papercut
-It could end up glorifying suffering
-Suffering doesn’t always lead to positive outcomes>could lead to misery

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14
Q

What are the strengths are of the Irenaean Theodicy?

A

BFG-E
Biblical-Partly based on the ideas of Genesis(how we’re all made in imago dei).
Therefore it’s acceptable to Christians
Free will- God doesn’t want to intervene as he genuinely wants everyone to be free
Goal- It provides a goal for humanity to strive towards. To become better people.
Evil- This theodicy accepts and doesn’t dismiss evil

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15
Q

Who is John Hick

A

He was a British philosopher and theologian and was best known for his writings on:
the problem of evil
christology
eschatology
religious pluralism

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16
Q

What was the purpose of Hick’s justification?

A

To show that there is a plausible explanation for the problem of evil that is probably true

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17
Q

What are the 7 parts of Hick’s soul making theodicy

A

-Augustine’s theodicy is no longer credible
-Children of God
-A ‘two step process’- creation and development
-Everyone becomes a ‘child of God’
-The world is a place of soul-making
-Epistemic distance
-Free will and autonomy

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18
Q

What does the ‘Augustine’s theodicy is no longer credible’ mean

A

-Hick claims it is utterly unacceptable to place the origin of evil and suffering within the story of adam and Eve
-Scientifically, Genesis is a mythological account
-Morally, punishing the whole succeeding human race for the fall of the first parents is unjust
-Logically, it doesn’t make sense(perfect world theory)

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19
Q

What does the ‘Children of God’ mean?

A

-In the Irenaean theodicy, humans were made imperfect so they had the capacity to become children of God
-Children can only learn to love their parents through a free response to their parents’ care
-Showing them by example how to respond constructively to the harshness of the physical world and the opportunities brings character development

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20
Q

What does the ‘ ‘two step process’- creation and development’ mean

A

-Hick calls image ‘bios’(biological life) and likeness ‘zoe’ (perfect life as seen in Jesus)
-God creates the human race through biology and allows it to develop itself until every human being achieves the likeness of Christ
So eventually, humans can become Christlike

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21
Q

What does the ‘everyone belongs a ,child of God’ ‘mean

A

-For Hick, Irenaeas’ earlier ideas are a better starting point
-In the irenaean tradition, humans didn’t ‘fall’ from perfection, but were created as imperfect beings with the capacity to become ‘children of God’

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22
Q

What does the ‘the world is a place of soulmaking ’ mean

A

-Augustine-soul deciding
-Hick- soul making
For Augustine hell is a reality for those who choose to reject God. For Hick, God’s salvation is for all humanity. Hick believes no loving father would commit any of his children to hell.

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23
Q

What does the ‘epistemic distance’ mean

A

-Epistemic distance means distance of knowledge
-If humans knew for a fact that God existed, they could not be free because they would do whatever God wanted them to do

24
Q

What does the ‘free will and autonomy ’ mean

A

-A relationship with God can only be accomplished through each individual being free to choose between good and evil so that eventually individuals freely come to love God and the good.
-Evil is not simply the absence of good, otherwise there would be nothing to overcome. The denial of evil contradicts the faith of the Bible

25
Q

What are the strengths of Hick’s soul making theodicy?

A

-Evil is necessary for soul making:it would be unrealistic to think that we can experience great good without being exposed to great evil.
-Hick’s theodicy incorporates evolution as part of the first stages of human development: his theodicy fits generally with scientific evidence about the origins of the human race
-Epistemic distance: can be used to justify and form of evil because his thesis is that the end(heaven) justifies the means

26
Q

What are the weaknesses of Hick’s soul making theodicy?

A

-The promise of Heaven is not a contract offered to humans for their acceptance or refusal, so is God immorally justified in allowing evil without the consent of whom is inflicted?
-What is the point of the journey to salvation if we are all going to get there? If God wants a kingdom of spiritually mature people, why not create us as the finished articles?
-If all humans are saved, what was the point of Jesus’ crucifixion?

27
Q

What is the basic idea of the free will defence ?

A

JL Mackie made the FWD so that he could show why it doesn’t work(reject it).
God is justified in allowing evil to exist in the universe because evil is needed to allow humans to understand and prefer the good

28
Q

Give a quote from Mackie about the free will defence

A

“The obviously better possibility of making beings who would act freely but always go right”

29
Q

What is Mackie’s rejection of the free will defence?

A

-it is logically possible to make free, good choices, all of the time.
-God could have created humans so they would only make free, good choices but God did not do so

30
Q

What does Mackie’s rejection of the free will defence show?

A

Either God lacks the power to do so or God is not loving enough to do so. Either way, the free will defence fails
So Mackie’s obvious conclusion from all of this is simple: God does not exist

31
Q

How many orders of good are there?

A

4

32
Q

What is the first order of good?

A

-The experiences we face
You can either experience good(e.g reading a book or eating your fav food) or evil(e.g pain or a toothache)

33
Q

What is the second order of good?

A

-The reactions to those experiences
Good reactions(e.g sympathy, compassion, kindness) or bad reactions(e.g spite, being mean, envy)

34
Q

What is the third order of good?

A

-The freewill to make those reactions.
freedom

35
Q

What is the fourth order of good?

A

The free will we get from God to use make those decisions

36
Q

What does Alvin Plantinga argue about Mackie’s free will defence

A

He argues that it does not work.
Mackie claims that God could have created humans so that they would always make free, good choices however according to plantinga, there is no possible world that God could have made in which humans
would always make free, good choices

37
Q

What are the four parts of Plantinga’s morally sufficient reason 1(MSR1)?

A

1.Gods creation of persons with morally sufficient free will is something of tremendous value
2.God could not eliminate much of the evil and suffering in the world without eliminating the greater food
3.Most mothers would allow the small pain(pain of a needle) to be inflicted on their children because that pain brings about a greater good(immunisation against disease)
4.We can make choices that are genuinely free. People have the chance to put into practice Mackies second order goods of compassion, love etc. This kind of freedom is most important because it means that people are morally responsible for their decisions.

38
Q

What are the four parts of Plantinga’s morally sufficient reason 1(MSR1)?

A

1.Gods creation of persons with morally sufficient free will is something of tremendous value
2.God could not eliminate much of the evil and suffering in the world without eliminating the greater good
3.Most mothers would allow the small pain(pain of a needle) to be inflicted on their children because that pain brings about a greater good(immunisation against disease)
4.We can make choices that are genuinely free. People have the chance to put into practice Mackies second order goods of compassion, love etc. This kind of freedom is most important because it means that people are morally responsible for their decisions.

39
Q

What does the first part ‘Gods creation of persons with morally sufficient free will is something of tremendous value’ mean?

A

God sees our freedom as having lots of potential value m- especially if we use it for good

40
Q

What does the second part ‘God could not eliminate much of the evil and suffering in the world without eliminating the greater good’ mean?

A

God could’ve made us with slightly less free will but that would mean that we would have a slightly less ability to be good just as we would have the slightly less ability to do evil.
We wouldn’t be able to reach out full ‘good’ capacity

41
Q

How many ‘possible worlds’ does Plantinga create and why does he create them?

A

3
He creates the m to show that there is only 1 logical possible world

42
Q

What is Plantinga’s ‘Possible World 1’?

A

Our current world
- God creates persons with morally significant free will
-God did not causally determine people in every situation to choose what is right and avoid what is wrong.
-There is evil and suffering

43
Q

What is Plantinga’s ‘Possible World 2’?

A

The goodness of robots
-God does not create persons with morally significant free will
-God causally determines people in every situation to choose what is right and avoid what is wrong
-There is no evil and suffering

44
Q

What is Plantinga’s ‘Possible World 3’?

A

Mackie’s world- logically impossible
-God creates persons with morally significant free will
-God causally determined people in every situation to choose what is right and avoid what is wrong
-There is no evil and suffering

45
Q

What is Plantinga’s MSR 2?

A

-It provides a sort of explanation of natural evil since it’s not caused by human free will.
-Plantinga said God allows natural evil to enter the world as part of Adam and Eve’s punishment for their sin in the garden of Eden. ‘

46
Q

Does Plantinga’s MSR(2) of natural evil work?

A

Nearly all philosophers who comment on this say that MSR2 is ludicrous: it is unscientific and relies on the mythological narrative of Adam and Eve.
However, since Plantinga is only trying to show that it is logically possible(not true), he has successfully refuted Mackie’s that the FWD is incoherent

47
Q

What are the strengths of the FWD?

A

-Plantinga’s account of the FWD shows that Mackie’s rejection is incorrect
-Natural evils being about second order goods such as love, compassion and sympathy and such goods should be valued above simple happiness and pleasure
-It shows that a world with free creatures is more valuable than a world without. Without freedom, there’s no achievement and real happiness. It is entirely possible that this is why God allows evil to exist.

48
Q

What are the weaknesses of the FWD?

A

-Plantinga’s argument does not show that MSR1 and 2 are true. His explanation that natural evil was brought about by Adam and Eve elevates a mythological story to the status of a philosophical argument, which it is not.
- It relies on a libertarian account of free will. The libertarian account of free will can’t be proved, however it can be assumed.
- It is not a convincing response to the evidential problem of evil. The essence of Dostoyevsky’s response to this problem was simple: freedom is not worth its price-tag. At the point of creation, God must have known the full extent of human evil, so why did he bother to create such a universe

49
Q

What are the weaknesses of the FWD?

A

-Plantinga’s argument does not show that MSR1 and 2 are true. His explanation that natural evil was brought about by Adam and Eve elevates a mythological story to the status of a philosophical argument, which it is not.
- It relies on a libertarian account of free will. The libertarian account of free will can’t be proved, however it can be assumed.
- It is not a convincing response to the evidential problem of evil. The essence of Dostoyevsky’s response to this problem was simple: freedom is not worth its price-tag. At the point of creation, God must have known the full extent of human evil, so why did he bother to create such a universe

50
Q

What is the key difference between Griffins process theodicy and the creation story in Genesis?

A

In Genesis, God created the universe whereas in Griffins theodicy,God created order from chaos

51
Q

What does it mean to say that God and the universe exist panentheistically?

A

It means that the universe is within God or God is within the universe

52
Q

What analogy can we use to understand panentheism?

A

God cannot control the physical aspects of the universe any more than a human kind can control the internal workings of its body(otherwise nobody would ever feel pain or fall ill).
God is therefore powerful because of the order he created from the chaos, but not omnipotent

53
Q

What does process theology show about the limits of God?

A

He isn’t limitless
He can’t perform miracles
Nowhere in this process does the idea of a direct/ miraculous intervention arise

54
Q

How does process theodicy link to evil and suffering?

A

God is powerfully but he can only use the materials within the universe that He’s united with. So evil isn’t God’s fault, it’s the fault of the materials that He has.

55
Q

What for process theodicy say about God and his power ?

A

Since God did not create the world from nothing, the he cannot have ultimate power because there is something that he cannot do.

56
Q

What are the strengths of process theodicy?

A

-The conclusion that God is not omnipotent can be seen as a realistic answer to the problem of evil.
God does not have the power to control it.
-The fact that God suffers because He ‘contains’ the entire sensory experience of the universe means that believers who suffer know that God understands
-Discovery through quantum mechanics shows that reality is a chaotic process which gives some support to Griffin’s argument

57
Q

What are the weaknesses of process theodicy?

A

-Although the process God is powerful, for many, his lack of omnipotence makes him not worthy of worship
-Even if the process God is not omnipotent, at the point where he saw that his persuasion of the universe into greater levels of complexity was equally bringing greater amounts of evil, why then did He not cease in his efforts
-God can’t eradicate evil but He can persuade humans towards good.There is an element of ‘risk’ in God’s strategy because if advanced entities like humans have the power to reject God’s persuasion towards the goods, human existence will probably end in a nuclear, biological and chemical obliteration of all species

Philosophy A-level (2 decks)

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