Evil and Suffering strengths and weaknesses Flashcards
what is a strength of E&S produced by Swinburne?
said that this is the best possible world as it offers an environment for humans to develop in. God could have created a perfect world, but instead he created one in which humans could meaningfully contribute through their free responses to the imperfect world, therefore arguments of Augustine and irenaeus propose a solution that could be considered partially successful .
what is a rebuttal to Swinburne argument of ‘best possible world’?
the extent of evil is just too much, no one can justify some of the moral evil within the world e.g. the holocaust. to what extent with evil stop? there is just to much evil apparent within the world everyday for there to be a positive reason for its occurrence.
what is a strength of E&S proposed by Peter Cole?
adds that irenaues theory had elements of ‘greater goods’, some moral goods are responses to evil. also known as “second order goods”, they are goods such as courage and forgiveness, which come from alleviating or resisting evil.
a strength to E&S that ireneaus explained?
he said that all the suffering people, would feel in the end that it is justified as ultimate perfection would be found in the afterlife.
a strength for E&S proposed by D.Z.Philips, he said that love can never be expressed through allowing evil, what are we to say of a child dying of cancer?
there is no love or development in that for the child. if this has been done to anyone, that is bad enough but for a purpose planned for eternity, that is the deepest of evil. this suggests that god is not real or his existence is evil.
