GOOD AND EVIL

Question 1

Conscience

Answer 1

Human reason making moral decisions. The knowledge we have of what is right and wrong and the God-given compulsion within all human beings to do what is right and to avoid what is evil.

Question 2

Evil

Answer 2

The absence of good and the impulse to seek our own desires at the expense of the good of others, which often results in suffering.

Question 3

Free will

Answer 3

The decision-making part of a person’s mind is called the will. A will is free if the person is able to choose right from wrong without being controlled by other forces.

Question 4

Goodness

Answer 4

The quality of being like God; seeking the well-being of others selflessly.

Question 5

Incarnation

Answer 5

Meaning ‘made flesh’. The Christian belief that God became man in the person of Jesus, fully human and fully divine.

Question 6

Natural law

Answer 6

The moral laws of right and wrong which are universal and not dependant on human laws. The belief in natural law is the belief that the moral law is discoverable by every human being and is the same for all human beings in all places at all times.

Question 7

Privation

Answer 7

The loss or absence of a quality or something that is normally present. Evil is a privation of good.

Question 8

Suffering

Answer 8

Pain or loss which harms human beings. Some suffering is caused by other human beings (often called ‘moral evil’); some is not (often called ‘natural evil’).