john hick - the problem of evil Flashcards
what is theodicy, the view that hick holds
-the theory that the existence of evil can be reconciled with the existence of an omnipotent and benevolent God.
how does hick explain the existence of moral evil, in relation to human freedom of the will
-• Moral evil (murder, hatred, inequality)
First, Hick tackles the existence of moral evil.
• The basic question: If God is almighty and benevolent, why did God allow bad people to exist and harm others?
• Hick replies through orthodox Christian doctrine:
“Christian thought has always considered moral evil in its relation to human freedom and responsibility.”
- The evils of this world are due to the fall from grace of free finite creatures.
- Hick finds this a logically consistent view, but also inadequate.
what is irinaeus’s theory about human moral development, and how does it relate to the existence of evils such as sickness crime and death
-• God created man in a two-stage process.
• In the first stage, God provided man with the features of man’s nature (being a rational, moral, religious animal).
• These features provide the potentiality for knowledge and the union with god.
• But we have to actualize this potentiality.
- This is done in the second stage.
- This is a stage of spiritual and moral maturing.
- In this stage, the Adam’s fall is but one of the episodes (a rather important one, of course, since it sets the conditions for the coming of Christ).
- The important feature of this stage is that we have to “work our way through” in order tobecome like God.
How does argue in favor of God’s benevolence, in a world where natural evils exist? What role do natural evils, such as disease and natural disasters play in fulfilling our human potential
-If God is almighty and benevolent, why did God create us imperfect, rather than perfect, like God?
One reply Hick gives:
• God wanted to keep a distance between us and Him, in order to respect our autonomy.
• So, human evil and imperfection is due to our autonomy.
The argument:
• God, in His infinite goodness, gave to humans free will, so that they can decide for their actions.
• But, with free will comes the possibility that some people may do the wrong thing and harm others.
• This is because there can be no certainty in advance that a genuinely free moral agent will never choose amiss.
• It is logically impossible to have people both act freely and be prevented from harming others.
• And not even God can do something that is logically impossible.
- Free choice is a good given to man for his happiness (this is why it is something good), although it can be turned to bad use and, consequently, sin.
- But, “we must not believe that God gave us free will so that we might sin, just because sin is committed through free will.”
- We, the free agents, are responsible for the sins we commit, and not God, who gave us free will.
But, to this, one may reply:
• Why did God not simply make us such that we will never do evil, and never give into temptation, even though we are free to do so (like Jesus Christ, who never sinned although he was free to do so, as a man)?
• Also, couldn’t God allow people to want to sin (using their free will) but make it so that their sin never harmed others?
• With respect to the former, no, we would not be free if it was impossible for us to do evil, even if we are unaware of it.
• We might have felt free, and have been considered free by all others, but we would not be free in relation to God.
• With respect to the latter, Hick maintains that a world were no evil ever happens would not be a place where we could live fully human lives.
Hick’s answers:
- Hick’s response is based on the notion of human goodness as a hard-won deposit of right decisions.
- If all right decisions came easy because we were made morally perfect, then we would never be able to reach the stage of moral worthiness that comes from overcoming strong, real temptations.
• Hick applies a similar though to the case of non-moral evil.
The argument from non-moral evil against God’s benevolence
• The world is filled with pain, some of which is not our doing.
“Even though the major bulk of actual human pain is traceable to man’s misused freedom as a sole or part cause, there remain other sources of pain that are entirely independent of the human will, for example, earthquake, hurricane, storm, flood, drought, and blight.”
- Pain is bad, and the world would be better without it.
- So, either God could not make a world without pain, or did not want to.
- In the first case, God is not omnipotent.
- In the second case, God is not supremely benevolent.
• According to Hick, a world were no evil things never happen would not be a place where we could live fully human lives.
• Hick presents this thought based on the Christian idea of life as a struggle that can be rewarding as well as challenging, and as something that brings the best out of us.
• This is also demonstrated by the example of Christ.
Hick’s response: Deny that a pain-free world is something good.
- “It does seem possible to show that the divine purpose as it is understood in Judaism and Christianity could not be forwarded in a world that was designed as a permanent hedonistic paradise…”
- “Christianity has never supposed that God’s purpose in the creation of the world was to construct a paradise whose inhabitants would experience a maximum of pleasure and a minimum of pain.”
• Such a world of maximum pleasure, for Hick and the Church, would actually be undesirable, and lacking any challenges that bring the best in us.
• For Hick, human action and responsibility would be pointless in a world where there is nothing at stake, because everyone always enjoys a maximum amount of pleasure.
•
o ◦“Such a world [where nothing bad ever happens] however well it might promote pleasure, would be very ill adapted for the development of the moral qualities of human personality.”
- Moreover, there can be a real reward for our endurance of hardships in this life that goes beyond building character.
- This is a reward in the afterlife, which Christianity says awaits those who persevere.
- A related thought (although Hick does not explicitly mention it):
- We need some pain and bad things in order to appreciate the good things we have in this life. So, the existence of pain is not such a bad thing, after all.
