key terms

Question 1

Moral evil

Answer 1

evil done as a result of human choices

Question 2

Natural evil (non-moral/suffering)

Answer 2

any evil that arises in nature without reference to human agency e.g. earthquakes

Question 3

Iconsistent triad

Answer 3

the claims, ‘evil exists’, ‘God is omnibenevolent’ and ‘God is omnipotent’ can’t all be true simultaneously

Question 4

Deism

Answer 4

belief that after God created the world he disconnected w/ it, hence he doesn’t stop/interfere w/ the evil & suffering that exist

Question 5

Abarahamic religions

Answer 5

Judaism, Islam and Christianity (trace back to Abraham as)

Question 6

Theodicy

Answer 6

attempt to justify the goodness of God, given the fact of evil

Question 7

Heresy

Answer 7

an opinion at variance with established teaching, particularly of a church or religion

Question 8

soul-deciding theodicy

Answer 8

any theodicy, such as that of Augustine, which sees evil as a test of goodness and faithfulness to God

Question 9

omnipotence

Answer 9

all-powerfull

Question 10

original sin

Answer 10

disobedience of Adam and Eve that led to all humanity being flawed hereafter

Question 11

Pelagianism

Answer 11

a heresay from the 5th Cen. that denies original sin and believes we can attain heaven by our own unaided efforts - do not depend on God.

Question 12

Dysteleological

Answer 12

something that serves no purpose

Question 13

Instrumentalism

Answer 13

belief that something’s value depends on its usefulness as a means to bring about somehing else

Question 14

Soul-making theodicy

Answer 14

an theodicy, such as Hick’s, Swineburns’ and Iranaeus’, which argues we need pain & adversity to build character

Question 15

A posterori

Answer 15

knowledge dependent on sense exp

Question 16

A priori

Answer 16

knowledge independent of sense exp/

Question 17

voluntas

Answer 17

the tendency of all things to persist in their own being

Question 18

omnibenevolence

Answer 18

all-loving

Question 19

omniscience

Answer 19

all-seeing

Question 20

the logical problem of evil

Answer 20

God’s characteristics and evil cannot simultaneously exist

Question 21

the evidential problem of evil

Answer 21

evidence within nature and examples in our world, showing suffering and evil exists (at the will of God)

Question 22

Grace

Answer 22

the free and unmented favour of God as manifested in the salvation of sinners & the bestowal of blessings

Question 23

Privation

Answer 23

the absence of one’s opposite (evil & good)

Question 24

Epistemic distance

Answer 24

distance between humans and God that is kept, in order for free will to exist

Question 25

Counterfactual hypothesis

Answer 25

God’s purpose would be not possible in a world completely free from suffering & evil

Question 26

Instrumental(ly) good

Answer 26

Hick’s argument that the world is instru. good so not in itself but the purpose it was created for (place of development and growth for mankind)

Question 27

Universal salvation

Answer 27

Hick argues everyone ulitmately goes to heaven (living eternally beside God) even those who have done evil and go to hell