Problem of evil Flashcards
evidential problem of evil
concerns the sheer amount of evil and suffering in the world. Why did God create such a world and why did he make man capable of such cruelty?
logical problem of evil
Inconsistent Triad. God cannot be omnipotent (able to prevent evil) or God cannot be all loving (willing to prevent evil) or evil does not exist
Augustine
- God created a perfect world
- humankind (seminally present in Adam) is disobedient and separated from God
- moral evil) and this also caused an imbalance in the natural order (natural evil).
Privation
mankind’s failure (and nature’s failure) to live up to its intended purpose.
Is god responsible ( augustine )
If evil is an absence of good, then God cannot be responsible for its creation - it is not logical to say that God created an absence!
Soul deciding/ original sin
Our suffering is a result of original sin and disobedience, but Jesus’ sacrifice pays the price for our failure. Those who believe this will go to Heaven. Those who reject this will go to Hell. Thus, Augustine’s theodicy has been named as “soul-deciding”.
There are obvious problems with Augustine’s theodicy
Schleiermacher points out the logical errors - If God created a perfect world, where did evil come from? Surely the essence of perfection is that it is unchanging. Why would anybody rebel in a perfect world? If humans chose evil, then this implies that they must have had a knowledge of it, which could only have come from God.
John Hick
Hick’s version has been named the soul-making theodicy. Hick argues that evil has a purpose. He agrees with Irenaeus (130-202) that humans were created in the image of God (i.e. we have the potential to be good) but that we have not yet assumed His likeness. We are in an immature moral state, and throughout life learn through suffering and experience to grow into the likeness of god, to become “children of God”. Adam and Eve made a mistake through immaturity. Jesus Christ was sent by God as part of the learning process and also suffered.
epistemic distance
between God and man. If God was too immanent then we would not follow him of our own volition. (If God intervenes and prevents evil then we would be too aware of His existence watching us and so we would have no real choice. We would choose to obey not because we wanted to, but because we were terrified! )
vale of soul-making
If we did not have evil we would not be able to develop true virtues such as courage and compassion and we would never know what good is, so we would have no real choice.
There are also problems with Hick’s Theodicy
For a start, it seems unfair that everybody ends up in Heaven. (Why should Mother Teresa and Hitler both turn out to be “perfect”. Why should they both be glorifies in heaven?)
Mackie
“could not our world be a little more hospitable and still teach us what we need to know?” (God could have given us the choice to do good with limited potential for evil. He could have created a world where I still have the choice not to hurt someone, but it is impossible for me to organise the genocide of six million Jews. Might I not learn to be good by realising that I can bring pleasure into someone’s life? Why must I only learn through pain?)
Swinburne
if God limited suffering then it would be a “toy world where things matter, but not very much”. God would be like an over protective parent not allowing his child out of his sight for a moment. He argues that the level of suffering is however limited because there is death. If we were immortal, then we would not have to take responsibility for our actions because there is always another chance, so we can go on and on causing death and mayhem. By limiting our lifespan, we have only limited chances to get things right
Dostoyevsky
examples of the suffering of innocents and concludes that God must be malevolent and “returns his ticket to heaven”.
