Problem of Evil Flashcards
Define Natural Evil
malfunctioning of the natural world, as in natural disasters or diseases
Define Moral Evil
the evil resulting from the deliberate choices of human individuals
Outline the Logical Problem of Evil
P1. Evil and suffering exists
P2. God is omnibenevolent and omnipotent
P3. An omnibenevolent and omnipotent God, if he existed, would remove evil and suffering.
Con. God does not exist
Outline counterpoints of the problem of evil
“Evil and suffering exists”
- evil is the absence of goodness (dark is the absence of light)
- evil is a human illusion brought on by greed
“God is omnibenevolent and omnipotent”
- Maybe God is impersonal and so does not have traits like goodness or being loving
- Maybe God is not all powerful (Zoroastrianism)
“An omnipotent and omnibenevolent God would remove evil and suffering”
- Maybe God has a plan for which the existence of evil and suffering is necessary
- Maybe destroying the evil is impossible. A world without evil cannot exist
Outline the “inconsistent triad”
Put forward by J. L. Mackie
- God is omnipotent
- God is omnibenevolent
- Evil exists
The combination of any of these two positions leads logically to the third being impossible-
However, theists wish to maintain that all three positions are true whilst still believing that God exists.
Outline the Augustinian theodicy
P1. God created a perfect world (omnibenevolent)
P2. Evil does not exist, it is the absence of good
P3. God gave humans free will (omnipotence)
P4. God got a solution for evil (through Jesus)
Con. God is All Loving, All Powerful and made room for Evil because of his plan
Define the term theodicy
The attempt to justify the co-existence of God and suffering/evil
Evaluate the Augustinian theodicy
How could a perfect world go wrong? Maybe the world was not perfect, or God enabled it to go wrong (Schleiermacher says that this is a logical contradiction)
How could perfect beings choose to do wrong? If goodness was hard-wired into our nature, why would we choose evil?
Was the world really made perfect? Augustine´s view is that odds with science. Nature is “red” in tooth and claw. Humans have risen, not fallen
Is it reasonable to say that suffering is not a real thing? Is Augustine playing word games by calling evil a “privation”? This idea would not help us comfort a grieving parent
Outline the Irenaean Theodicy
God created an imperfect world and humans will eventually turn it into a perfect world through moral development.
Book of Genesis, chapter 1 verse 26
- human are created in the image of God
- humans must grow into the likeness of God
A imperfect world because it is better to develop morality through hard work rather than being pre-programmed (work: “Against Heresies”)
In a world without pain and suffering, our actions would have no moral consequences.
Many of the moral virtues we admire are only possible in an imperfect world (Richard Swinburne).
John Hick - Soul Making Process (moral development)
God allows suffering in order to lead to the higher goal of moral development. Some people can morally degraded, however to justify evil everyone has to make it to Heaven (universal salvation)
Describe John Hick´s Soul Making Process
The Soul Making Process describes moral development.
If God would predetermine our morality, he would undermine humanity´s freedom.
He also created us with an epistemic distance - God makes his existence uncertain to us so that we act out of virtue and not fear of being watched.
Evaluate the Irenaean Theodicy
- Does the end justify the means (suffering in order to achieve God´s unknown higher goal)
- Not all suffering results in moral growth (some people morally degraded)
- Is suffering the only way to create moral growth (God could have created a world without suffering but with challenges to allow moral development)
- If everyone makes it to Heaven, what is the motivation to be moral? (actions would not have any worth)
Outline the Free Will Defence
Is about the idea of free will and introduced by Alvin Plantinga
Freedom brings about suffering.
He does not control the amount of suffering as this would contradict with free will.
However, freedom also brings about the ability for humans to decide how they want to respond to God.
If God intervened to prevent evil, this would restrict our freedom.
In order to be able to show thing such as fairness or mercy, human must be able to be cowardly, unfair or cruel.
What does Swinburne say about free will and God
“The less God allows men to bring about large scale horrors, the less the freedom and responsibility he gives them”
Why is the Free Will Defence a good explanation of moral AND natural evil
A world with death is better than a world without it:
- Without death a person cannot make the ultimate sacrifice
- A limited life focuses the attention – a situation of temptation with infinite chances is not a situation of temptation at all. If there is always another chance there is no risk.
- It stops the old dominating the young
- It limits the suffering one person can take
Evaluate the Free Will Defence
If God is omnipotent then why did he not create a world with genuine freedom and the minimisation of pain - John Mackie and Swinburne
