Problem Of Evil Flashcards
Inconsistent triad
- if god isn’t all powerful he can’t prevent evil
- if God isn’t all loving then he chooses not to prevent evil
- evil doesn’t exist it is an illusion
Logical problem of evil
Gods divine attributes contradict with evil existing as he would be able to stop it if he was all of them. Inconsistent triad.
Hume in logical problem of evil
Evil exists as suffering is direct evidence so god is either impotent or malicious therefore unworthy of worship.
Evidential problem of evil
Evidence of suffering in the world show evil, sheer amount and extent of evil in the world in natural disasters and children dieting, Rowe argues there may be a reason we can’t understand.
Beginning of Augustine’s theodicy
- God created a perfect world in the garden of Eden
- evil isn’t a substance and isn’t created by god it is a lack of something not living up to its expected goodness or privation
- blindness is lack of sight
- humans are made in image of god so they have rational thought and free will to act as they wish as it gives purpose in choosing good
Fall of mankind
- Adam and eve ate the fruit due to temptation of free will, gained knowledge of good and evil
- this was original sin which created moral evil as humans have ability to choose evil
- humans now have an inherent corrupt nature and ability to sin, as they were seminally present in Adam.
Fall of angels
- caused disharmony in the world order which led to natural evils like famine
- God allows this to continue as punishment for original sin
- all evil is either sin or punishment for sin
Augustine’s theodicy conclusion
God is all loving so he sent Jesus Christ o rescue people as his sacrifice paid for original sin. If humans choose to repent and use free will to believe in Jesus will be rewarded with heaven on judgment day, soul deciding.
Support of Augustine’s theodicy
McCabe - something is bad when it doesn’t live up to expectation like a sour grape, supports privation
Platinga - god gave humans genuine free will which includes the choice to choose evil
Alston - humans can’t perceive god or his intention with evil
Aristotle/Aquinas - Bad human is one who doesnt fulfils purpose
Barth- Humans are corrupted
Criticisms of Augustine’s theodicy
- seminal presence is a mythical idea disproven by science, also a malicious idea
- of god designed universe he must’ve designed hell so had a prior vision of evil occurring.
- schleiermacher argues if god had a perfect world it shouldn’t have space for evil to spawn
- Evolution disproves story of Adam and Eve, it should be symbolic story but Augustine takes it literally
Hicks theodicy beginning
God created the world with evil as it serves a benevolent purpose, humans created in his image to grow into his likeness but they were born immature so can make mistakes. Humans develop over time and free will is necessary for humans to make good choices, god can’t prevent evil
Hicks theodicy on moral evil
Epistemically distance is the gap in knowledge as humans don’t know gods existence which allowed for genuine free will to choose belief in god, genuine love must be freely chosen based on person to person as hypnosis wouldn’t be real love. Stresses the importance of free will but also causes evil
Hicks theodicy on natural evil
The world is the vale of soul making as it suits its purpose of helping humans to develop into likeness of god. Pain is necessary to teach value and danger as choices have consequences, god wants to build good character traits like a wise parent so allows humans to make mistakes and solve their own problems
Support of hicks theodicy
Swinburne - if god limited suffering it would be like a toy world, genuine free will must have horrors of consequences
- aesthetic arguments have evil as necessary to appreciate good in contrast
- Platinga - free will is necessary for humans to be good, would be robots otherwise
- Alines better with modern understanding and avoids literal genesis interpretation
- Epsitemic distance shows humans cant understand gods full plan with evil, dystelological
Criticisms of hicks theodicy
Hume - world could be less evil but still teach through pleasure instead of pain
Mackie - god could’ve made humans so they would freely always choose god
Dostoyevsky - dysteleological evil in suffering of innocents, Ivan walks away from malevolent god that allows this.
- universal salvation is unjust as some don’t deserve it, also isnt free will
- doesnt explain imbalance of suffering
- Undermines Jesus sacrifice for christian salvation
