Problem of evil Flashcards
God and the world
definitions by Aquinas
-natural evil: only evil when looked at from a human perspective, earthquakes are just the natural world fulfilling its potential
-moral evil: caused by humanity turning away from its true potential, evil that comes through the actions of mankind, humans are free agents, responsible for their actions and consequent results
-C.S Lewis - God allows suffering because “we are like blocks of stone out of which the sculptor carves the forms of man. Blows of his chisel, which hurt us so much, are what make us perfect”
the nature of the ‘problem’
-evil is only a ‘problem’ when believing in a God with divine attributes
-two aspects to this problem: logical (God’s attributes and evil) and evidential (evidence of evil in world)
logical aspects: Epicurus (342-270 BCE)
-devised the classic formulation for the problem of evil
-‘inconsistent triad’
-poses three points
1. God is willing but not able to prevent evil? then he isn’t omnipotent
2. God is able to prevent evil but not willing? then God is not omnibenevolent
3. If God is both able and willing then why do we suffer?
-concluded that it is reasonable to suppose that due to the existence of evil, God is either not omnipotent or all loving or God doesn’t exist
David Hume
-‘Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion’
1.God isn’t omnipotent or
2. God isn’t all loving or
3. evil doesn’t exist
-conclusion: too much evidence to deny that evil doesn’t exist
-God must be either impotent or malicious
-not the God of classical theism
-therefore, God doesn’t exist
-led Mill to say that “God of classic Theism doesn’t exist”
evidential evil in world: examples
-moral evil: Axel Rubakubana (17 years old) murdered three young girls in southport
-natural evil: wildfires in LA
there is no ‘problem’
-Mary Eddy Baker, founder of Christian science: evil and suffering doesn’t exist - they are a construct of our mind
-Buddhists - suffering is part of existence, belief in no ‘creator god’ so suffering isn’t seen as a ‘problem’, thus existence of suffering and evil is only a problem for those who believe in an all powerful God
-Russell, God is used as a smoke screen, evil is just a ‘brute fact’ of life, use God as an excuse
-Aristotle, Prime Mover is quite indifferent to suffering
Theodicy
-‘Theos’ = God
-‘Dikaios’ = justification
-theodicy = justification of God even with evil in the world
Augustine’s Theodicy
-interpreted Genesis story literally
-very traditional view of God
-God of classical theism
-hierarchy of being:
-God is being itself (supreme being/immutable), all created things reflect greater or lesser being
-“since God is supreme being… it follows that he gave “being to all that he created out of nothing. To some things he gave more of being and to others less and, arranged an order of natures in a hierarchy of being”
1.Origins of Evil/Role of Freewill
-original rejection of God by rebellious angels (moral evil) who ‘fell’ or turned away from God (causing natural evil) – banishment of Lucifer
-humans are created in the likeness of God (Genesis 1:27) but given free will
-evil has let into the world through the misuse of free choice of Adam and Eve who ate the apple of knowledge of good and evil
-Adam and Eve corrupted and destroyed God’s natural perfect order, creating disharmony and resulting in natural evil
- Our Punishment Today
-seminally present in Adam and Eve = all guilty for the Fall (bloodline)
-we deserve punishment = natural evil is fitting punishment
-“all evil is either sin or a punishment for sin”
-therefore God isn’t responsible for moral evil as it through free choice of humans/angels
-God is also not responsible for natural evil as this is a result of the corruption of his perfect created world
-thus God isn’t responsible for interviewing and correcting it
- responsibility of God
-God created everything in creation perfect
-God didn’t create evil
-evil comes as an absence of good
-evil is a privation (privatio boni)
-means that God cannot be blamed for evil as evil isn’t a substance, it is an absence of good
- why give us freewill?
-not God’s fault for evil: God made a perfect world because God is perfect
-God isn’t responsible for evil: we bring it on ourselves when we reject God using our free will
-it is more valuable having humans with the gift of freewill rather than just obedient followers
-this world is “soul deciding”
criticisms
-evolution theory undermines how literally Genesis creation stories can be taken and how we are all seminally present in Adam/Eve
-how could a good God let us suffer what Adam and Eve did? Hell is a difficult concept, if God created it he must have anticipated needing it - so why not change the plan?
-Schleiermacher, a perfectly created world shouldn’t have gone wrong, cannot create something out of nothing, either: 1. the world wasn’t perfect or 2. God enabled it to go wrong
John Hick: reworking of Irenaeus’ theodicy
-human beings were not created perfect but develop in two stages
1. ‘image’ - spiritually immature, through struggle to survive (evolve) humans can develop into spiritually mature beings, the Fall is a result of immature humans who are only in the ‘image of God’
2. ‘likeness’ - grow into a relationship with God
-God’s presence isn’t always obvious so humans have a choice whether or not to believe in God, wouldn’t have free will
-everyone will be saved (universal salvation) but some post death soul making is needed =purgatory
-salvation needs to be earned
quote: image and likeness
-‘let us make man in our image, in our likeness’- Genesis 1:26
-image: we are made in the image of God (with the potential for Good), humans couldn’t receive full goodness at creation as we are spiritually immature, free will needed to develop own goodness, gift of moral perfection wouldn’t have meant anything to humans if they did not learn the value of it for themselves
-likeness: we are moving towards the likeness of God (becoming good) with the potential to be like God, we become like God or move towards the likeness of God by freely choosing the good
Hick continued
-God isn’t responsible for us obeying and turning to evil through our freewill
-God needs to remain at an epistemic distance in order for us to mature
-natural evil enables humans to reach divine likeness
-the world is a ‘vale of soul making’ this world is where your souls are made, develop and grow into the likeness of God
-only possible with free will and the option of doing bad (moral evil) and the test of natural evil
Hick’s inspiration from Irenaeus
-Fall atken literally but blames the serpent too
-Adam and Eve are like that of children who go astray because they haven’t yet developed sufficient wisdom to do what is right
-even if a child is difficult doesn’t mean parents will abandon them
-punishment is often a way to help them to mature but must be given boundaries so that Adam and Eve did not despise God
-thus, God has not abandoned us but gives us the distance and punishment to mature
-salvation from God is open to all, who use their freewill for good
-however, the damned will be sent to hell as they refused the ‘workmanship’ of God
Irenaeus’ examples: ‘Against Heresies’ Book 4
-potter and the Clay
-the potter needs the clay to remain wet so taht it can be moudled, once the clay has become dry it can no longer be used
-God = potter and humans = clay
-we need to remain open to God so that God can help us achieve moral and spiritual perfection
-God’s ‘hands’ help mould us through the existence of natural evil
-natural evil ‘shapes’ us from the image of God to the likeness = develops desirable moral qualities
-humans cannot get to God by their own means, need a helping hand
quotes
-“could not our world be a little more hospitable and still teach us what we need to know?”
-argues whether the suffering has to be so extreme
-Wiesel “trial of God”challenging God to keep promises found in Psalms, Job. is such a God worthy of worship?
supporters of freewill: Hick
-the route of all moral evil is human choice
-freewill is necessary
-God had to give it to humans
-freewill is needed in order for beings to love God
-love cannot be forced, therefore, God has to give people free will
Peter Vardy
-illustration of the peasant girl – King falls in love with a peasant girl – could force her to marry him but for her to love him in return has to be earned (same as freewill)
need freewill
-Plantinga: “a world containing free creatures is far more valuable than a world containing robots”
-process theology: Whitehead/Griffin: God isn’t omnipotent, God created the world but now is independent, God no longer has total control so God suffers with us
-Swinburne: total freewill is necessary, if God intervened in horrors, it would compromise free will like an overprotective parent
critics of freewill
-Dostoyevsky “the Brother Karamazov”
-the suffering of innocent children is too high a price to pay for the gift of freedom
-he would like God to take it back because he cannot deal with the responsibility
