Problem of Evil Flashcards
What is the paradox of omnipotence and who argued for and against
Can god create something impossible for god to do e.g. create and unliftable stone
Descartes-god could both create and lift the unliftable stone
Aquinas-God can do the logically impossible, but wont, because of his nature
What are moral and natural evils
Moral evils-Evil as a result of human error; war, terrorism, theft.
Natural evils(non-moral evils)-Evil that occurs because of the world-floods, earthquakes etc
Who came up with the word theodicy and what does it mean
Leibniz-A justification for why a god will allow suffering and pain in his world
What different questions does moral and natural evil raise about the nature of god
Moral evil-Why would god let humans do evi(make human nature better) and why does he allow innocents to be affected
Natural evil-Why would gods let the world cause pain e.g. earthquakes illness, particularly to the innocent.
What is the epicurean paradox
If god is all loving- wants to prevent evil
If god is all powerful- can prevent evil
Yet evil and suffering still exist
Therefore, one of the three points must be wrong, and we can only verify one via sense-experience
(most refutations revolve around proving the premises as false e.g. allowing evil is more loving than not)
What did Bertrand russel say about the possible nature of a hypothetical god
If granted millions of years, omnipotent and omniscience, in order to produce a perfect world, the best you can come up with is the fascists or the klu kulx klan
Which Australian Philosopher reframed the epicurean paradox for modern audiences
J.L. Mackie in his essay Evil and Omnipotence, pointed out how it is irrational to believe in God, due to contradictory evidence(he called it the inconsistent triad)-written in 1955, experiences like auschwitz and hiroshima were particularly acute.
What does mackie say about any proposed solution to the inconsistent triad
It involves compromising on gods nature in some way e.g. universe is better with evil in-the fact that god couldnt create a better universe without evil is compromising on his omnipotence
What did William Rowe argue about the problem of evil
He discussed the evidential problem of evil, as he thought the logical problem relied on assumptions we simply can not make, e.g. that suffering in the short term will not result in a net positive in the future
However, Rowe argues that what he terms ‘intense suffering’ means that the god of classical theism existing is unlikely(talks a lot about a deer being burned alive slowly as opposed to quickly)
What points did Gregory.S.Paul raise about the problem of evil
In 2007, he bought in a statistical measure of why God is unlikely to exist, by coutning up the number of children who have died before reaching the ‘age of reason’ or consciousness, and so can not be said to have done anything to cause them to deserve to die. He puts this number at around 50 billion dead children throughout humanity’s lifetime, and believes god must be incongruent with this.
What common argument for evil is redundant to Paul’s dead kids
The idea of free will as the children died before being able to make any sort of decision
What are the two main theodicies that attempt to resolve the problem of evil
Augustine and Irenean Theodicies
What did Augustine think of evil
It was a privatio boni, or a lack of good, as opposed to being a concept in its own right (is blindness merely a lack of sight)
How did Augustine define goodness
As something fulfilling its purpose (a knife is good if it is sharp)
Why did Augustine believe that evil was present in the world
Original sin and the fall-Guilt was passed seminally on from Adam to all humanity
