Strengths and weaknesses of Augustine theodicy Flashcards
Strength - Brian Davies
Evil cannot properly be called a substance and agrees “it is the gap between what there is and what there ought to be”.
Strength - Plantinga
He argues that although humans sometimes freely choose good, if God had designed them so that they would always do good, then they would not truly be free.
Strengths - possibility of natural evil
His theodicy successfully accounts for the existence of natural evil due to moral evil, also if we are to have genuine free will then natural evil must be accounted for.
Strengths - possibility of natural evil - Genesis
It links to Genesis and so his theodicy appeals to Christians who accept the authority of the bible as the word of God.
Strengths - Calvin
The theme of predestination developed by Calvin has strengths - it is supported by several bible passages including Psalm 139: 16
Weakness - Logical error - Schleiermacher
He argues it is a logical contradiction in holding that a perfectly created world has gone wrong, since this would mean that evil has created itself out of nothing, which is logically impossible.
Weakness - logical error - free will defence
His appeal to free will defense poses a difficulty within the framework of his theodicy. It is hard to see how, in a perfect world where there was knowledge of good and evil, there could be the possibility to disobey God.
Weakness - logical error - real free will
It requires the option to be able to commit sins and, paradoxically the permission to commit sins. If God has not allowed all three, then free will would be an illusions.
Weakness - scientific error - Literal interpretations
The theodicy depends on literal interpretations of Genesis 3, John Hick would argue that the theodicy is flawed because…“it is fatally lacking in plausibility. For most educated inhabitants of the modern world regard the biblical story…as a myth rather than history”.
Weakness - scientific error - reliance on Genesis
This reliance creates two major criticisms 1) God making the world perfect and humans damaging contradicts evolutionary theory. 2) By suggesting we are all responsible for Adam’s sin as we were ‘all seminally present in his loins’ is biologically flawed.
Weakness - moral error - God favouring people
God is arbitrarily favouring some people over others, by saving some and not others and showing irrational inconsistency. If he is able to save some then He can save others.
Weakness - moral error - Hick
He would argue that Augustine’s view that God chose to create the world despite knowing that the fall would happen makes God responsible for evil. We would hold a manufacturer responsible for a faulty product.
