The Catholic Response to Evil Flashcards
What do Catholics believe about the problem of evil?
-They believe that God is omnipotent, omnibenelovent and omniscient as the Bible says “God is love”
-they do not agree that evil and suffering prove that he does not exists
What is Free Will and what do Catholic’s believe about it?
1)The ability to chose between different courses of action
2)Catholics believe that all humans have free will and this free will is God given
3)They believe that without free will humans could not be described as moral beings as they will not have made the conscious choice to live and act in a moral way
4)Richard Swine argues that moral evil is the result of human beings having free will and part of evil and suffering is there because of humanity “misusing” free will and making wrong choices
What would be the Catholic response to the problem of evil?
1)Richard Swine argues that moral evil is the result of human beings having free will and part of evil and suffering is there because humanity “misusing” free will and making wrong choices
2)Natural evil is also the fault of moral evil as Adam and Eve used their free-will to eat the fruit from the tree of. When they disobeyed God they “fell” from perfection and brought evil until a perfect world: “the ground will be cursed because of you”
3)Protestant John Hick believed that there needs to be evil and suffering in the world to give people the chance to improve themselves. People would never be given the opportunity to work for a charity like CAFOD if not for the suffering of others therefore people wouldn’t be able to follow the teaching of Jesus that state they should show love to others therefore evil is necessary for good to exist - he called his idea “the vale of soul making” and argued that we were born imperfect so we can develop into the likeness of God
4) Evil and suffering could be a part of God’s plan for us, we cannot possibly understand the reasoning of a being who is omniscient and omnipotent. We should instead trust in the plan God has set out for us, even when times are difficult.
How would a Catholic’s believe about the evil and suffering influence their lives?
Catholic’s will try to help those who are suffering by volunteering their time or money to charities like CAFOD
