The problem of evil

Question 1

types of evil
Aquinas definition

Answer 1

Natural law - evil and suffering caused by non-human agencies - egocentric, nature doing it pupose e.g earthquake

Moral law - the evil done and the suffering caused by deliberate misuse of human free will.

Question 2

The Paradox of Omnipotence - Mackie

Answer 2

‘Can an omnipotent being make things which he cannot control? Or… can an omnipotent being make rules which bind himself?’ - Mackie
For many philosophers, the problem of evil is simply insurmountable. The inconsistent triad presents a devastating critique of the question of why an omnibenevolent, omnipotent God would allow his creation to suffer

Question 3

Hick

Epistemic Distance

Answer 3

a distance in knowledge and understanding

Hick challenges schliermaker ‘logical condratiction’ theory with this.If we could see GOD, humans will be overwhelmed by God’s expectations. So we can only be good because we are aware of Gods existence

Question 4

Inconsistent Triad
J.L. Mackie

Answer 4

(Conducted by Epicurus and later developed by Mackie)
He formulated the problem of evil into an inconsistent triad:

• God is omnipotent
• God is omnibenevolent
• Evil exists.

It is logically inconsistent for these 3 statements to exist simultaneously
if God were omnipotent, he would have the power to remove evil (or could have created a universe free from evil);
if he were omnibenevolent he would want to remove evil so that his creation did not suffer.

Question 5

Natural evil and example

Answer 5

• Evil is the fault of humanity and other fallen angels, not of God.
• God created natural evil, and had a good reason for doing so.* (part of our deserved punishment)*
• part of the aesthetic pattern (how we recognise goodness)

E.G.
(Vardy, The Puzzle of Evil) = This parable suggests that we have a choice.
“Imagine a king falls in love with a peasant girl. He could simply demand her love. However, love cannot be compelled- it must be earned. Love for God cannot be compelled - it too must come about freely.

• animal suffering
• psychological illness
• pain resulting from disease

Question 6

Moral evil & Examples

Answer 6

• Natural evil occurs because of moral evil - our misue of free will - a choice - Corrupted and destroyed God’s natural order
• Theists will argue that this kind of suffering is clearly our fault, not Gods. - seminally presence to Adam and Eve - explain why it effects us today
• God lovingly gave us freedom of choice when he made us, and chose to do the wrong thing.
• All evils a sin or a punishment for sin -augustine
• Felix culpa (happy mistake): gives us redemption in Jesus and eternal life in Heaven
  e.g. God’s not responsible because human broke their covenant- therefore have to reap consequence

Question 7

Privation = privation boni

Answer 7

An absence of goodness(e.g. cold is privation of heat)

Question 8

Hume

The evidetal problem of evil

Answer 8

• is the problem of evil is somewhat different, based on our own experience and sufferinging the world

Hume puts forward an evidential problem of evil.
an empiricist and points out a posteriori evidence of evil in the world: - he evidence in contemporary society

– Why doesn’t God intervene to prevent individual natural disasters?
Eartgdquaes To him, he believes whatever speculations Augustine and Irenaeus might invent about God’s ‘reasons’ for allowing evil - test is needed, we have no evidence that God has such reasons. e.g th iok of Jobe nd everything taken away from him

This shows us that experience is imperfections of the evil in the world.So because of evil, belief in God is not justified.

Question 9

Augustinian Theodicy

Answer 9

Evil is not something created by God. It is a privation of goodness, caused by disobedience of human beings.

Therefore God does not cause evil but allows it so that humans suffer the consequences of sin.

Key Points:
Evil as a consequence of sin
Evil as a privation
The Fall of human beings and creation
The Cross overcomes evil, soul-deciding

Question 10

Augustine [354AD]

Answer 10

• Augustine of Hippo in his book CONFESSIONS propse that evil is privation boni [lack of Goodness]
• He asserts that God created the world ex nihlo [out of nothing], but maintains that God did not create evil and is not responsible for its occurrence
• He based his theodicy on key Biblical teachings such as Romans 5 and genesis 3

Question 11

Augustine was influenced by Manichaeism, what is it?

see ct flashies

Answer 11

According to Manichaeism the world was in a struggle between the substance of light and the substance of darkness.

Question 12

Theodicy’s

Answer 12

A philosophical theory that aims to justify the existence of God despite evil in the world. (E.G. suggesting evil suffering are necessary)

Question 13

Evil is a consequence of sin

Answer 13

1. God is perfect and created the perfect world
   (Humanity spent time with God)
2. Fallen angels
   (Those who rebelled and doubted Gods plan)
3. Human free will
   (Humanity abusing Gods gift of freedom)

Question 14

Quote for evil consequences

Augustine of Hippo in his book ‘confessions’

Answer 14

“Evil came from the world, not from God”
“All evil is sin or the punishment for sin” = Augustine of Hippo in his book ‘confessions’

Question 15

Criticism of the Augustan Theodicy

Schleiermacher

Answer 15

• Schleiermacher says this is a logical contradiction. Either the world wasn’t perfect, or God enabled it wrong.
• How could perfect being choose to do wrong? = if goodness was hard-wired into our nature, why would we choose evil.
• Was the world really made perfect? = Augustine view is at odds with science. The creation story contradicts evolution. An idea of paradise (followed by a fallen world) makes no sense. The idea that a perfect world becomes flawed is opposite to how things usually get better over time, like how the human eye evolved to be more perfect. So, if the world has flaws, it might mean that God is involved. This relates to anthropomorphism, which is giving human traits to God.

Question 16

SUMMARY OF THE AUGUSTINE THEODICY

Answer 16

• Evil is not something created by God
• Its a lack (or privation) of goodness, caused by the disobedience of human beings
• Therefore God does not cause evil but allows it so that human suffer the consequences of sin.
• but also, allows them to have the opportunity for redemption through jesus

Question 17

Augustine theodicy- The Fall of human beings & creation

Answer 17

• Adam and Eve freely chose to break Gods will
• we all misuse our moral autonomy therefore we deserve punishment.

Question 18

Felix culpa

Answer 18

The relationship of human and God through the redemption by Jesus in an even better relationship than the perfect one that existed in creation.

Question 19

Strengths of Augustinian theodicy

Answer 19

• values free will as the best choice God could have made for mankind
• God is therefore not responsible for man’s evil choice and evil is not part of Gods creative work

Question 20

Irenaeus theodicy (130-200AD)

Answer 20

• An early Christian preacher who become Bishop of Lyon in France.
• Earlier than Augustine
• his theodicy is about bringing people back to a relationship with God. A ‘recapitulation’ theory
• He states in his book [against Heresies]: “A world without problems & difficulties would be morally static‘

Question 21

recapitulation

Answer 21

The word is often applied to the ideas of Irenaeus concerning the problem of evil.
Recapitulation means to ‘bring something back to the beginning’; or to ‘summarise.

irenaeus’ theodicy is about bringing people back into relationship with God; hence it is called a theory of recapitulation

Question 22

Hick who developecIrenaeus: ‘vale of soul-making’ theodicy

Answer 22

“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” Genesis 1:26

• Humans are made in the image of God. = intelligent, have moral consciousness.
• Humans are not made ready perfect because morality developed through hard work is more valuable than pre-programmed robotic morality.
• God brings in suffering for the benefit of humanity and eventually everyone will be in his likeness
• Without evil there will be no spirtual growth for an individual. This justifies temporary evil.

Question 23

Irenaeus Theodicy
Epistemic distance

Answer 23

God created humans imperfect and at a ‘distance’ from him so they could decide for themselves whether to follow him or not.

• We would automatically believe and obey as God would be looking at humans every move
• To have distance God allows humans to choose freely

Question 24

Humans are made imperfect: Baby food analogy

Answer 24

The child is not developed enough, right at the start, to be given an adult diet, so the mother gives the child milk and the child develops over time.
In the same way God did not make human’s in his likeness right from the beginning.

‘As the child is not yet able to receive more substantial nourishment…’ - therefore the mother slowly introduces the child to adult food (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4.38.1)

Question 25

Why is evil and suffering necessary?

Answer 25

• Character building: Evil offers the opportunity to grow morally. If we were programmed to ‘do the right thing’ there would be no moral value to our actions.
• ‘We would never learn the art of goodness in a world designed as a complete paradise’ Swinburne.

Question 26

Hick: Developments

Hick’s modern Irenaean Theodicy

Answer 26

Hick argued that human beings were not created perfect but develop in two stages:

Stage 1: Spiritually immature:through struggle to survive and evolve, humans can develop into spiritually mature beings.
The Fall is a result of immature humans who are only in the image of God.
Stage 2: Grow into a relationship with God via responding freely to the challenges of this world.

Hick believed that God was the creator, however, one of the major problems for Hick’s faith is the problem of evil.
Value goodness when you have to earn it
How can there be a God when there is so much evil in the world?

Question 27

Eschatological

Hick

Answer 27

This is a word used by Christians to refer to what will happen at the end of time. Traditionally it is linked with the idea of an afterlife.

Eschatological justification:
E.g if someone dies of a long painful illness or a baby was killed an accident, it cannot be seen ‘all for the good’ unless the end works out for the best
- so there has to be a long time in ‘the end’ that goes beyond death but admits to feel the theodicy does not work unless you are prepared to believe in afterlife

Question 28

comparing Augustine & Irenaeus

privation + Fall vs developments + imperfections

Answer 28

For Augustine, evil is a privation of good. For Irenaeus, evil exists but allows for our moral development.

For Augustine, the world was created perfect, and disharmony was introduced through the Fall. For Irenaeus, the world was made imperfect to allow for moral development.

Question 29

Challenges to Irenaeus & Hick vs the evidential/logical problem of evil
= soul-deciding/ character development.

Gregory S. PAUL + William Rowe

Answer 29

• It is unsatisfactory because what if a child has no parents? Or animal suffering;
• Rowe gave the example of a fawn dying in a forest fire. We have evidence that such things happen, but no one would ever be able to gain sympathy or compassion from them.
• So, the evidence does not support the claim that God allows evil because it serves the good purpose of soul-making and thus Irenaeus & Hick fail to solve the evidential problem of evil.
• Gregory S. Paul argues some evil is purposeless. It has no chance of leading to spiritual development. For example, premmature deaths. They are unable to benefit from suffering, they have no freewill = wont learn anything. SO why would God allow such inhumane methods = it demotes Jesus’ role as a saviour.
• In addition, some evil is soul breaking: Some people are crushed into a depression or post-traumatic stress disorder when they experience evil. This can result in some people losing faith/ turning away from God.

Question 30

Seminal presence

romans 5

Answer 30

• All future people are born into this disharmonious world.
• Augustine argued that all human beings were present in Adam’s sin. This idea comes from Paul, who wrote that:
• Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned. (Romans 5: 12)