The problem of evil Flashcards
What is the inconsistent triad?
a version of the logical problem of evil
Has 3 elements-omnipotence,evil and omnibenevolence
The logical problem of evil challenges belief
-God can’t be omnipotent because he would have created a world that didn’t have the possibility of being evil or didn’t suffer from natural disasters
- he would be able to end suffering and evil now
-cant be omnibenevolent as he would have cared for his creation enough to want to prevent its suffering
-inconsistency-God knows about evil, God is wholly good, god is powerful
Counter arguments to problem of evil
-Alston- can’t understand God-human perspective is limited
-Platinga- God chooses to limit himself to allow free will
-Good reasons for allowing evil to exist- good outcomes, diseases are necessary for development and cures
-Without evil we wouldn’t know what good is
What is the evidential problem of evil?
observations and experiences of the world used as evidence against existence of God
The evidential problem of evil is the greatest challenge to belief
-huge amounts of suffering with no obvious purpose.Hume-questions God’s benevolence and power
-Could god have made humans to always choose good
-Dostoyevsky- god who allows the extent of suffering is not worth worshipping
Evidential is not greatest challenge to belief
-Logical is greater challenge- highlights inconsistencies with theistic god
-It is evidential and logical combined
-Swinburne-evidential is not sponsored difficult as it provides motivation to find cures
What is evil according to Augustine?
a privation of good caused by the fall
Why does Irenaeus believe there is evil?
helps us to learn and grow, able to choose freely and have a relationship with God
What does Hick believe about what evil does for us?
facing evil leads us into a free relationship with God
Explain Augustine’s theodicy
God created a perfect world with free humans in his image+likeness
Before The Fall world and humans were perfectly good
What is goodness for Augustine
intrinsic
therefore…
each part of creation has its own scale of goodness
When does evil occur for Augustine?
when something made good originally doesn’t live up to its expected goodness- privation
evil is a privation of goodness
Augustine: moral evil
why it exists?
-The fall of humans
-This first sin corrupted human nature so all humans are inherently sinful
-All humans were seminally present in Adam
- Because of original sin everyone deserves to be punished
- God isn’t to blame for free choices of humans
Augustine:Natural evil
why it exists?
Fall of the angels caused disharmony and imbalance in nature which led to natural disasters
God allows this to continue as it acts as a punishment for original sin
How does Augustine argue God is all-loving?
Rescue plan:jesus
God became human died and took punishment himself
Augustine gets god off the hook
-God can’t create evil if it is a privation because it is not ‘something’
-McCabe- when we talk about something being ‘bad’ we mean it doesn’t live up to our expectations
-Human free will is important-genuine free will requires possibility of evil
Augustine doesn’t get God off the hook
-If God created a perfect world where did evil come from?. If humans chose evil they must have had knowledge of it so perhaps God is partly responsible for evil
-modern scientific errors-not biologically possible for every human to have been seminally present in Adam
-modern thinking- natural disasters cos of tectonic plates
What does Hick claim that evil and suffering has?
a purpose
world is environment that serves this purpose
humans were created in the image of god but have not yet grown into his likeness
Soul-making justifies the amount of evil in the world
-Hick-epistemic distance
-world is ‘vale of soulmaking’-amount of evil is instrumental-develops character
Swinburne-if god limited evil wouldn’t be genuine free will
End justifies means-evil and suffering are instrumentally good so amount of evil is justifies by universal salvation
Soul making doesn’t justify amount of evil in the world
-Mackie- God could have made people who are free but always make good choices
-Hume-could world be little more hospitable+still teach us to develop characteristics
-D.Z.Phillips- disagrees with Hick-true love doesn’t use evil a a means to an end. God is omnibenevolent
