The Problem of Evil Flashcards
The Augustinian Theodicy (x3)
Evil is just PRIVATIO BONI, a lack of good, so evil does not exist
Fallen angels have caused much natural evil
The Fall also caused natural evil as in Genesis God states ‘I will make your pains in childbearing very severe’ and ‘Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it’
The Evidential Problem of Evil (x3)
The suffering present in this world could not be the product of an omnibenevolent God
JS Mill wrote that ‘Nearly all the things which men are hanger or imprisoned for doing to one another are nature’s everyday performances’
Darwin wrote ‘I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have created the parasitic wasp’
The Logical Problem of Evil (x4)
Epicurus: The existence of suffering contradicts the existence of an omnibenevolent God
JL Mackie’s Inconsistent Triad
David Hume argued that a God who is able but not willing to prevent evil was malevolent
Richard Swinburne stated ‘If the theist does not have a satisfactory answer to evil, then his belief in God is not rational’
Evil
Moral Evil: Suffering which results from human wrongdoing
Natural Evil: Suffering which does not occur from human wrongdoing, such as earthquakes
Genetic Diversity
According to a 2013 meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, human genetic diversity cannot be the product of less than 10,000 parents, let alone 2 , suggesting that the Genesis mythology is not true
Criticisms of John Hick’s Theodicy (x2)
There is 0 scriptural basis for John Hick’s theodicy
If God has created the world in order to inflict suffering on humans so their souls can develop, God is using humans as a ‘means to an end’. Kant sees this as immoral
John Hick
Evil and suffering allows ‘soul-making’
God purposefully maintains an ‘epistemic distance’, as this gives humans free will. The afterlife is a ‘vale of soul-making’ which allows anyone to eventually achieve salvation
It could be argued that an omnibenevolent God would do this
Criticisms of the Irenaean Theodicy (x3)
Suffering is unevenly distributed and can go unnoticed. Furthermore, suffering can ‘break’ people, leading to their suicide
DOSTOEVSKY argued that if God knew our world would require so much suffering, it would be better not to create humans
God is omnipotent, so could make humans totally in his image. Instead God inflicts suffering upon humans, using them as a ‘means to an’, something which Kant sees as immoral
The Irenaean Theodicy (x4)
Irenaeus thought that humans were made Imago Dei, as in Genesis it states ‘So God created man in his own image’
Irenaeus thought that God could not totally make humans in his own image in the same way a baby cannot be fed whole food
Irenaeus holds that humans need free will and natural evil so they could resist temptation and become more God
Kant thought that in order to be moral, humans needed free will
Criticisms of the Augustinian Theodicy (x4)
Irenaeus argues that God made natural evil for soul-making to allow humans to respond with moral behaviour
Hick argues that suffering exists to maintain the epistemic distance which allows free will
Dawkins wrote ‘what kind of ethical philosophy is it that condemns every child, even before it is born, to inherit the sin of a remote ancestor?’
Schleiermacher argued that fallen angels could only sin if imperfectly made
