Vale of Soul making - PofE

Question 1

INTRO - define

Answer 1

Theodicy: an attempt to justify belief in God, despite evil in the world. Logical: Inconsistent triad: God’s omnibenevolence / omnipotence inconsistent with evil. Evidential: (Mill) evidence of nature

Question 2

Section one: AO1

NATURAL EVIL - VALE OF SOUL MAKING

Answer 2

Upwards and soul making – Created in Imagio dei - We were created at an epistemic distance to God and although born in likeness must grow and mature to be in the image – only possible by choosing right from wrong. God brings in suffering for the benefit of humanity as a direct consequence of human free will. From it we learn positive values, and about the world around us

Question 3

Section one: AO2 FOR

NATURAL EVIL - VALE OF SOUL MAKING

Answer 3

Character building evil offers the opportunity to grow morally. If we programmed to do ‘the right thing’ we would have no moral values to our actions
-Hick: 1st order evils lead to 2nd order goods: without evils we can’t have any true virtues e.g can’t experience true happiness with our sadness

predictable environment. The world runs to a series of natural laws. These laws are independent of our needs, and operate regardless of anything. Natural evil is when these laws come into conflict with our own perceived needs.
Aquinas (Eternal Law) partially revealed partially in Natural Law and Divine Law (the Bible)

Question 4

Section one: AO2 AGAINST

NATURAL EVIL - VALE OF SOUL MAKING

Answer 4

An all-powerful /all-loving God would certainly have a better solution to letting humans suffer to learn.
-Problem of inconsistent triad
-(Hume) couldn’t God create the world a little more hospitable

Tooley - Is this world the best possible world for human development? Cited e.g. of those who die young and those who experience too great a pain to learn from it, as well as those who suffer to little to learn anything
-World is ideally not suited for human development
- evidential problem

Question 5

Section two: AO1

AUGUSTINE

Answer 5

Downwards and soul deciding
Based on the fall of Adam and Eve Genesis 3 – we are ‘seminally present in the loins of Adam’ – Born with OS (Moral evil) and causes disharmony in the world (Natural Evil)
Evil is a result of this and is a privation of Good i.e. darkness is the absence of light ‘privatio boni’
God shows grace by sending Jesus – Some are predestined to be saved (elect) whilst others are not – (Romans 5)

Question 6

Section two: AO2 FOR

AUGUSTINE

Answer 6

God is justified as he is suffering with us. God demonstrates his love through Jesus and through suffering with us via his son on the cross (Hans Kung)

Plantinga: For God to have created a being who could have only performed good actions would have been logically impossible as they would no longer be human
Need to be capable of evil to discern the good (free will)

Question 7

Section two: AO2 AGAINST

AUGUSTINE

Answer 7

pessimistic and irrational, “what kind of ethical philosophy is it that condemns every child, even before it is born, to inherit the sin of a remote ancestor?” (Richard Dawkins)
-Questions Gods omnibenevolence – Hume ‘malevolent’

Anthony Flew and J.L.Mackie, why can’t an omnipotent God create humans who can only choose God
Does not solve inconsistent triad

Question 8

Section three: AO1

EPISTEMIC DISTANCE

Answer 8

God is not omnipotent and not a creator “ex nihlo” but rather created order out of pre-existing chaos
God is part of the unfolding process of creation and when it is harmonious it produces good; when produces discord, it produces evil
God uses “persuasion and lure” to coax humans to choosing good but does not have complete control over us and suffers with us when the world suffers through evil, he is as Whitehead argues “the fellow sufferer who understands.”

Question 9

Section three: AO2 FOR

EPISTEMIC DISTANCE

Answer 9

God is sympathetic and engages with our suffering and provides issues surrounding the Holocaust (and why he did not stop such evil from occurring)

Still allows Free Will by redefining God’s nature in more accessible terms

Question 10

Section three: AO2 AGAINST

EPISTEMIC DISTANCE

Answer 10

Not strictly a theodicy as God’s nature has to be re-defined and contradicts the scriptural account of creation

Question 11

Section three: AO2 CONCUSION

EPISTEMIC DISTANCE

Answer 11

Stronger as solves part of the problems of the Inconsistent triad and the Evidential problem. However must understand epistemic distance = can never know God / possibly understand as he is perfect we are flawed and the problem of evil is not a problem with God but a problem with our understanding