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THE PROBLEM OF EVIL (What Is The Problem Of Evil? (evidential problem (God…

- - - - the argument being that if God is all powerful then they are able to prevent suffereing
      - if god is all loving then they would want to prevent evil and suffering.
      - but evil and suffering do exist therefore god cannot
      - only two of these can be true
  - - - moral evil; man made evil eg. terrorism
      - natural evil; non man made evil eg. natural disasters
  - - - younger brothers drown in bath. 2 separate families and two older brothers financially gain from this. one watches him drown, the other drowns him.
      - both are just as guilty as they had a responsibility to help
- - - - God must have known he was creating evil or the capacity for it because he made Hell.
    - - instead science offers an evolutionary development. A literal approach seems to contradict modern science.
      - hence some have taken genesis as more of a symbol and not so literal
    - - an omnipotent God should have the ability to create free creatures who always do the same thing
        
        he suggested instead that a GOOD free will should always do the right thing.
        
        hick has rejected this and argued that this would not represent genuine freedom
      - Augustine does not adequately explain the complexities of the human will
        
        it is hard to see why the first human beings would sin, and if they did have the ability to sin, surely they were not perfect
        
        his concept of finite perfection seems to be a contradiction in terms
  - - - all evil, moral and natural, arises from the wrong moral choices of free and rational beings
        
        "the cause of evil is the deflection of the will of a being who is mutably good from the good which is immutable."
      - Augustine defines sin as the wilful turning of the self from the highest good.
        
        which is god himself, to some lesser good
        
        It occurs when the self seeks to be its own governing authority in place of God
      - Augustine uses the term 'self creation of evil' to maintain the innocence of God and the guilt of his creatures
        
        some angels sinned because they were only finitely perfect.
        
        evil is generated when they failed to continue to do the good
      - Adam's initial state was also a state of finite perfection
        
        Adam turned away from God and gave in when tempted by the devil.
        
        original sin affects us all now
    - - evil in itself is not a substance it is merely the absence of good
        
        this is important as it enables him to demonstrate that evil was not part of the creation initially
        
        arises from the voluntary actions of free beings
        
        this is not to suggest that Augustine thinks that evil is unreal
      - Augustine believes that creation was good
        
        this goodness reflects the goodness of the creation
      - man is mutable/changeable because he is made out of nothing
        
        he is a contingent being and has the real possibility of becoming evil
        
        a created freewill being a possibility of turning away from god
      - Evil is private and parasitic
        
        it does not exist of itself but is like a malfunction of a previously good entity
        
        Augustine sates, there can be no evil where there is no good... nothing evil exists in itself, but only as an evil aspect of some actual entity... evils therefore, have their source in the good and unless they are parasitic on something good, they are not anything at all.
    - - The sheer variety of creatures within the world leads to inequalities between them in terms of beauty, strength, intelligence and so on.
      - therefore each creature is in some way imperfect. Why did God do this?
      - 2 responses are given
        
        the principle of plenitude
        
        means that all possible forms of existence should exist
        
        Augustine argued that God created a hierachy of beings, the consequence of this is that possible creatures must be imperfect and unequal
        
        the world is created to be an appropriate for humans as moral beings
        
        this answer for some however shows Augustine's insensitivity to animal pain.
        
        like many ancient thinkers this is not an issue that concerns him
        
        how far do you also take this? are 100 types of dogs enough? could there be more?
  - - - We have experience of free will causing suffering in our world so this is a natural conclusion to come to.
- - - - objected that Hicks Theodicy was immoral to use evil as a tool to create good.
      - If God is all loving and perfect there is something very wrong with god using evil - It is not loving!
      - phillips says there is no greater purpose in the 'screams of the innocent' and anyone who suggests there can be has a corrupt mind.
      - he rejects the idea that thinkers like Swinburn who say that the holocaust or any large scale disasters may be justifiable as a part of gods plan to bring around good.
      - HICKS RESPONSE:
        
        Hick is aware that this criticism can be made.
        
        he accepts that most suffering appears dysteleological
        
        however he claims that Phillips main objection is the language used by Swinburn. Hick does not try and justify the holocaust or any large scale evils
        
        for Hick this is a mystery and the fact that all are eventually saved will bring about a greater good.
        
        Surely a better response would be that epistemic distance means that we do not have a full understanding of God and if we did, that would make us on the same level as god which is not possible because he is the greatest being. so we cannot understand why God does things
    - - Swinburn agrees with Hick on this theodicy however takes issue at universalism
      - Swinburne the idea that all are ultimately saved is unfair. It would make us wonder what the point was in behaving morally if we were all to get to heaven in the end.
      - For Swinburne part of our free will requires the possibility of rejecting God and his salvation. If there is no Hell then we are not truly free. Freedom includes the real freedom to ‘damn ourselves.’
      - Hitler and Gandhi being saved and going to heaven???
      - HICKS RESPONSE
        
        Hick believes that if we truly understand God’s Omnibenevolence then we will see no place for an eternal punishment
        
        God’s love is so great that eventually the whole universe will be won over and brought to perfection with him.
    - - accepting that humans having free will is better than a world of pre-programmed machines, Mackie asks whether God could create free creatures who always do what is right.
      - If humans can sometimes choose good why can’t they always do so? He argues that humans being free and always choosing the good is not logically impossible – after all some believers expect heaven to be like this.
      - If God really were all powerful he would be able to create free creatures who always choose the good.
      - HICKS RESPONSE:
        
        Rejects this and accuses Mackie of not really understanding what is meant by free will.
        
        Free will does carry the risk that large scale horrors will be carried out. If God gives freedom to only do options that are good so that we don’t really harm each other, we are in effect living in a ‘toy world’ where our choices don’t matter.
  - - - the belief that all human kind will eventually be saved
      - he says that the idea of hell is part of the problem of evil, therefore universalism fits here as he believes that everyone is going to be saved and that hell is just a purgatory for reflection and that it is temporary and is again apart of the soul making process
    - - a knowledge gap between God and Humans. Humans are not born with innate knowledge of gods existence and have to seek God through faith.
      - it is used to argue that if we were aware that God existed then we would have different actions.
      - :red_cross: but would they be true good actions, surely if you reverse the bathtub theory if you save your brother from drowning because you will get money are you truly doing it for the right reasons?
    - - this theodicy is sometimes described as a process of soul making as opposed to the soul deciding theodicy of augustine
      - the key to understanding evil is to recognise that the evil of the world can serve a purpose.
    - - life is about growing as a person, idea stems from growth. He states that we cannot grow as a person or learn if we had no challenges or difficulties
      - fits in with the idea that god created evil to help us to grow