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The Problem of Evil - Coggle Diagram

- - - - This was repeated when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. They were tempted by Satan, the chief of the fallen angels.
      - They chose to eat from the Tree of Knowledge which was forbidden by God (Genesis 2:4 to 3:1)
      - Adam and Eve chose not to be in harmony with God by eating the fruit. Once eaten they were no longer in harmony with the natural world.
      - This is called the original sin- the first sin in Christian thinking.
      - Evil was created when human free will was used to turn away from God to a lesser good.
    - - Augustine believed that all evil in the world followed on from here.
      - All humans were present in Adam’s sin because we are all descendent from Adam and Eve.
      - The term is “seminally present,” therefore, all future people are born into this disharmonious world.
      - Moral evil was the cause of natural evil.
      - Natural evil is deserved suffering in response to Adam’s sin.
      - Natural evil is deserved suffering in response to Adam’s sin.
      - The presence of evil highlights the goodness of creation because of the contrast between good and evil. This is called the aesthetic principle: “In the universe, even that which we call evil, when it is regulated and put in its own place, only enhances our admiration of the good; for we enjoy and value the good more when we compare it with the evil.” [St Augustine: Enchiridion 10-12]
    - - Augustine believed that it is better to be autonomous than be robots. Even a sinful person is more good- because more human- than a mere puppet.
      - Evil is the price to pay.
      - If you remove free will, suffering and evil you also remove the good choices that people make.
      - “But God, in the bounty of his goodness, did not shrink from creating even that creature whom he foreknew would not merely sin, but would persist in willing to sin. For a runaway horse is better than a stone that stays in the right place only because it has no movement or perception of its own; and in the same way, a creature that sins by free will is more excellent than one that does not sin only because it has no free will.” [St Augustine: “On Free Choice of the Will” - translated by Thomas Williams-1993, p.81)
    - - 1) There are weaknesses in in Augustine’s reading of Genesis:
        
        It relies on very literal reading of scriptures. He treats Genesis as a history of actual events.
        
        Even this doesn’t work: the Bible story does not mention angels except as guarding the tree of knowledge once Adam and Eve have been expelled and it does not say that the serpent was Satan in disguise.
      - 2) His science is flawed
        
        Are we all related to Adam? What about evolution?
        
        Even if we were, is it fair to blame us for his sin? Would a loving God do that?
      - 3) If creation were really made perfectly it would not go wrong
        
        If humans were created perfectly then why do they desire to sin? Couldn’t God have created a world where people didn’t sin even though they had the possibility of doing so?
      - 4) Why did God allow a lack of perfection in the world?
        
        Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768- 1834) argued that it is impossible to find a motive for the angels to sin unless they were created imperfectly in the first place. Evil would have had to come into the world from nowhere and this questions God’s omnipotence and omniscience.
      - 5) If God is omniscient then surely he can see into the future and knows what we will do.
        
        Why did he create the world knowing that we could use free will to choose to sin?
        
        Is it therefore, really our fault or God’s? Or maybe God didn’t know what angels or people would do? Maybe he isn’t omniscient.
        
        “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.” [Psalms 139:4]
      - 6) If God foresaw the evil that would befall and planned to send Christ to redeem the world doesn’t that imply some responsibility for evil on God’s part?
      - 7) If God is omnibenevolent, why did he create an eternal hell? Would a loving God really condemn people in that way?
    - - Is evil really just a "private Boni" or absence of good?
      - Deliberate cruelty towards an innocent child; seems to be much more powerful and harmful than just a lack of goodness
      - Is the scale of suffering experienced during events such as the holocaust really just the absence of good on a colossal scale?
  - - - Irenaeus (130-202) lived earlier than Augustine at a time when christianity was very new and persecution was a problem.
      - Originated in the East (Turkey) but became Bishop of Lyon, France.
      - He was the first Christian to attempt to organise and explain Christian beliefs.
      - His most famous book is “Against Heresies” in which he attacked the Gnostics who threatened the Christian Faith.
    - - They believe humans are divine souls trapped in the ordinary physical (or material) world. They say that the world was made by an imperfect spirit.
      - The imperfect spirit is thought to be the same as the God of Abraham. The imperfect spirit may be seen as evil, or sometimes just not perfect but doing the best it can.
      - The real god who is good, is distant and not easy to know. In order to get free from the material world, a person has to get gnosis. That is the special secret knowledge given only to a few special people.
      - Some Gnostic groups saw Jesus as sent by the supreme being, to bring gnosis to the Earth.
    - - His ideas have been described as a soul-making theodicy.
      - He emphasised the importance of evil and suffering in helping us to develop specific qualities and achieve salvation.
      - Evil and suffering have a purpose and can be positive.
      - It is the way that people develop character and virtue.
      - God is responsible for it.
    - - Believed in it literally and as the historical place where humans originated.
      - “ Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness.” - Genesis 1:26
      - Iraneus distinguished between the image and the likeness of God.
      - He argued that humans are created in the image of God- they have free will, know good from evil and are capable of rational and moral action and love.
      - But they must grow into the likeness of God- actually perform loving actions, choose good, and not evil and use free will in the best way. The only way that this is possible is in a world in which it is possible to turn away from the good.
      - Irenaeus argued that there had to be evil in the world for us to be able to appreciate good. It serves as a comparative: generous/mean, brave/cowardly, summer/winter.
        We have to have evil in the world in order for us to develop as free individuals who make our own moral decisions and are responsible for them.
      - The experience of natural evil enables human beings to develop and reach divine likeness.
      - Irenaeus argued that humanity is not capable, in this world, of being in the likeness of God- this only happens after death.
      - Everyone should live after death and eventually complete his or her spiritual development to become the likeness of God.
    - - Adam and Eve went astray rather than turned away from God.
      - He places the blame of the fall on the serpent though Adam and Eve are not blameless- more like children learning.
      - Relationship of parent and child.
        God had to punish wrongdoing- not a specific curse- more educative.
      - Humans have free will to grow into a relationship with God.
      - The world is a hard place in which people suffer but people can come to know God.
      - The prophets show the way and Jesus unites people with God.
      - Jesus is the new Adam but obeys God and undoes the fault of Adam.
  - - - John Hick (1922-2012) is described as a modern day follower of the Irenaen theodicy.
      - He developed his ideas in his book “Evil and the God of Love.” (1968)
      - Hick rejected Augustinian theodicy because he didn’t believe in Genesis literally (myth) and said that devils (fallen angel) are unbelievable.
      - He believed that evil is something to be overcome and that it is all part of God’s plan. It is a necessary evil without which there can be no spiritual growth. He called this world a “Vale of Soul-Making.”
      - He argued that God creates people at an epistemic distance (a distance in knowledge of God) so that they are not compelled to know him, through an act of faith:
        “In order to give people the freedom to come to God, God creates them at a distance- not a spatial but an epistemic distance. He causes them to come into a situation in which He is not immediately and overwhelmingly evident to them.” (Hick, Evil and the God of Love,1968).
      - If we do not complete our journey to the likeness of God in this life, we must complete it in the next- but God guarantees our ultimate salvation.
    - - This famous russian novel poses a critic of Theodicies.
      - In this story, Ivan expresses his view that the suffering of innocent children is too high a price to pay for freedom. The fact that God allows this to happen is unacceptable.
      - Iven wants to return his “ticket” to heaven so he does not want to spend eternity with a God unworthy of worship.
    - - Iven wants to return his “ticket” to heaven so he does not want to spend eternity with a God unworthy of worship.
      - NATURAL EVIL- The “challenging environment” is the stimulant for intellectual and imaginative growth.
      - The world is real and full of danger so lets us develop from the likeness to the image of God.
      - The world functions according to natural law so we can investigate the world. Having choice is about the possibility of pain and pleasure.
      - Hick differed from Irenaeus is that he argued that everyone will eventually be saved (purgatory) and all will go to heaven.
      - God saves everyone- there is no hell.
    - - UNIVERSAL SALVATION
        
        This theory is called universalism.
        
        Many condemn this idea as being contrary to scripture.
        
        If everyone gets saved and goes to heaven- what’s the point of being moral/pilgrimage etc? It is unjust.
        
        What was the point of Christ’s sacrifice?
        
        Why would a good God make us suffer to grow and develop closer to him? We could ask why the epistemic distance?
        
        Is so much suffering necessary? Do we need such a large amount of suffering to help us grow as individuals? What about the Nazi’s, genocides etc? Why do some people suffer more than others?
        
        D.Z Phillips critiques this point: Do we always benefit from suffering? Premature babies? Animals? What about those who lose faith or become bitter or mentally ill? What about suffering and evil that seems to be purposeless (dysteleological evil)?
- - - - Natural evil is evidence against God as a designer.
      - We do not live in a benevolent world designed by a moral God.
      - The world is more than just imperfect it is gratuitously cruel. He didn't say that the world could not have been designed. His view was that if we had been deliberately designed, then it does not point to a perfectly good and loving designer.
      - “If the world had been deliberately designed then it indicates something very different from a loving creator God.” (The Nature and The Utility of Religion, 1874)
    - - “Nearly all the things which men are hanged or imprisoned for doing to one another are nature’s everyday performances.”
      - “Anarchy and the reign of terror are overmatched in injustice, ruin and death by a hurricane and a pestilence.”
      - “Nature red in tooth and claw.”