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The problem of evil - Coggle Diagram
The problem of evil
Augustine's theodicy
Original perfection
- Augustine believed that a perfect God could only create a perfect world, as seen in the creation stories
- He believed evil is an absence or privation of good - evil is not a substance itself, it is just the absence of good
- Augustine - "Evil is a privation of goof"
The Fall
- Augustine saw the story of the Fall - the moment when Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit - as central to understanding why humans have an absence of good in themselves
- Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command by giving in to temptation, and therefore broke the harmonious relationship with God - all evil in the world stems from these acts of disobedience
According to Augustine:
- Everything is created perfectly by God
- However all things fall short of this perfection due to the Fall of both angels and humans - their misuse of free will
- This led to a loss of harmony in nature, which in turn leads to natural evil
- People continue to fall short and this leads to moral evil
- All humans deserve to be punished for the original sin of Adam and Eve and for their continuing sinfulness
- Humans deserve this because we are 'seminally present in the loins of Adam' - we are all descendants of Adam and Eve and therefore share in the effects of original sin
- As God is fair and just he cannot stop evil and suffering because he cannot interfere with free actions
- However he sent Jesus to earth as a sign of his grace to give the opportunity for people to go to heaven
- Evil is part of the natural balance of the universe - a world with evil and genuine free will is better than a world without choice
- For Augustine, evil comes ultimately from the Fall, affecting harmony in the world and resulting in human punishment - however God's benevolence shows that humans have not been abandoned
- For Augustine, all evil is either sin or punishment for sin
- Augustine's theodicy is described as soul-deciding - we have to decide whether or not to obey God
Strengths of Augustine's theodicy
- God could not create evil if it is a privation because it is not 'something' but a lack of goodness - McCabe argues when we talk about something being 'bad' we mean it does not live up to expectations - evil does not mean God has fallen short of expectations, humans have
- Augustine wrote about interpreting biblical accounts rather than a literal reading, modern theology also interprets the Genesis story as a myth - even without two literal first human beings, it explains why human nature (innate sinfulness) tends to make bad moral choices
- Human free will is important in the theodicy - genuine free will requires the possibility that humans could choose evil
- Due to the emphasis on human action and free will, Augustine's approach seems to fit with our experience of the world - free will seems to cause most suffering
Weaknesses of Augustine's theodicy
- If God created a perfect world, where did evil come from? Why would anybody rebel in a perfect world? If humans chose evil, then this implies that they must have had a knowledge of it, so perhaps God is partly responsible for evil
- Modern scientific advances suggest errors in Augustine's theodicy because it is not possible for every human to have been biologically (seminally) present in Adam
- Augustine's theodicy requires a literal reading of Genesis which is not accepted by all Christians today and is challenged by evolution - evolution suggests species are adapting towards perfection, Augustine says we are moving away from perfection
- Augustine's explanation for natural evil, caused by the Fall, seems alien to modern thinking, which finds explanations for natural disasters in the movement of tectonic plates for example
- It does not seem fair that all humans are punished for Adam and Eve's sins
- It does not seem to make sense that to say all things were made perfectly by God and then went wrong
The logical problem of evil
- Evil is a problem for the believer, not because it challenges the existence of God but because it challenges the nature of God and so is logically a problem
- Theistic religions believe God to be all-powerful and and all-loving yet evil still exists:
- How can God be all-powerful (omnipotent) and not stop evil?
- How can God be all-loving (omnibenevolent) and not want to stop evil?
- In order for the inconsistent triad to be resolved, it seems that one of its three parts (omnipotence, benevolence and evil) must not be true
The logical problem of evil challenges belief
- God cannot be all-powerful because he would have created a world that did not have the possibility to become evil or did not suffer from natural disasters, and he would be able to prevent and end suffering now - since evil and suffering continue, God cannot be all-powerful
- God cannot be omnibenevolent because he would have loved and cared for his creation enough to want to prevent and avoids its suffering
- There is an inconsistency in believing that God knows about evil (because he is omniscient), is wholly good (so acts and desires moral goodness) and is powerful enough to prevent evil (because he is omnipotent)
The logical problem of evil does not challenge belief
- W.P. Alston argues that we cannot understand God because human perspective is limited - we can perceive only part of what may be the full picture, so we cannot argue that this counts either for or against God - Plantinga argues God chooses to limit himself in order to allow free will
- There are good reasons for allowing evil to continue, there may be a good outcome from the result of evil - pain and disease are necessary for the development of sympathy, courage and cures
- Good cannot exist without evil, without evil we wouldn't know what good is
Possible solutions
- Perhaps God is not omnipotent and cannot control evil (or human free choices) - this is the view of process theology
- Process theology removes the attribute of omnipotence, so God becomes an empathetic fellow sufferer
- Perhaps God is not benevolent and God's benevolence is a view that has just come from the New Testament focus on love
- Perhaps our definitions of omnipotence and benevolence need to change
- Perhaps evil does not exist as we think it does - it is not a substance like good is
- Dostoyevsky argued that God must be malevolent and not worthy of worship
The evidential problem of evil
- Evil is evidentially a problem because it can be seen in the evidence of people's suffering, especially in the quantity of suffering and in the fact that innocent people suffer
- It may make a religious believer question why God, who knows everything, would allow it to happen
- Natural evil such as natural disasters can kill thousands of people
- Moral evil can cause some humans to perform unthinkable acts
- If God is all-knowing, why did he create the universe knowing that extreme examples of evil and suffering would occur?
Possible solutions
- By allowing such evil, God is preventing something worse, or a greater good is achieved than could be done without it - Hick argues that the end justifies the means in that true courage and empathy can be developed only in the experience of suffering - however is the amount of suffering and evil in the world necessary to teach us?
- If humans are genuinely free, then suffering is something we have to accept in some way
- Suffering could be a result of the previous actions of people - it is a form of punishment
- Some argue that suffering is a way of God testing humans
- The Bible suggests that there comes a point where we have to 'let go' of our intellectual questioning about evil and suffering and accept the love of God
The evidential problem of evil is the greatest challenge to belief
- There are huge amounts of suffering in the world with no obvious purpose - Hume asks whether God could have created a more hospitable world or allowed humans to learn through pleasure rather than pain - it is the vast quantity of pain that poses the greatest challenge to belief
- Could God have made humans to always choose good, so they could not choose to inflict so much pain and suffering?
- Dostoyevsky argues that a God who allows the extent of innocent suffering is not worth worshipping
The evidential problem of evil is not the greatest challenge to belief
- The logical problem is a greater challenge because it highlights the inconsistency of belief in a theistic God who has the characteristics of being all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good - such a being would know about, want to and be able to stop evil - since evil continues, these attributes are irrational and contradictory
- We need to use both evidential and logical problems of evil to challenge belief because it is belief in a theistic God that is questioned
- Swinburne argues that the evidential problem is not so difficult because it provides greater motivation to find cures for disease etc if pain and suffering are extreme
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