Problem of Evil and Suffering Flashcards

1
Q

Epicurus

A
  • Greek Philosopher
  • inconsistent triad
  • God is either not omnibenevolent/omnipotent or God does not exist
  • logical aspect
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2
Q

why does Mackie say the inconsistent triad is a logical problem

A
  • theists have to show their beliefs make sense yet how is one to logically show suffering is consistent with this perfect God
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3
Q

what is the evidential aspect

A
  • the sheer quantity of evil that can be seen in the world appears to challenge the goodness of creation
  • both moral and natural
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4
Q

what is moral evil

A

evil created by humans through exercise of their free will and rational human thought

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5
Q

what is natural evil

A
  • events with evil consequences when experienced by human beings
  • caused by the way the natural world works
  • most people today don’t blame it on an evil spirit
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6
Q

what is a theodicy

A

a theological theory that attempts to vindicate God’s existence in response to the problem of evil

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7
Q

what are the two keys ways in which evil can be solved or accounted for

A
  • creatures using their free will

- necessary to develop valuable moral qualities like compassion

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8
Q

what’s the difference between absence and lack in terms of moral and natural evil

A
  • if you cannot walk you lack the healthy you should have
  • if you are mean you the lack the quality of charity
  • both privations for Augustine
  • but the first example is a privation for which you are not to blame - natural evil
  • the second concerns a privation you are responsible for because of how you choose to behave - moral evil
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9
Q

building blocks of Augustine

A
  • all things created good as God is good and Genesis - but hierarchy of goodness in beings
  • evil is privatio boni
  • free will causes a turn away from goodness
  • fallen angels cause natural evil
  • evil only evil from our perspective
  • evil in itself doesn’t exist
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10
Q

what are the criticisms of Augustine

A
  • plausibility in the light of science - he interpreted Genesis literally, no evidence angels exist - Hick says its implausible nowadays
  • science - if you accept evolution our corrupt behaviour could be evidence of our animalistic nature that seeks survival at all costs not original sin
  • science also explains natural evil
  • human beings were scientifically not seminally present in Adam and so God is unjust to punish us
  • how can a creature created good turn away from God - implausible
  • if God is responsible for everything this doesn’t fit with our understanding.
  • pre-destination
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11
Q

what are the criticisms of Augustine in their most basic form

A
  • plausibility
  • science
  • original sin
  • hell
  • God’s responsibility for natural evils
  • how could a perfect world go wrong
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12
Q

what are the building blocks of Hicks additions to the Irenean theodicy

A
  • rejected belief humans are made perfect
  • through their struggle, humans develop from image to likeness
  • the only meaning of the fall is to describe how far apart God is from humanity
  • epistemic distance is part of God’s plan to allow free will
  • Vardy - king tries to win peasant girls love because love that is not freely given is not true love
  • soul making - suffering helps us develop - mistake to see God’s love would be best displayed through a cosy world - parents and children
  • moral evil is evidence of our immature animal nature
  • natural evil is the stimulating challenging environment to aid development from image to likeness
  • development incomplete during life - eschatological aspect - leads to support of universal salvation - doesn’t believe in hell but purgatory where soul making can continue
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13
Q

what are the criticisms of the Iranian theodicy in their most basic form

A
  • injustice
  • the existence of suffering
  • dysteleological suffering
  • do the ends justify the means
  • the epistemic distance
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14
Q

what are the criticisms of Hick’s Irenean theodicy

A
  • humans are responsible for their actions and God will judge them thus universal salvation seems unjust - you can do wrong in this life but it wont matter - implausible
  • Hick - God responsible for creating world with natural disasters - clash with loving god
  • dysteleological suffering does not seem just - if soul making means ours lives will be easier in the next life why do we have to experience it now - unsatisfactory that heaven can compensate for it - doesn’t seem to have a proper understanding of how hard suffering is
  • developing into the likeness of God may not be seen as a big enough reward for suffering
  • Many Christians reject that a loving God creates a world where evil happens so they can develop into likeness
  • if God was more clearly visible then perhaps people would not do evil things - but then there goodness would not be real as it would be motivated by selfish means perhaps
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15
Q

Augustine’s view of the origins of moral and natural evil IS enough to spare God from blame for the evil in the world

A
  • never suggests God tolerates or wants evil
  • Christian Scientists and Eddy try to suggest evil is an illusion but its hard to deny that pain exists - illusion is real enough to have symptoms like death of the ill- cannot be satisfactorily ignored
  • perhaps God cannot see into the future - exists sempiternal way like Swinburne suggests and so could not see that the angels would turn away from him
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16
Q

Augustine’s view of the origins of moral and natural evil IS NOT enough to spare God from blame for the evil in the world

A
  • evil appears to be more serious than a privatio boni
  • deliberate cruelty seems more than just a lack of goodness
  • Christian Scientists and Eddy say evil is an illusion
  • gives us not explanation of why God gave some of the angels too little grace that they fell
  • even if we accept variety is good no need to give such variety that some angels fell
  • Augustine does not always align with the Bible
  • suggests God did not think ahead
  • doesn’t say why God allowed lack of perfection
  • Schleiermacher - impossible to find cause for angels to sin other than been created imperfectly
  • evil would have had to come out of nowhere (it wasn’t nowhere it was satan CA)
  • questions about omniscience - created us knowing what would happen
17
Q

the need to create a vale of soul making can justify the existence/extent of evil

A
  • Irenaeus’ theodicy has been v influential among Christians
  • God knows what he is doing - good will come even if difficult at the time
  • Hick takes consequentialist view - end justifies the mean but Kant thought humans shouldnt be used as a means for an end - but if Hick is right then God allows suffering as a means for soul making
18
Q

the need to create a vale of soul making does not justify the existence/extent of evil

A
  • some people suffer more than others - does God want some to grow into spiritual maturity more than others - unjust
  • not everyone is able to benefit from suffering but still experience it
  • an ill baby may not be capable of gaining insights from their experience
  • animal suffering hard to explain especially if there’s no life after death for them
  • people could learn from suffering of others - but some suffer alone with no one around
  • suffering does not always teach - sometimes people lose their faith - CA - true Christian would never lose faith
  • universal salvation undermines the whole value of Christianity - why would Christ die on cross if other ways to be saved
  • too high a price to pay - Dostovesky - God shouldn’t have made the world at all - accepts God just returns his entrance ticket
  • world suggests an evil God if evil planned in
19
Q

the logical aspect of the problem of evil pose the greatest challenge to belief

A
  • premise 1 of omnibenevolent - Irenaeus/Hick - could be good reasons why god doesn’t eliminate suffering - necessary to give us free will/develop to relationship with God
  • more loving to give us vale of soul making then bubble wrap us and have no freedom
  • premise 2 - God can do everything possible - should give free will and have no evil - Swinburne says its a logical contradiction and is not an action at all- God cannot create a square circle because not a thing
  • premise 3 - if evil and suffering exist in the world as part of God’s loving plan then perhaps evil should be considered good - Irenaeus
20
Q

the evidential aspect of the problem of evil poses the greatest challenge to belief

A
  • their strength rests on the claim that our experience of evil makes the hypothesis of a good, loving God improbable when compared with that evil can happen by chance
  • we need to know what would make it more probable
  • the uniqueness of God leaves us without anything on which to base our calculations of probability
  • we are finite - weak position to form a judgement