Roberto Kelly 8/10/2012 Prof.Preston Phil 115 2. The Problem of evil The problem of evil is the problem of merging the existence of the evil in the world with the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful and perfectly good God. The argument from evil is the atheistic argument that the existence of such evil cannot be merged with, and so disproves, the existence of such a God. Some of the ways that theist have tried to respond to the problem of evil is that with the existence of good, requires the existence of evil. Meaning that since good and evil are opposites, since god created good he would have to have created evil.
b. Dostoyevsky points out the terrible suffering and cruelty there is in the world. How might that undermine Pascal’s argument? “The Wager” by Pascal is a reading about the risk of choosing between the existence of God and the nonexistence of God. Pascal argues that people will have everything to gain if they choose to believe in the existence of God but they will lose nothing if they do believe and are wrong. I disagree with Pascal’s argument and I do not think it is a good one.
Adopting Augustine’s idea of ‘evil’, we are to say that he is not living up to standards expected of human beings. Privation may also concern itself with things not concerned with morality, such as natural evil. For example, a person may have eyesight that falls shorts of perfect eyesight – his eyesight is therefore ‘evil’. This way, God’s omnipotence is justified because evil is defined as an absence of certain qualities. Hence, it doesn’t exist.
And for morality to require God in such a way, there must be a direct link between the two. I believe that morality is defined by God, therefore immoral actions are wrong solely because God forbids them. Similarly, the “rightness” of moral actions is only because God has commanded them. In today's world things are defined as “right” or “wrong” or “moral” and “immoral.” This is because God, is the one that has allowed us to even understand what morality is. I believe that God is the creator and sustainer of all things, and that we would not even be self aware, let alone aware of right and wrong, if God had not created within us his image, and therefore the ability to make moral distinctions.
Though Romans says that human nature is that we are sinners. Human beings are slaves to sin and seem to be powerless against it. We understand that we are not righteous at all, and that we need a relationship with God, so that we can be empowered by His righteous. His righteous comes through our faith in Jesus Christ. Only he can redeem, justify, and sanctify us, and we need all three for our salvation.
In the quote below Rand explains why she rejects religion outright, and she believes man himself deserves the attention: Just as religion has preempted the field of ethics, turning morality against man, so it has usurped the highest moral concepts of our language, placing them outside this earth and beyond man’s reach. “Exaltation” is usually taken to mean an emotional state evoked by contemplating the supernatural. “Worship” means the emotional experience of loyalty and dedication to something higher than man… But such concepts do name actual emotions, even though no supernatural dimension exists; and these emotions are experienced as uplifting or ennobling, without the self-abasement required by religious definitions.
Moral evil is an act of mankind such as murder; natural evil would be something that is not caused by any specific agent but has victims such as would be produced by earthquakes. [1] Because of evil in the world, many argue against there being a creator God by attempting to show that the co-existence of evil and such a deity is unlikely or impossible. The attempts to justify the ways of God to man by proving that God can and does co-exist with evil, are known as theodicies and provide various responses to the problem of evil. Leibniz’s theodicy states that God did not choose the best in creating the world, but then God would be lacking in power, knowledge and goodness. Augustinian theodicy argues that God created the world and it was perfect, without any evil or suffering until man’s fall and Irenaean theodicy states God is partially responsible for evil and suffering as a process of soul building.
Explain the term evil (30m) There are 2 different types of evil moral (caused by human beings) and natural (caused by nature). There is a logical problem of evil which is called the inconsistent triad; this is the argument that God cannot possess all the Omni characteristics with the existence of evil. This is a logical inconsistency. The existence of evil is incompatible with the existence of God; it is logically incoherent to accept that both exist together. God being omnipotent means that he can do anything which means he could have created a world free from evil.
2) God is wholly good and wishes to remove all evil and suffering that he is aware of 3) God is all-knowing and is aware of any evil or suffering going on. 4) Therefore, there must be no evil and suffering. 5) However, there is evil and suffering in the world, so the all-powerful, wholly good and all-knowing God does not exist. It is also a diverse problem, as evil comes in many forms that all demand different explanations. Furthermore it is a challenging problem, as the existence of evil and suffering is an objective reality.
This seems almost opposite of what Christianity teaches today. According to predetermination, if Hitler’s soul was predetermined to be saved, none of his horrible actions would have any effect on his fate. This seems ridiculous, and I would have expected Augustine, a true skeptic, to see the holes in this belief. Despite this gaping hole in logic, I find myself agreeing with most of Augustine’s ideas, especially that of obsession and addiction. Often in the modern world, it is obsession and addiction that lead to the most horrible evils.