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Why is the problem of evil an argument against god?
Evil and suffering are incompatible with the classical theist God who is supposedly all loving and powerful
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How did _____ Hume describe the problem?
- David Hume:
- "The rock of atheism"
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What is the basis of the argument?
- The Epicurean paradoxEpicurus
- 'Is God willing but not able? - Then He is not omnipotent
- Is God able but not willing? - Then he is malevolent
- Is He both able and willing? - Then whence cometh evil?Is He neither able nor willing? - Then why call Him God?'
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Who reformulated the Epicurean paradox, and into what?
- J.L MackieThe inconsistent Triad
 All three statements cannot logically be true without creating a contradiction.
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What type of arguments are the epicurean paradox and the inconsistent triad?
Deductive arguments - prove the outcome of the argument given that the premises given are true.
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What are the 3 premises of the problem of evil, and what conclusion do they draw?
- 1. Evil Exists
- 2. God is all loving and powerful
- 3. An all loving and all powerful God would remove evil from the world IF He existed
CONCLUSION: God does not exist
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How might these premises be shown to be false, thus invalidating the argument?
- 1. Evil may not exist, instead it is an absence of good (in the same way darkness is the absence of light.)
- 1. Evil may be a human illusion as a result of our unsatisfied greedy nature.
- 2. Perhaps God isn't all loving or all powerful.
- 3. Perhaps God has a bigger plan and is able to justify evil in the world.
- 3. Perhaps removing evil is logically impossible (you cant have up without down!)
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What is a Theodicy?
An attempt to justify God's existence in the face of evil in the world - a solution to the problem.
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Who came up with the Augustinian Theodicy?
St Augustine of Hippo
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What qualities did Augustine believe God has, and gave to the world when he created it?
- God is perfect and so made a perfect world.
- In the book of Genesis it says "God saw all that He had made and it was very good"
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What did Augustine think of evil?
God did not create evil since it is not an actual thing. Instead it is "A privation of good" (Augustine)
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How did God create humans? What were the results?
- God gave humans free will.
- Free will allowed humans to disobey God, and turning away from Him created an absence of good within themselves.
- The sin of Adam and Eve destroyed the state of perfection.
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How does Augustine justify the evil that remains in the world?
- God is truly loving and truly just
- God shows justice by not intervening.
- "evil is either sin or the punishment for sin"
- God shows love by offering eternal life in Heaven
- "Since there is happiness for those who do not sin, the universe is perfect, and it is no less perfect because there is misery for sinners - the penalty of sin corrects the dishonour of sin"
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Positives and Negatives of the Augustinian Theodicy
- ★Explains why there is suffering for all in the world - we all have original sin due to the Fall of Adam and Eve
- ★Humans have risen not fallen
- ☆Maintains that an all loving God did not create evil - it is not a real thing
- ☆Not reasonable to say evil is not real - denies the reality of the issue
- ★The world and beings in it are perfect, people have free will in order to love God
- ★A perfect world, ad perfect beings cannot go wrong. Even with free will, they began perfect so have no knowledge of how to sin.
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What is the Free Will Defence?
- God maximised good by creating humans with free will, allowing them to have a loving relationship with God.
- Humans must be genuinely free to respond how they desire
- Consequently there is both good AND bad
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What did Swinburne say about the free will defence?
"The less God allows men to bring about large scale horrors, the less freedom and responsibility he gives them"
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How did Swinburne justify natural evil?
Death is necessary to focus us - "a situation of temptation with infinite chances, is no situation of temptation at all"
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Positives and Negatives of The Free Will Defence:
- ★ Justifies suffering as a necessity that comes with creating the maximum possible good. Free will leads to moral evil.
- ★Surely an all powerful and all loving God could have created free will without suffering. J.L Mackie
- ☆Swinburne attempts to justify natural evil which gives us knowledge of evil and how to avoid it
- ☆However, how does God justify such huge amounts of evil? It could have been done on a smaller scale
- ★★
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