Name:
Philosophy of Religion
The Problem of EVIL
and
the Existence of God
Consider:
1. God is all powerful
2. If omnipotent God exists, there can be no evil
3. God is all good
4. If omnibenificent God exists , there can be no evil
5. Evil exists
6. If Evil exists, there can be no God
7. Therefore, it is not logically possible for God to exist.
Either
I.
God does not exist at all
II. God is not all powerful- lacking in some power
III. God is not all good- lacking in something good,
e.g., knowledge or power
On EVIL:
It is moral evil that is the crux of the problem and not natural evil. Natural
evil may be conceived of as simply part of nature and not evil at all.
THEODICY:attempt to justify the ways of god to humans.
attempt to explain the coexistence of God and Evil.
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Theodicists:
A. Augustine:
B. Humans are free and Humans have fallen they are as children
God is soul making
Humans are growing from
bios
to
zoe
from undeveloped life to divine love and spiritual life
Hume:
The existence of Evil leads to the questioning of the existence of God
The large amount of EVIL is difficult to explain.
B. Leibniz: God allows temporary evil for the greater good
World=Best of All Possible Worlds
Evil is not so from the divine view-God’s eye view
Evil is not evil from God’s view, the infinite view
C. John Hick: Developmental and teleological view
God is involved with soul making.
Madden and Hare: Counter to Hick
Hick commits 3 fallacies:
1. All or Nothing fallacy- but, there could be an intermediary position
between being free and being robots(puppets)
2. It could be worse – but, it could be better
3. Slippery slope( if the world were perfect, humans would need to be
robots) – but, the existence of limits is possible(freedom within
limits)
J.L. Makie: there is a logical inconsistency with God’s existence and Evil at
the same time
1. God is omnipotent and omnibeneficent(all good)
2. EVIL exist
3. A good being always eliminates EVIL as far as it can.
4. Therefore, theists are inconsistent
D. Plantinga: against Mackie
God may have good reasons for permitting EVIL
Free Will demands the possibility for EVIL
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God could not make Humans free and guarantee no EVIL(no sin)
TRANS WORLD DEPRAVITY:
This is the idea that Humans sin in all possible worlds or else
God is not Good or not all powerful
God can not create a world with moral Good and without moral EVIL
Therefore, every word that God creates must have not only the possibility of
evil in it but actual evil as well.
Rowe: The deductive argument against the existence of God fails.
The inductive argument against the existence of God succeeds.
Based on the mere possibility of an act of evil, human suffering , that is
completely gratuitous:
No possibility for it to teach any lesson to anyone.
No possibility for it to lead to a greater good.
FINAL QUESTIONS:
Is it possible for there to be a God that is All Good and All Powerful and for
moral evil to exist as well????
Is God all knowing? All powerful?
Does God exist?
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