Evil and Suffering - Essay Plans

• Hick A01

  - King and the Maiden - logical problem responded to

  - Two stage creation - logical and evidential

  - Universal salvation - evidential

  - Epistemic distance
• Hick A02

  Strength - God created an imperfect world

  Weakness - not biblical. Genesis says 'God saw it was good'. Would potentially support the fall as the source of evil rather than an intentional flaw in creation by God

  Strength - vale of soul making. Evil helps build our character

  Weakness - why should our character be built up at expense of someone's suffering. What omnibenevolent god would allow that

  Strength - universal salvation justifies excessive injustices

  Weakness - no judgement? What's the point of suffering and trying to make the right decision if everyone is in heaven. Does this include people who have performed awful acts too?
• Griffin A01

  - God's role in creation was ex materia NOT ex nihlo. Serves an explanation for natural evil (flawed material). Evidential problem

  - Panentheism. God is intertwined with creation / humanity

  - god suffers too. Evidential problem addressed

  - harmony and intensity have to have opposites. As humans make bad decisions the evils of discord occur and God has less control over creation. Evidential problem
• Griffin A02

  strength - Panentheism. God is within the universe

  Weakness - implies that God is changeable. What is the purpose of such a God? Not the God of classical theism

  Strength - god is not omnipotent.

  Weakness - Goes against biblical belief that god is omnipotent

  Strength - god suffers too. Helps us feel less alone in our suffering

  Weakness - a suffering God is merely anthropomorphising God
• Examine how faith in God may be challenged by natural and moral evil A01

  - believers accept that God is omnipotent. Why does an omnipotent God not stop suffering

  - natural evil shows flaws in the design of the world. A believers faith may be shaken if they accept that God may not have created the world

  - the pointlessness of moral evil may lead believers to question their faith and question why this level of suffering exists

  - how can an omnibenevolent God allow suffering to continue? If he was loving wouldn't he choose to stop it
• FWD A01

  - Augustine: god did not create evil. Evil is an absence of good

  - hick: evil necessary to develop as beings

  - contradiction argument: Plantinga and mackies argument

  - Swinburne toybox: extent of evil is necessary to have value to our actions
• FWD A02

  Strength - Augustine sees the Fall as 'o happy fault' as it opened up the possibility of salvation for humanity. Used bible and church teaching that for centuries recognised Augustine's work as authoritative

  Weakness - uses a literal reading of the Bible. Makes no sense that we suffer today because of something that happened so long ago

  Strength - explains logical problem. How an omnipotent and omnibenevolent god can allow free will which in turn brings potential for evil

  Weakness - Mackie v Plantinga

  Strength - hick uses Bible and tradition of Irenaeus.

  Weakness - does not keep to traditional understanding of Jesus as saviour and ideas of heaven and hell.
• Evidential problem A01

  - JS Mill: potato famine

  - Dostoevsky: suffering of children

  - Rowe: natural evil

  - Rowe: moral evil
• Logical problem A01

  - definition

  - Mackie: inconsistent triad

  - Hick's vale of soul making: King and the Maiden

  - Griffin: ex materia and harmony v intensity
• Examine the following terms:

  I) the logical problem of evil

  II) the evidential problem of evil

  A01

  - definition of logical problem of evil. Example 1: Value of Free Will: Hick King and the Maiden

  - Example 2: Lack of omnipotence: inconsistent triad Mackie.

  - definition of evidential problem of evil. Example 1: level of suffering: JS Mill potato famine

  - Example 2: natural and moral evil: Rowe