the problem of evil

    Cards (85)

    • Natural evil
      Evil which results from the workings of the natural world, such as natural disasters and disease
    • Original sin
      A factual consequence of Adam's sin was that all future humanity became infected with original sin and thus deserve punishment
    • We have original sin
      We deserve punishment
    • Followers of Pelagius objected that Adam's crime is not a personal crime of his descendants
    • It seems unfair, unjust and thus incompatible with omnibenevolence to suggest that we deserve punishment for original sin
    • It's difficult to maintain that a child deserves cancer because it has original sin
    • Augustine's argument
      God's justice is inscrutable - impossible for us to understand - but we should have faith it is just
    • Augustine thinks that giving in to original sin counts as a choice
    • Augustine could not argue that small children deserve to suffer because they are too young to choose to sin
    • Augustine's theodicy is not logically coherent and thus fails to solve the logical problem of evil
    • Strengths of Augustine's doctrine of original sin
      • It can be evidenced from observing human behaviour and society
      • G. K. Chesterton and R. Niebuhr argued it is empirically verifiable
    • Augustine's observation of stealing pears
      He did it just for the pleasure of sinning, not because he was hungry
    • The scientific evidence is against Augustine's doctrine of original sin
    • Geneticists claim the evidence of genetic diversity means it's not possible for all of humanity to have descended from two people
    • The story of Adam and Eve is unscientific
    • The notion that we inherited a corrupt nature and guilt from Adam seems to be unscientific nonsense
    • Augustine's view on human nature
      Humans have a corrupted nature and inclination towards self-love and away from love of neighbor
    • There is scientific evidence which supports human corruption and corruptibility such as the Stanford prison experiment
    • Power is corrupting to people. When people gain the opportunity to sin and get away with it, they are more likely to do so
    • Pelagius argued that Augustine's observations reflect his society, not human nature
    • Pelagius argued that the long habit of doing wrong has corrupted us, not an innate human nature
    • Human behavior has improved over time, which contradicts Augustine's view of original sin causing an irresistible temptation to sin
    • Irenaeus' view of the Fall
      It is a necessary stage in the development of humans towards perfection. Punishment helps children mature.
    • Irenaeus' distinction between image and likeness of God
      Image is when you look like something on the surface, likeness is when you actually are like something
    • Irenaeus' two steps of creation
      Being made in God's image with potential for good
      2. Achieving God's likeness by choosing good over evil, enabling spiritual and moral growth
    • Hick's two stages of human development
      1. Spiritually immature, developing through struggle
      2. Growing into a relationship with God
    • Epistemic distance
      We cannot truly know of God's existence, so we must have faith and do good for its own sake rather than obedience
    • According to Hick, everyone will be saved since a loving God would not send people to hell
    • Strengths of soul-making theodicy
      • There is evidence that encountering and overcoming evil develops a person's character and virtue
      "What does not kill me, makes me stronger" - Nietzsche
    • Some evil is dysteleological (purposeless) and has no chance of leading to spiritual development
    • Some evil is soul-breaking and destroys a person's character rather than building it up
    • The holocaust is an example of evil which is dysteleological, soul-breaking and where the amount of evil outweighs our soul-making requirements
    • Animal suffering is a form of dysteleological suffering
    • Hick's argument isn't that the holocaust is justified by soul-making, but that an imperfect world and free will required for soul-making could perpetrate the holocaust
    • Hick's defense is successful because the universe is indeed morally ambiguous
    • Hick's logic is valid, but the epistemic distance can never be used against the evidential problem, so the evidential problem remains
    • A fully developed soul is one which has chosen good over evil, so it's logically impossible for God to create us fully developed
    • Hick's logic may be valid, so he may solve the logical problem of evil
    • By definition, there can be no evidence for the epistemic distance
    • Hick's defense is that the logic of his theory means we shouldn't expect to find evidence of his theory