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philosophy
the problem of evil
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Cards (85)
Natural evil
Evil which results from the workings of the
natural
world, such as natural
disasters
and disease
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Original sin
A factual consequence of Adam's sin was that all future humanity became
infected
with
original sin
and thus deserve punishment
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We have original sin
We
deserve punishment
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Followers of
Pelagius
objected that
Adam's
crime is not a personal crime of his descendants
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It seems unfair, unjust and thus incompatible with omnibenevolence to suggest that we deserve
punishment
for
original sin
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It's difficult to maintain that a child deserves
cancer
because it has
original sin
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Augustine's argument
God's justice is inscrutable - impossible for us to understand - but we should have
faith
it is
just
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Augustine thinks that giving in to original sin counts as a
choice
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Augustine could not argue that small children
deserve
to
suffer
because they are too young to choose to sin
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Augustine's
theodicy
is not
logically coherent
and thus fails to solve the logical problem of evil
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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
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Augustine's observation of stealing pears
He did it just for the pleasure of
sinning
, not because he was
hungry
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The
scientific evidence
is against Augustine's doctrine of
original sin
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Geneticists claim the evidence of
genetic diversity
means it's not possible for all of humanity to have descended from
two
people
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The story of Adam and Eve is
unscientific
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The notion that we
inherited
a
corrupt
nature and guilt from Adam seems to be unscientific nonsense
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Augustine's view on human nature
Humans have a corrupted nature and inclination towards
self-love
and away from love of
neighbor
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There is
scientific
evidence which supports human corruption and corruptibility such as the
Stanford
prison experiment
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Power is corrupting to people. When people gain the opportunity to
sin
and get
away
with it, they are more likely to do so
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Pelagius
argued that
Augustine's
observations reflect his society, not human nature
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Pelagius
argued that the long habit of doing wrong has
corrupted
us, not an innate human nature
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Human behavior has improved over time, which
contradicts
Augustine's view of
original sin
causing an irresistible temptation to sin
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Irenaeus' view of the Fall
It is a necessary stage in the development of humans towards
perfection. Punishment
helps children
mature.
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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
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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
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Hick's two stages of human development
1.
Spiritually immature
, developing through struggle
2. Growing into a
relationship
with
God
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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
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According to
Hick
, everyone will be saved since a loving God would not send people to
hell
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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
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Some evil is
dysteleological
(purposeless) and has no chance of leading to
spiritual
development
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Some evil is
soul-breaking
and
destroys
a person's character rather than building it up
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The
holocaust
is an example of evil which is dysteleological, soul-breaking and where the amount of evil outweighs our
soul-making
requirements
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Animal suffering
is a form of
dysteleological
suffering
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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
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Hick's defense
is successful because the universe is indeed
morally ambiguous
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Hick's logic
is valid, but the
epistemic distance
can never be used against the evidential problem, so the evidential problem remains
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A fully developed soul is one which has chosen
good
over evil, so it's logically impossible for God to create us fully
developed
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Hick's logic
may be valid, so he may solve the
logical
problem of evil
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By definition, there can be
no evidence
for the
epistemic distance
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Hick's
defense is that the
logic
of his theory means we shouldn't expect to find evidence of his theory
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