Good n Evil - RE

• Conscience


  Human reason making moral decisions. The knowledge we have of what is right and wrong and the God-given compulsion within all human beings to do what is right and to avoid what is evil.
• Evil


  The absence of good and the impulse to seek our own desires at the expense of the good of others which often results in suffering.
• Free Will


  The decision-making part of a person's mind is called the will. A will is free if a person can choose right from wrong without being controlled by other forces.
• Goodness


  The quality of being like God: seeking the well-being of others selflessly.
• Incarnation


  "Made flesh" The Christian belief that God became man in the person of Jesus, fully human and fully divine.
• Natural Law


  The moral laws of right and wrong which are universal and not dependent on human laws. The belief in natural law is the belief that the moral law is discoverable by every human being and is the same for all human beings in all places at all times.
• Privation


  The loss or absence of a quality or something that is normally present. Evil is a privation of good.
• Suffering


  Pain or loss which harms human beings. Some suffering is caused by other human beings (often called moral evil); some is not (often called natural evil).
• Many Christians believe in the existence of an evil force, called the Devil or Satan, who tries to tempt human beings into disobeying God. Therefore evil is the result of the Devil's work (as seen in Genesis 1).
• Many believe that God gave humans free will – the ability to choose our actions. Adam and Eve abused their free will in the Garden of Eden by disobeying God. This let to human suffering. Evil and suffering is therefore caused by humans misusing their free will.
• St Augustine argued that the Bible shows that God is wholly good and that, according to Genesis 1, created a world perfectly good and free from defect, evil, and suffering: "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Genesis 1:31).
• Augustine said that evil came not from God, whom is all-good, but from those entitles which had free will – angels and humans who turned their backs on God, the Supreme Good, and settled for lesser goods.
• Moral Evil


  Suffering inflicted by people on each other e.g. murder.
• Natural Evil


  Suffering not caused by people but by the natural world e.g. earthquakes.
• Christians have to try to reconcile their idea of God with the reality of suffering and evil in the world.
• Some people cannot believe that a good God would have designed a world with natural evils in it.
• If God is omnipotent he must be able to remove evil and suffering from the world.
• If God is Omni-benevolent he must want to remove evil and suffering.
• If God is Omniscient he will seeing all the suffering caused.
• As there is evil and suffering in the world, either God is not omnipotent, or is not Omni-benevolent, or God does not exist.
• God knows the answer, but people cannot understand.
• Jesus showed us that God wants us to fight against evil and suffering so they follow the example of Jesus and pray for those who suffer and offer practical help.
• Some Christians think that God could not give humans free will unless they had the chance to do evil things (being free is part of being made in God's image). Humans have used their free will to do evil things and bring suffering into the world, not God.
• Other Christians believe this life is a sort of test in which people prepare their souls for heaven. If there was no evil and suffering then they would not be able to develop as good people and help fight against evil and suffering.
• All Christians believe they must respond to suffering by trying to help those who suffer by fighting against it.
• Christians often see Jesus's death as an atonement for sins. Humans are, by nature, sinful. They must be punished for disobeying God but God is loving and merciful.
• He made it possible for humanity to be forgiven through the incarnation and Jesus taking on himself the punishment for sin.
• Catholics believe that Jesus is in everyone, so when people suffer, Jesus suffers as well. However, the reason why Jesus died was to end suffering for us in our next life. He died so we could be free from sin, and go to Heaven. So even though we suffer in this life now, in the next life we shall be free from suffering.
• St Paul in his letter to the Philippians says that through his suffering, he sees himself as participating in the Passion of Christ. Because we are being saved through the death and resurrection of Christ we must participate in his Passion to obtain salvation.
• The Catechism states that God wanted humanity to live in paradise with no suffering. However, Adam and Eve disobeyed him and therefore had to leave the paradise where there was no suffering or evil.
• Catholics know that suffering is not eternal because in Revelation it says: "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
• Trinity


  The Christian belief that the one God has revealed his nature in three distinct ways: as the loving creator and sustainer of the universe (God the Father), as the saviour who became incarnate and lived, died and rose again (God the Son), and as the source of strength which Christians find at work in their hearts (God the Holy Spirit).
• The belief in the Trinity is found in Nicene Creed which is one of the earliest statements of Christian belief.
• Matthew 3:16-17: '"And when Jesus had been baptised, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.'"'
• John 1:1: 'In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God.'
• Galatians 4:4-6: 'But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.'
• St Augustine: De Trinitate - There are three things in as it were a trace of the Trinity. But what is love or what is the love of the divine Trinity so greatly praises except the love of the Father and the Son? But love is of someone that loves, and with love something is loved. So there are three - he that loves, and that which is loved, and love.
• Incarnation


  The central Christian belief that the Son of God assumed human nature and "became flesh / and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14). Jesus was born as a human, took on a human body, a full human nature and lived among mankind as one of them.
• In doing this Jesus did not stop being God but, in some way we cannot understand, Jesus had dual nature. He was not part God and part man but wholly God and wholly man.
• You have heard it said... (Law of Moses) But I say to you ... (Jesus' interpretation) - Jesus provided a more radical moral teaching than the Law of Moses.