P3: problem of evil

• Irenaeus soul-making theodicy 2 examples

  • Jonah repents after suffering in whale + comes closer to God (Book of Jonah)
  • analogy of workman moulding clay - humans moulded by suffering through lives
• Augustine's theodicy

  • perfect universe corrupted by Satan in Fall, Original Sin
  • evil = privatio boni
• Mary Baker Eddy: evil is an illusion
• Irenaeus, Hick soul-making theodicy

  • evil is formative letting us develop from God's image to his likeness
  • Hick: epistemic distance, eschatological verification
• D.Z. Philips criticism of soul-making theodicy

  God of love would not use evil as an instrument
• Whitehead, Griffin: process theodicy
• Give a response to this criticism of Augustine's theodicy:

  - Rowe: case of Bambi - GCT wouldn't let animals suffer for human sin

  Then give a criticism of the response

  Augustine: for life to develop, we need death

  >> Rowe: doesn't have to be so painful - God omnipotent
• Hick criticism of Augustine's theodicy

  contradictory to say perfect beings (angels) sinned
• Schleiermacher's criticism of Augustine's theodicy

  perfect world + imperfections = logical contradiction

  - either never perfect, or God made it go wrong

  - undermines omnipotence and/or omnibenevolence
• Hick on epistemic distance

  epistemic distance (lack of knowledge of God) lets us choose + be responsible for our choices - wouldn't be able to act freely if saw God there watching our actions and intervening in the world
• Hick on pain

  pain = instrumental good --> lets us grow spiritually + morally - paradise world without pain would be "morally static"
• Hick on Hell

  Hell is another vale of soul-making; another chance to improve + grow into God's likeness
• Darwin's criticism of Hick/Irenaeus' vale of soul-making theodicy

  Darwin: animals suffer without moral improvement, e.g. digger wasp eats alive caterpillar, Rowe: case of Bambi
• give a response to this criticism of Hick's theodicy:

  Darwin: animals suffer without moral improvement (Rowe: case of Bambi)

  - Hick: animal suffering is survival mechanism

  - animals don't suffer as much as us, e.g. no suffer from knowledge of mortality