The logical problem of evil

• what are the three statements this argument is based on?

  • god is omnipotent
  • god is onmibenevolent
  • evil exists
• who is the philosopher associated with the inconsistent triad?

  Epicurus (341-270BCE)
• the inconsistent triad

  • is god willing but unable to prevent evil? then god is impotent
  • is god able but not willing to prevent evil? then god is malevolent
  • is god both able and willing to prevent evil? then how come there is evil?
• denying the two traditional beliefs about god isn't acceptable to most christians

  • denying god's omnipotence would suggest for them a god not worthy of worship
  • denying god's all-loving nature would contradict the teachings of Jesus and destroy the very basis of christian belief
• who are two people that denied the existence of evil?

  augustine and aquinas
• how did Augustine deny the existence of evil?

  Augustine claimed that evil is the absence of good in the same way that darkness is the absence of light
• how did aquinas deny the existence of evil?

  aquinas said that evil was the lack in something of a good that was natural to it. he used the evil of blindness to illustrate his thinking:

  • blindness in a stone would not be an evil, as a stone isn't meant to see
  • blindness in a human, however, would be an evil.