Theodicies

    Cards (9)

    • Theodicies are attempts by believers to explain why God allows suffering
    • Augustine’s theodicy:
      • God made everything perfect ‘God saw all that he had made and it was very good‘
      • Evil is not real, what we know to be evil is actually (privatio boni)the privation of good
      • Evil first came into the world through the fall of the angles, angels were created perfect but fell away from god due to the miss use of their free will, choosing not to worship but rival God
      • This was repeated in the fall of Adam and eve
    • “Free will is the cause of our doing evil“-St. Augustine confessions
    • Augustines theodicy strengths:
      • Biblically based meaning it will appeal to the Christians with conservative/creationist beliefs
      • By claiming evil doesn’t exist it can solve the inconsistent triad
    • Augustine’s theodicy weaknesses:
      • Seems counterintuitive to suggest to someone suffering that evil and suffering doesn’t exist
      • Concept of original sin seems unfair and undermines Gods omnibenevolence
      • Augustine theory lack coherence as he suggests evil doesn’t exist but then he says it does and acts as a punishment
      • Gods omniscience is threatened as why knowingly would he allow for Adam and eves mistake if he knew all the evil that would follow it
      • Mackie says it could be logical for God to create free being who wouldn't fall or choose evil. Choose being good and a lesser good
    • The irenaus theodicy:
      • Does not believe that humans/world was made perfect
      • To develop we need to live in a world with challenges
      • We need evil in the world to develop as free individuals who can make moral decisions
      • we were made in Gods image and we have to grow into his likeness
      • This likeness has to be earned
      • Humaninty is not capable in this world of being in the likeness of Gods, only happens after death
    • John hick ‘soul making‘ theodicy:
      • Took influence from Irenaeus Theodicy
      • Describes the world as a ‘vale for soul making‘
      • God deliberately gave us free will give choose a loving relationship with him
      • This comes with struggles and hardships and includes the epistemic distance
      • Meaning a distance in knowledge and understanding between us and God
      • This epistemically distance and free will allows humans to misuse it and commit human evil
    • Strengths of Irenaeus/Hick:
      • Peter Vardy analogy of peasant girl and king, the king could have commanded the peasent girl to marry him but instead makes her fall in love with him, this is a good use of his free will
      • Richard swinburne suggests that without evil we would not mature and God intervening all the time would make him an ‘over protective parent‘ and therefore we cannot develop our souls
      • Gill edwareds says that qualities such as courage and trust can only come about through suffering
    • Weaknesses of Irenaeus/Hick:
      • The extent and severity of suffering
      • The challenges of the world do not always result in genuine human development
      • Pointless evil- minority may develop but the majority have gone through pointless suffering
      • D.Z Phillips argued that allowing suffering can never be regarded as a loving plan, also argues that Gods plan is flawed as allowing so many people to suffer for free will doesn’t seem right
      • Animal suffering, they are not going to develop
      • Hicks view of salvation undermines Jesus sacrifice
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