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Religious Studies: Philosophy > 1A: The Problem of Evil and Suffering > Flashcards

1A: The Problem of Evil and Suffering Flashcards

1
Q

Can evil and suffering have a purpose or be part of a greater good?

A
  • could be to give us trust in god and his plan
  • to understand good and appreciate it
  • evil develops gratitude, empathy, kindess, understanding and chairty
  • evil is “soul making”(John Hick)
  • evil is “ soul deciding” (St Augustine)
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2
Q

How did Epicurus formulate the problem of evil?

A
  • either God wants to abolish evil and cannot (impotent) , or he can but does not want to (wicked)
  • if God can abolish evil and wants to do it, why is there evil in the world
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3
Q

What is the inconsistent triad?

A

God being omnibenevolent, omnipotent and evil cannot logically all exist together.

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4
Q

What is natural evil?

A

suffering caused by natural phenomena

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5
Q

What does JS Mill say about nature/natural world?

A

nature is cruel and shows ‘disregard for justice and mercy’

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6
Q

What is moral evil?

A

suffering caused by human actions

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7
Q

What is a theodicy?

A

attempting to justify god in the face of evil

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8
Q

What are the difficulties of trying to justify God’s existence in the face of evil?

A
  • is any divine purpose justified by human suffering?
  • is a god who works in this way worthy of worship?
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9
Q

Who said after the Lisbon earthquake, “How can anyone believe in a benevolent and omnipotent God after this?”

A

Voltaire

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10
Q

Doe the problem of evil and suffering suggest God either doesn’t exist, or isn’t omnibenevolent/omnipotent?

A

suggests he doesnt exist
- if God is omniscient surely he will know the suffering is going to happen and will prevent it? if he is omnibenevolent he will want to stop evil.

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11
Q

What is the problem of evil?

A

if there is a God who is omnipotent, omniscient and all loving, then why does evil and suffering exist in the world?

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12
Q

What is the name of Vardy’s book?

A

The Puzzle of Evil

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13
Q

What are some examples of natural evil?

A
  • animal suffering
  • suffering caused by natural disasters
  • pain resulting from disease
  • pain resulting from poor design of human body
  • psychological illness
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14
Q

Why is it impossible for us to claim natural evil doesn’t exist?

A

because we are all affected by it - there is empirical evidence of it

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15
Q

What two possibilities are believers left with in terms of natural evil if they wish to maintain god is omnipotent and all loving?

A
  1. evil is the fault of humanity/the devil
  2. God created natural evil and had good reason for doing so
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16
Q

What philosophers argued that natural evil was not intended by God and instead a necessary inevitable part of the existence of good?

A

Aquinas and Augustine

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17
Q

What is privatio boni and how does it relate to evil?

A

a privation of good. evil is a falling away from goodness

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18
Q

Why is evil a necessary part of the contingent world?

A

because all contingent beings have the capacity to be less than perfect

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19
Q

What did Aquinas state will happen to evil?

A

it will be eliminated in a heavenly future since it did not exist prior to the fall

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20
Q

What are some examples of moral evil?

A
  • bullying
  • stealing
  • vandalising
  • terrorism
  • being unfaithful
  • lying
  • breaking promises
  • drinking & smoking (self inflicted)
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21
Q

Why do theists argue moral evil is our fault?

A

because make our own choices, since God lovingly gave us freedoms of choice when he made us, but we choose to do the wrong thing
( analogy of god as a loving parent)

22
Q

What are some weaknesses of the thiest claim that moral evil is our own fault?

A
  • did God not know when he gave us free will that we would choose to do the wrong this? after all he is omniscient.
  • why did God create us with the ability to do wrong? he could have given us free will to only make good choices
  • why does God not intervene when he sees wrong choices?
23
Q

What is Hebblethwaite’s book called and what does he state in it?

A

Evil, Suffering and Religion
- states natural and moral evil overlap

24
Q

Why is the triad inconsistent?

A

because all three cannot be true simultaneously without being contradicting

25
Q

Who was Epicurus?

A

A Greek philosopher

26
Q

Where does our knowledge of Epicurus come from?

A

his later commentators and followers

27
Q

What is Epicurus’ formulation of the inconsistent triad known as?

A

Classic formulation

28
Q

What is Epicurus’ classic formation?

A

God willing to prevent evil but unable = not omnipotent
able but not willing = malevolent
able and willing = whence cometh evil?
neither able or willing = why call him God?

29
Q

Who was JL Mackie?

A

an Australian philosopher and meta-ethicist

30
Q

What is Mackie’s formulation of the inconsistent triad referred to as?

A

a reformulation

31
Q

Who did Mackie state the problem of evil was only a problem for?

A

people who believe there is a god who is both omnipotent and wholly good

32
Q

Mackie believed the problem of evil is a ______ problem, not a scientific one.

A

logical
(can be solved by further observations)

33
Q

What is Mackie’s simple form of the argument? (3 steps)

A
  1. God is omnipotent
  2. God is wholly good
  3. evil exists
34
Q

What additional premises does Mackie add to connect the terms ‘good’, ‘evil’ and ‘omnipotent’?

A
  1. good is opposed to evil
  2. good always eliminates evil as far as it can
  3. there are no limits to what an omnipotent thing can do
35
Q

What conclusion does Mackie arrive at using his premises?

A

a good omnipotent thing eliminates evil completely.
- his paradox shows that God’s omnipotence must be restricted one way or another

36
Q

What two scholars focus on the evidential problem of evil?

A

Gregory Paul and William Rowe

37
Q

What is the evidential problem of evil?

A

existence of evil lowers the probability of gods existence

38
Q

What is Rowe’s evidential argument?

A
  • focuses on intense human and animal suffering, a case of INTRINSIC evil (it is bad in and of itself)
    1. there are instances of intense suffering which an omniscient and omnipotent being could have prevented without losing some greater good
    2. an omniscient, wholly good being would prevent any intense suffering if it could, unless it resulted in the loss of a greater good/permitting evil equally bad or worse
    3. therefore there does not exist an omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good being
39
Q

What one key premise does Rowe’s argument rest on?

A

a wholly good god would not permit any gratuitous evil (evil that is avoidable, pointless, unnecessary)

40
Q

What is the case of Bambi?

A
  • forest fire
  • fawn is trapped
  • fawn is burned
  • lies in agony for many days
  • fawn dies to ‘relieve its suffering’
41
Q

What is the case of Sue?

A
  • real event
  • 5 year old girl beaten, raped and strangled to death by her mother’s boyfriend
42
Q

What did Rowe conclude with these examples?

A

even if God could not have eliminated these examples without losing some good/permitting greater evil, we cannot believe this of all cases of evil

43
Q

What is the name of Gregory Paul’s work?

A

Theodicy’s Problem: Holocaust of the Children

44
Q

What viewpoint is Paul critiquing?

A

that there is one intelligent creator who is perfect in moral terms and possesses all power needed to prevent suffering among his creation

45
Q

What is Paul’s argument?

A
  • if a creator exists then it has chose to create a habitat that has maximised the level of suffering and death among children due to factors beyond human control.
  • so if God exists as the creator then he had allowed/intended for us to live in a world of great natural evil.
  • this extent of evil doesn’t allow for an omnibenevolent, omniscient and omnipotent creator God
46
Q

What are some examples of demographic research Paul uses to back up his argument?

A
  • 100bn humans born to date
  • pre 1800 around 50% of people died before maturity
  • majority of conceptions do not run to full term,
    so there has been around 300bn natural prenatal deaths
  • around 50bn infants and children have died, around 50% of total born
47
Q

How might people counter Paul’s argument of statistics and how does Paul respond?

A
  • the stats include infants that died as a result of intentional abortion
  • Paul argues this by stating in the US there are around 4 million births a year. there are around 8 million conceptions a year and 1.3 million abortions, leaving around 3 million terminations due to natural evil
48
Q

What 3 examples does Paul give of natural evil causing death?

A
  1. disease - victims usually conscious and killed over extended period of time
  2. death by lack of nutrition - high level of mental and physical anguish and suffering
  3. death by trauma - extreme suffering through cause of death eg suffocation and drowning
49
Q

What Christian ideas does Paul reference to?

A

heaven and afterlife
- to be prepared for heaven, imperfect humans must undergo experiences that render us ‘perfect’
- we need a level of maturity and therefore cannot truly exercise free will to reach perfection
- children do not have this level of maturity so cannot exercise free will
- those who die before maturity are incapable of entering heaven (unfair to be sent to hell or held in limbo, they’re in that position due to the world God created) or they go to heaven without choosing (means they’re not allowed to exercise their free will)

50
Q

Which lack of historical evidence does Paul refer to to support his argument?

A

prayer reducing suffering

51
Q

Do theodicies solve the logical problem of evil and show why god allows SOME suffering?

A
  • no. but they justify the existence of evil to an extent
  • theodicies create a problem for relgious followers who believe in an omnipotent and omnibenevolent god because it contrasts his nature
  • we get to understand how evil could possibly enter the world
52
Q

Do theodicies solve the evidential problem of evil and show why god allows SO MUCH suffering?

A
  • no
  • as Hick says: “we are created at an epistemic distance”
  • we will never know why god allows suffering or if he even exists, so we just have to trust his faith

Religious Studies: Philosophy (25 decks)

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