2B: Religious responses to the problem of evil - Augustinian type theodicy Flashcards
1
Q
Who was Augustine?
A
- Roman African bishop who had a fphuge influence on the development of theology in the Roman Catholic Church.
2
Q
Augustines theodicy: pt1 - the perfect creation of the world:
A
- starts his theodicy with the idea that God is omnipotent. Therefore made the world completely free of flaws.
- ‘God saw all that he had made, and it was good’
- Augustine argues that it is impossible for God to create evil. This is because evil is not a substance in itself but instead is a privation of goodness. It is the turning away of goodness that is evil
- e,g, darkness. Darkness is not something in itself, it is just an absence of light.
3
Q
Augustines theodicy: pt2 - development of moral evil:
A
- Augustine argues that evil only came when entities in the world were given free will and chose to freely corrupt their goodness. They abused God’s gift of freedom and deliberately chose to turn away from God’s created goodness.
- Augustine argues that ‘original sin’ was the start of moral evil: a rebellion against God’s created goodness.
4
Q
Augustines theodicy: pt3 - why doesn’t God stop evil?
A
- Augustine argues that humanity deserves to suffer the consequences of moral because all humanity descended from Adam and Eve. Therefore we all share their guilt and deserve the same punishment. A loving God must be just.
- humanity has continued to abuse the God given responsibility of free wiki by voluntarily continuing to sin.
5
Q
Augustines theodicy: pt4 - why is there natural evil?
A
- according to Augustine, another consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin was that it created a corruption in the whole of God’s created natural order.
6
Q
Augustines theodicy: pt5 - hope:
A
- Augustine did conclude his theodicy with hope, by reminding everyone of God’s all-loving nature. Rightfully we should all go to hell, the just punishment for moral sin
- however God sent his son to die on the cross so humanity can be saved of their sin. Therefore allowing us to be reunited with God in heaven through atonement.
7
Q
Summary of Augustinian theodicy?
A
- God is all-powerful as he made the world perfect, i.e. free of sin
- God is all-loving as he sent his only son to save us from original sin.
- therefore Augustine’s theodicy answers PoE illustrating that all three propositions in the inconsistent triad can be true at one
8
Q
Strengths of Augustinian theodicy?
A
1) biblically based
2) evil is not a substance
3) free will
9
Q
Strengths - biblically based:
A
- based on evidence from the Bible, particularly the creation stories found in Genesis. Therefore there is a strong theological grounding.
10
Q
Strengths - evil is not a substance:
A
- Brain Davies agrees that evil is not a substance but instead is a ‘privation of good’. God cannot be responsible for moral evil as it is not something he could create.
11
Q
Strengths - free will:
A
- Alvin Plantinga agrees with Augustine that God had to give humans free will
- if God had created humans so they could only choose good they would have no free will
- humans would be like programmed robots - carrying out God given programmes.
12
Q
What are the weaknesses of Augustinian theodicy?
A
1) Genesis 1-3
2) God is guilty
3) logical error
4) moral errors
13
Q
Weaknesses - Genesis:
A
- the theodicy is based heavily on stories in Genesis 1-3.
- hoeveer many, including John Hick, believe Genesis is a metaphor for creation and therefore shouldn’t be used as a basis for a whole theory.
14
Q
Weaknesses - God is guilty:
A
- an omnipotent God should have foreseen that Adam and Eve would have committed ‘original sin’ that brought moral and natural evil into existence.
- an omnipotent God should have foreseen that a ‘fallen angel’ would tempt Adam and Eve. Furthermore if angels rebel, this suggests a flaw in creation and therefore the universe wasn’t created perfectly.
15
Q
Weaknesses - logical error:
A
- there is a logical contradiction in the theodicy.
- Augustine argued that God created the universe perfectly and then it went wrong. However it is logically impossible for evil to have created itself from nothing. This imp,it’s evil already existed and therefore must have been created by God.
