Evil And Suffering Flashcards
Moral evil
Acts committed by human beings, such as murder, theft, rape etc. It can also refer to evil that comes from human inaction, e.g. where someone does not help another person who is in danger.
Natural evil
Suffering caused by nature / the natural world e.g. disease, starvation, storms, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis. Usually seen as being produced by the chance operation of the laws of nature (a flood does not ‘intend’ or ‘choose’ to drown you).
Suffering
A mental or physical pain / hardship / distress brought about by both moral and natural evil
The Fall
Moment in the Book of Genesis when Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge. As a result, sin enters the world.
Original
Sin
St Augustine. Doctrine that, as a result of The Fall, all humans are born innately sinful. We ‘inherit’ a tendency to sin
Theodicy
A philosophical defence of God’s goodness, power and even existence in the face of the reality of evil.
Epistemic
Distance
A distance of knowledge. The world operates in such a way that humans cannot know from it that there is a God.
Universalism
The belief that ultimately all humans will be saved and enjoy eternity with God
Causal determinism
The idea that every event is caused by preceding events and conditions and by the laws of nature. Therefore, humans do not have free will.
Process
Theology
Rejection of traditional belief that God created the universe ‘ex nihilo’ - the universe is uncreated and eternal, like God. The universe and God exist together; the universe in in God and God is in the universe. They have a panentheistic relationship.
Soul-making theodicy
Belief that the word is a ‘vale of soul-making’. Evil and suffering is required to enable spiritual growth (and therefore salvation)
NATURAL EVIL examples
-Natural disasters kill on average
45,000 people every day.
-3.1 million children die from poor nutrition and hunger every year.
-In 2021, there were 401 natural disasters worldwide.
-Over 6.5 million people have died from
Covid-19 since the outbreak began.
-Thailand’s Boxing Day Tsunami (2004)
killed 220,000 people.
-Haiti’s 2010 Earthquake killed at least 159,000 people.
MORAL EVIL
-70-85 million people were killed during
World War Two.
- 6 million Jews - and millions of others - were murdered in the Holocaust.
-Over 400,000 people die from homicide every year.
-1 in 4 women and 1 in 20 men have been raped or sexually assaulted.
-1 in 6 children have been sexually abused.
-There are at least 1.5 million theft offences recorded in England and
Wales every year.
Logical problem of evil
THE INCONSISTENT TRIAD
1 - God is omnipotent (all-powerful)
2 - God is omnibenevolent (all-loving)
3 - Evil exists
Epicurus quote
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then hence evil?” (Epicurus)
How can the logical problem be solved?
- Deny God’s omnipotence
- Deny God’s omnibenevolence
- Deny evil exists (Augustine)
- There is a sufficient reason why God allows evil to exist.
EVIDENTIAL PROBLEM OF EVIL
The evidential problem of evil is expressed simply: There are known facts about evil that are evidence against the existence of God.
1: Evil that is overwhelming in quantity and quality.
• 2: Evil that is pointless because it serves no useful purpose.
EVIDENTIAL PROBLEM OF EVIL examples
William Rowe: Fawn in a forest
-A fawn is trapped in the fire, horribly burned, and lies in agony for several days before dying. The fawn’s agony appears to be pointless; it suffers and dies alone and does not lead to any ‘greater good’ whatsoever.
EVIDENTIAL PROBLEM OF EVIL
Omniscience
If God knew how much overwhelming and purposeless evil would occur, why did God bother to create the universe?
Free will defence Alvin plantinga
-Argument that God has given humans free will to bring about a greater good. A world containing creatures who are significantly free is more valuable, all else being equal, than a world containing no free creatures at all.
-God is justified in allowing evil in the universe, because it permits the freedom to choose or reject the good. It teaches us to be morally responsible and gives meaning to moral goodness.
Free will defence st augustine quote
“For a runaway horse is better than a stone”
(Augustine)
FREE WILL DEFENCE
C.S lewis quote
“Free will, though it makes evil possible, also makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having”
(CS Lewis)
FREE WILL DEFENCE Swineburn Quote
“The less God] allows men to bring about large scale horrors, the less freedom and responsibility he gives them”
(Swinburne)
FREE WILL DEFENCE - ALVIN PLANTINGA
Morally Sufficient Reasons
Free Will is the Greater Good.
-“God’s Creation of persons with morally significant free will is something of tremendous value. God could not eliminate much of the evil and suffering in this world without thereby eliminating the greater good of having created persons with free will with whom he could have relationships and who are able to love one another and do good deeds”
