Evil and Suffering Flashcards
2 versions of the problem of evil
Evil exists
Problem 1:
God must not be omnibenevolent or omnipotent
Problem 2:
God must not be omnibenevolent, omnipotent or God may not omniscient and not know how
Natural Evil vs Moral Evil
Evil that does not comes from humans
Evil that is the fault of humans abusing their free will in sinful ways
Response to natural evil
its not evil, its just stuff that is happening
example:
Tsunami is just shifting tectonic plates to keep the earth balances. People dying is a side effect
The Fall
Where human sin comes from
Eve eating the fruit from the tree of life
Tree of life is reconsutcred through Jesus dying
Job defence
Job lost everything and he asked God why
Job 38:4 “where were you when I played the foundations of the earth?”
Suffering can be a test
Suffering can be punishment for sin
Suffering is part of God’s plan and beyond human understanding
Gnostic view on suffering
they say the world was made by a demiurge
this is an incompetent and malevolent God
Why is the suffering of Jesus important for Christians
Jesus suffering shows them that God has experienced their suffering
Jesus also went through immense pain at the hands of humanity and showed his love despite this
evidential problem of evil
even if the logical problem of evil, the amount of suffering in the world dis enough to disprove God’s existence
this is Rowe’s argument
Rowe’s bambi case
gratuitous evil
Baby deer burns under as tree for days before dying
the death is pointless, no soul building and it dies anyway
how would an all loving God allow this
Sue case
Horrendous evil
Young girl was raped and brutally killed
no one went to jail because it happened so much that one man couldn’t be held accountable
Rowe does accept that some evil can have a greater good, but the sheer extent of evil cannot justify a loving God
Rowe’s problem with God’s existence
A loving God would not allow gratuitous and horrendous evil
he does accept that some evil produced a greater good
but the extent of suffering proves God cant exist
Theodicy
An attempt to justify God’s existence despite the existence of suffering
typically, the argue that suffering is fair as it is necessary in some sort of way
free will defence overview condensed
human free will causes all suffering and explains its existence in a world made by a loving God
God allowed evil as a logical consequence of human free will
why is free will necessary
if you have the option to not have faith in God, the faith you do have is genuine
We would basically be robots without free will. this shows that free will is worth the risk of moral evil
Evil is a side effect of human free will which is necessary
False Dichotomy
Is God loving or just? these two things work with each other so the question is pointless
Divine sovereignty and human free will cannot contradict themselves- God works through both
Mark- When judas betrays Jesus. it was set up from eternity past, it was always going to happen, but it is also still on Judas in the moment
Kierkegaard’s parable of peasant girl + how does it link to FWD
King falls in love with a peasant girl. He can:
Issue a royal decree forcing her to marry him
Show off his wealth
Go work in the villages and hope he falls in love with his soul
If God forced us to have a relationship with him, it wouldn’t be genuine faith
Epistemic distance
The idea that God made it impossible for us to know if he exists or not to ensure genuine faith is demonstrated
