Evil + Suffering Quotes Flashcards
(19 cards)
Hick: ‘evil is…
a perpetual burden of doubt for the believer and an obstacle to commitment for the unbeliever’
Stephen fry
‘god is a maniac’
‘he is mean-minded and capricious’
Lee strobel
Questionnaire: 17% of people said they’d ask god ‘why does evil and suffering exist in this world?’ if they knew they’d get an answer
Rabbi irving greenburg
‘no statement, theological or otherwise, should be made that would not be credible in the presence of burning children’
Epicurus
‘is god willing to stop evil but not able? Then he is impotent. Is god able to stop evil but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is god willing and able? Then whence cometh evil? Is god neither willing nor able? Then why call him god?
What did Hume call evil and suffering
The rock of atheism
Genesis 3:15
The woman said: ‘the serpent deceived me, and i ate’
Genesis 1:31
‘and god saw all he had made and it was good’
Richard Swinburne on free will: ‘the less god…
allows men to bring about large scale horrors, the less freedom and responsibility he gives them’
John Stuart Mill on natural evil
Evils of nature committed would be condemnable if committed by humans (would get hanged/imprisoned for same level of destruction of human life). But they are nature’s everyday performance
Alvin Platinga on free will:
‘a world containing creatures who are significantly free is more valuable than a world containing no free creatures at all’
Process theodicy: Griffin: ‘God cannot…
control but only persuade’
What was Griffin interested in?
Quantum mechanics - on a subatomic level, the universe is in a constant process of flux and change. New scientific context supports the idea of gradual ordering from chaos.
Process theodicy: Griffin: ‘God is the one…
being in a position to judge whether the goods achievable have been worth the price.’
Process theodicy: Genesis 1-1:3
‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’
Suggests there was something for god to form life from. (Persuading pre-existing materials more probable/plausible). Griffin rejects creation ex nihilo nihil fil.
What did Griffin believe God was?
A part (‘the soul’) of the universe - pantheistic viewpoint
Augustine claims we were all…
‘seminally present in the loins of Adam’
What did Augustine argue?
That evil does not actually exist - it is the privation (absence) of good. As humans fell away from God, we fell away from his goodness, resulting in what we call ‘evil’. Just as darkness does not actually exist, but is merely the absence of light.
What does Platinga argue?
FWD - response to Mackie’s logical problem of evil, which argues that it’s impossible for god and evil to exist together. Platinga argues that it is possible for God and evil to exist together because evil is the result of free will.
God cannot remove evil without removing free will (impossible). It is better for evil to exist than not to because life would be valueless otherwise. An omnibenevolent and omnipotent god would therefore allow evil.
