Evil And Suffering

Front 1

Premise 1

Back 1

The God of classical theism is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent.

Front 2

Premise 2

Back 2

God has the power to stop evil. He is omniscient and omnibenevolent and knows about evil and desires to stop it.

Front 3

Premise 3

Back 3

Evil and suffering exists

Front 4

Conclusion

Back 4

God doesn't exist

Front 5

Natural evil

Back 5

Events that occur within nature which cause humans to suffer such as natural disasters like earthquakes.

Front 6

Moral evil

Back 6

Deliberate acts of evil done by human beings to each other that cause suffering such as terrorism.

Front 7

Inconsistent Triad

Back 7

Created by Epicurus and later developed by Mackie. 3 propositions comprise the problem of evil and form the triad where the conjunction of any 2 entails negation of the third. The God of Classical Theism is inconsistent as the attributes don't add up because evil and suffering exists.

Front 8

3 propositions

Back 8

God's omnipotence

God's omnibenevolence

Evil's existence

Front 9

Theodicy

Back 9

An attempt to show that evil and suffering and a just God can all exist. Attempt to show that the existence of evil and suffering do not make the God of Classical Theism's existence incoherent.

Front 10

Hume

Back 10

Evil is the "rock of atheism".

Front 11

Monists opinion on evil

Back 11

The universe is a single, harmonious unity which is good so evil is a mere illusion in our minds. It causes a feeling of suffering because we cannot see the whole picture. Evil is not part of God's creation, it is simply an absence of God.

Front 12

Atheists opinion on evil

Back 12

Evil is convincing evidence that God doesn't exist because a loving God would not have created a universe so full of evil and suffering.

Front 13

Hindu and Buddhists opinion on evil

Back 13

Evil is an illusion brought about by human greed and selfishness. Under doctrines of karma and rebirth, suffering is the result of evil committed in a previous life. Suffering isn't from God and he isn't responsible.

Front 14

Monotheistic religions opinion on evil

Back 14

Evil is seen as utterly bad and entirely real. Scriptures tell of good and evil as part of human experience.

Front 15

Zoroastrianism

Back 15

Assumes the universe is a battlefield where the Principle of Good and the Principle of Evil fight for supremacy. God is the source of perfect good and is in conflict with Satan.

Front 16

Revelation 12:9

Back 16

"The great dragon was hurled down - that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray".

Front 17

What is the Irenaean theodicy and what does it argue?

Back 17

It is a teleological theory that argues there is a goal we are all aiming for. Suffering has a purpose - union with God.

Front 18

What is God's relationship to the universe?

Back 18

Personal and humans were created as special beings to have fellowship with God.

Front 19

Genesis 1:26

Back 19

"Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness".

Front 20

What does the Irenaean theodicy look to?

Back 20

The future to explain the reason for evil existing in this world - our salvation and union with God in the afterlife.

Front 21

What does the Irenaean theodicy claim about The Fall?

Back 21

It was like the innocent sin of a child and man lost the likeness of God but retained the image such as freedom and responsibility

OR

Mankind was created fallen and has the freedom to grow towards God through overcoming suffering.

Front 22

What does the Irenaean theodicy reject and prefer to argue for?

Back 22

It rejects the notions of hell and instead argues for universal salvation, perhaps including a process of continuing "soul making" after death.

Front 23

What theory does the Irenaean theodicy allow room for?

Back 23

The theory of evolution.

Front 24

What is an epistemic gap?

Back 24

What sin created between humans and God. A gap of knowing: humans have become separated from God through sin.

Front 25

What does Hick say about the Irenaean theodicy?

Back 25

That the universe is more or less as God intends it. It is the "vale of soul making". Natural and moral evil exist to develop faith in God and virtue by overcoming that evil. We learn obedience to God through suffering in cooperation with the grace of God as revealed in his creation.

Front 26

What needed to happen for "soul making" to take place?

Back 26

God had to create human beings at an epistemic distance from himself.

Front 27

What does Hick's theodicy ultimately lead to?

Back 27

A notion of universalism (that all will be saved).

Front 28

What does Swinburne state about the Irenaean theodicy?

Back 28

"This responsibility and opportunity is better for humans than to live in a toy world in which whatever they did would make little difference because God made sure nothing bad ever happened".

Front 29

What have some critics argued that the Irenaean theodicy does?

Back 29

Trivializes evil as it is not a sufficient enough explanation of evil to say that it will benefit us in the afterlife.

Front 30

What do critics of the Irenaean theodicy argue about life?

Back 30

What is the point of life if everyone goes to Heaven? How can God be just if everyone attains salvation?

Front 31

What does the Irenaean theodicy not explain?

Back 31

Why a supposedly perfectly loving God allows innocent people, especially children, to suffer evil.

Front 32

What would happen to those that cause suffering according to the Irenaean theodicy?

Back 32

Nothing! There would be nothing stopping people committing crimes like rape and murder if they knew they would get away with it and go to Heaven.

Front 33

What is one criticism of the Irenaean theodicy that states there is something easier that could have been done?

Back 33

If an afterlife if needed to achieve perfection, would't it have been easier if God had given us longer Earthly lives?

Front 34

What did D.Z. Phillips ask?

Back 34

What is the necessity of extensive suffering in order for God to make a point? Why did 6 million Jews have to die in the Holocaust and not 2 million? Does it really have to be so extreme before someone does something?

Front 35

3 more criticisms of the Irenaean theodicy

Back 35

The challenges in this world do not always result in genuine human development, they often produce nothing except great misery and suffering.

Many people develop good qualities without suffering.

Many apparently evil people are mentally disturbed and cannot be held totally responsible for their actions.

Front 36

What does the Augustinian theodicy claim about evil?

Back 36

That the responsibility for evil rests on created beings who have misused their free will. Moral evil is their fault and natural evil is their punishment. Evil is a privation of good - an absence of goodness.

Front 37

What does Augustine argue about God?

Back 37

He only creates good. Some parts of the world are ugly, but the world is more varied, balanced and therefore beautiful and good because of them - the Genesis creation story.

Front 38

What is the explanation of the origin of evil according to the Augustinian theodicy?

Back 38

The past - the sin of disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Front 39

What is central to the Augustinian theodicy?

Back 39

The Fall. Man was created perfectly in a perfect world but sinned deliberately. All of Adam's descendant's have inherited the "original sin" and can only be without it through the grace and loving help of God.

Front 40

What should the universe be according to the Augustinian theodicy?

Back 40

It is not how God intended it to be right now. It should be paradise without suffering and humans can only be saved from this suffering through God's grace through the redemptive death of Christ on the cross (he died to "pay" for the sins of man).

Front 41

What does the Augustinian theodicy argue?

Back 41

That our behaviour in this life will determine whether we go to Heaven or hell. This is because God is seen as a just and impersonal God.

Front 42

Who supports the Augustinian theodicy and why?

Back 42

Classical theists because it frees God from the responsibility of evil and suffering in the world and places it on humans.

Front 43

What does the Augustinian theodicy not explain?

Back 43

The origin of evil. Why did God allow us free will in the first place and why did he allow the possibility to choose evil?

Front 44

What does the Augustinian theodicy contradict?

Back 44

God's omniscience. If God knows all, then surely he would know we would misuse our free will. Mackie has argued it would be possible for an omnipotent being to create beings only capable of choosing good.

Front 45

Why do many argue the Augustinian theodicy is unjust?

Back 45

Because it's unfair to punish all humans for the sins of Adam and Eve and there is no genetic evidence that there is a tendency to pass sin on in reproduction.

Front 46

What does Schleiermacher state?

Back 46

That the Augustinian theodicy is a contradiction because if God created the world perfectly, where did evil come from? If the world was perfect with not no knowledge of good and evil, then how could Adam and Eve choose disobedience?

Front 47

What does science prove relative to the Augustinian theodicy?

Back 47

The big bang theory and the theory of evolution prove the theodicy to be unreliable because they only rely on the world being imperfect, not perfect.

Front 48

What do most modern scholars argue against the Augustinian theodicy?

Back 48

It is based on The Fall in Genesis which is most likely to be historically inaccurate.

Front 49

What do many religious believers argue?

Back 49

That evil is a very real entity in the form of Satan.