Theodicy
In order to take some type of direction in an attempt to answer this question of why bad things happen to good people we first have to look into the concept of theodicy. In this concept, there is an attempt to prove there is divine goodness regardless of what evil may be in the world. As you can imagine there a various views and ideas on ways to show proof of this idea. The information I will use in an attempt to understand this idea is written in the article Thoedicy? written by Kenneth Surin. Within this article Surin repetitively questions the idea of theodicy and if it’s truly something that can be explained. First Surin describes theodicy as requiring support of a theistic faith to verify the existence of a perfect higher power …show more content…
In an attempt to understand many have concluded that if there is evil in the world then there must not be a God. While others cling to the idea that because of evil there is a better understanding of a higher being. Personally, I am more inclined to conclude the latter of the two idea. Although I wouldn’t consider myself to be a religious person I understand that there is a higher being to which many people look to in order to be fulfilled. Who or what that higher being may be is a topic for another paper but for the sake of this idea we will say this higher being is God. Now the concept is that because we believe in a God we need to determine why there is evil in the world. The problem arises when it comes to fruition that the ideas we are talking about may be an attempt to place reason on the irrational. In the article written by Surin his brings this idea to light by stating, “…theodicy, by its very nature, involves the application of the principles of reason to a problem which is essentially such that it defies the application of all rational principles.” (pg. 232) In a sense, both of these ideas are counterintuitive. Once that understanding is made we can then look at the idea of dualism. Is this a situation where dualism …show more content…
It is thought that when an evil thing happens it could be beneficial in the future but not necessarily in the near future. One author, William Lane Craig, explains this in his article The Problem of Evil. His idea is that we are unable to ascertain the reason that God has permitted evil in this world. God, being of higher being, could have infinite reasons as to why negative things happen in the world, and these reasons may be things we are unable to comprehend. Craig states, “Evils which appear pointless to us within our limited framework may be seen to have been justly permitted within God’s wider framework. (pg. 1) When I think about this I think about the idea of history repeating itself and events that have happened in the world to stop certain things from repeating. For example, is it possible that because slavery was an evil situation that many had to endure in the past it changed the outcome for the future for a certain individual who is going to change the world? I know this idea may be oversimplified but it may help to understand, very minimally, why evil may be in the
In order to take some type of direction in an attempt to answer this question of why bad things happen to good people we first have to look into the concept of theodicy. In this concept, there is an attempt to prove there is divine goodness regardless of what evil may be in the world. As you can imagine there a various views and ideas on ways to show proof of this idea. The information I will use in an attempt to understand this idea is written in the article Thoedicy? written by Kenneth Surin. Within this article Surin repetitively questions the idea of theodicy and if it’s truly something that can be explained. First Surin describes theodicy as requiring support of a theistic faith to verify the existence of a perfect higher power …show more content…
In an attempt to understand many have concluded that if there is evil in the world then there must not be a God. While others cling to the idea that because of evil there is a better understanding of a higher being. Personally, I am more inclined to conclude the latter of the two idea. Although I wouldn’t consider myself to be a religious person I understand that there is a higher being to which many people look to in order to be fulfilled. Who or what that higher being may be is a topic for another paper but for the sake of this idea we will say this higher being is God. Now the concept is that because we believe in a God we need to determine why there is evil in the world. The problem arises when it comes to fruition that the ideas we are talking about may be an attempt to place reason on the irrational. In the article written by Surin his brings this idea to light by stating, “…theodicy, by its very nature, involves the application of the principles of reason to a problem which is essentially such that it defies the application of all rational principles.” (pg. 232) In a sense, both of these ideas are counterintuitive. Once that understanding is made we can then look at the idea of dualism. Is this a situation where dualism …show more content…
It is thought that when an evil thing happens it could be beneficial in the future but not necessarily in the near future. One author, William Lane Craig, explains this in his article The Problem of Evil. His idea is that we are unable to ascertain the reason that God has permitted evil in this world. God, being of higher being, could have infinite reasons as to why negative things happen in the world, and these reasons may be things we are unable to comprehend. Craig states, “Evils which appear pointless to us within our limited framework may be seen to have been justly permitted within God’s wider framework. (pg. 1) When I think about this I think about the idea of history repeating itself and events that have happened in the world to stop certain things from repeating. For example, is it possible that because slavery was an evil situation that many had to endure in the past it changed the outcome for the future for a certain individual who is going to change the world? I know this idea may be oversimplified but it may help to understand, very minimally, why evil may be in the