Beyond Good and Evil

I teach a class on belief systems and how much the affect everything in our lives. They help to shape out thoughts, which shape our feelings, which turn into actions, which then turns into habits. This idea is deeply rooted in my heart and mind. However, I have not spent a lot of time thinking and praying about what I believe. What are my beliefs? I can easily spout off things that I do not go along with the mainstream and believe in, things like Jesus as a carpenter, the trinity concept,…

was an Italian philosopher and theologian of the Medieval period who raised valid arguments as to why evil exists. His first argument was that evil in fact does not exist but that there is only a “privation of the good” (Renick, pg 33). What this means is that God creates only good, therefore evil does not exist. Things only turn into bad when the good of an object of person has less of the good that it was initially given. Aquinas’s next arguments all go together; at least that is how I…

Introduction The logical problem of evil by J. L. Mackie seeked to show a logical contradiction between the existence of a good omnipotent God that traditional theists propose, and the existence of evil. In his Free Will Defense, (henceforth FWD) Alvin Plantinga responds by arguing that agents with significant freedom are more valuable than those without, but that God cannot determine that such agents cannot choose wrong. Hence, it is possible that God exists but creates agents with…

One of the guarantees of human life is that we encounter or end up in situations that we do not always deserve or provoke, these situations are often beyond our control and understanding, leading to confusion, anger, and questioning. This type of unexpected situation is famously seen in “The Book of Job” from the jewish bible when Job loses his wealth, assets, and family and is plagued with a skin disease, seemingly for no reason. This situation of suffering that Job who is a “blameless and…

instantly think that through the rest of the novel that Charles is shown to be evil and Adam is shown to be good. In this way Steinbeck’s story relates that all evil needs to succeed is for good people to do nothing. Also Steinbeck writes about this type of connection for two generations in the Trask family. If the children make the same mistakes as the parents there is no room for improvement, which just goes to show why this “evil” must be conquered for society and family history to improve.…

Environment Means Everything Former Olympic Sprinter, Wilma Rudolph, once said “It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s all a matter of discipline. I was determined to discover what life held for me beyond the inner-city streets.” This quote by Rudolph is a prime example of how hard the inner-city life can be to overcome. In “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” it portrays the struggle of the inner-city life between the two main characters as one has the discipline to…

How can a good God exist in a world filled with natural evil? That is the question that authors Giberson and Collins attempt to find an answer to in their essay, Insert Title Here. In their essay, the authors argue that God is not responsible for natural evil, since evolution by natural selection is fully capable of producing sinister designs in lifeforms if left to its own devices. Therefore, God’s goodness is left unblemished since he is not directly responsible for natural evil. I believe…

Throughout the ages, there has been a battle of good and evil. What caused all this mayhem? Many have tried to answer this question, and in various ways. These answers have shaped the different worldviews of history. The remarkable thing about these worldviews is that deep underneath all the outer issues runs a central theme with two sides that divides all worldviews into one of two categories. This topic has roots so deep that it affects every single other facet of the worldview. There are two…

according to the dictates of one’s own conscience comes with the obligation to protect that freedom for oneself and all other individuals. Classical liberalism holds that individuals have inherent rights that are inalienable and derived from a source beyond nature and society, to his life, liberty, and property. Our Founding Fathers created the fundamental freedom of religion as a means to ensure religious liberty for all people and faiths, leaving the choice of faith in…

calculation. For all the talk of evil, cruelty and virtues, he could really be seen as the father of the cost-benefit analysis. In that same light, Machiavelli’s virtù and traditional virtues should not be seen as at odds, but rather as tools that work in tandem. To view them as wholly incompatible by nature is a narrow view at best, and woefully idealistic at worst. Indeed, they appear incompatible only if one contends that a moral man cannot ever commit any act of evil. In this paper, I will…