Philosophy of religion

Philosophy Paper In this paper, I will first summarize the problem of evil, followed by both Leibniz’s and Russell’s view on this theodicy, respectively, in order to examine the whether presence of evil in the world alludes to God’s existence. The problem of evil focuses on how to reconcile the existence of a God with divine attributes - omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence - with the presence of evil in the world. Leibniz’s stance on the problem of evil relies heavily upon the…

In his article, Evil and Omnipotence, J.L. Mackie begins by addressing that every argument for the existence of God shown by philosophers has had its faults. The aim of Mackie’s argument is to prove that philosophy is not capable of criticizing arguments for the existence of God. Another aim is to prove that God does not exist, thus eliminating any positions made by theologians. Mackie calls his argument the ‘problem of evil’ since it demonstrates that the conception of both an omnipotent and…

God has always established his kingdom among all people and places, calling Prophets and other leaders to look over the Church. Unfortunately the adversary is cun- ning, and tries his best to establish his power right along side God’s. Throughout the history of the Earth, antichrists and other enemies of our Father in Heaven have emerged in an attempt to lead away the saints, and bring their souls unto destruction. The Bible contains many accounts of the efforts these enemies have…

John Hick bases the argument concerning the problem of the evil by questioning the existence of an omnipresent and omnipotent God. Though he presents a positive objection to God, he argues that if God is all loving and the most powerful then he could not create evil on earth. With the ability and powers to eliminate evil on earth, evil still exists though God plans and intends no evil, therefore, there exist likeliness that Hick doubts Gods powers over creations or even Gods existence at all.…

Richard Swinburne’s “Why God Allows Evil” tackles the concept of the Evidential Problem of Evil, justifying the existence of evil within the world we live in. He has a plethora of reasons on why God allows evil to exist, and one, in which seems to be pausing for the audience at a glance, is that he believes that the extent of suffering humans are capable is within the limits of the right God has to cause humans to suffer (Swinburne 93-94). In other words, Swinburne states that the suffering in…

One of the most seemingly apparent philosophical questions in the world is regarding the existence of God. The topic has been the cause of much controversy for over a millennium. Within the questioning of God’s existence there are several more philosophical arise+, that ignite just as much argument within philosophical circles. One example is the flawed nature of God’s omnipotence. Mackie believes that, “…unqualified omnipotence cannot be ascribed to any being that continues through time.” In…

In the “Roundtable Discussion on the Problem of Evil”, Meghan Sullivan, Trent Dougherty, and Sam Newlands discuss the Problem of Evil for theism. All three people do not take the side of a theist or an atheist, but instead discuss the problem from a mostly objective view. The Problem of Evil is also discussed by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and William Craig in God? A Debate Between a Christian and an Atheist, where Sinnott-Armstrong argues from the atheist’s point of view and Craig argues from the…

The first idea we face, is the logical problem of evil. What this questions is the possibility of there being an omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omnipresent God and why evil still exists. One of the arguments made is, there is a God who is omnibenevolent and supposedly all good eliminates evil as far as it can, but we still have evil existing when there’s a God. By stating all of these, we have to give up one of the statements in order to make the argument true. The one fact that we can more…

A common way of arguing against the existence or goodness of God is to present the problem of pain: “If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both” (The Problem of Pain 23). C.S. Lewis attempts to answer the intellectual question by first explaining the four components of religious development, then explaining the origin…

Is there really a reason why people are ultimately good and ultimately evil? If there ever was, where would it start from? By reading Augustine’s works, you can tell he questioned himself, If God was good then why is there so much evil the world right now? If he was good then, he should have trouble creating anything that has evil agendas. The way Augustine’s looked at it is if anything that turns evil must have started out good. If God created everything that is supposed to be good then that…