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Summary Notes: The Problem of Evil & Theodicies
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Concise notes on the Problem of Evil and Theodicies applicable to all exam boards A sufficient amount of scholars included and extra A* research included
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Quotes: The Problem of Evil & Theodicies
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Flashcards
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Some examples from this set of practice questions
1.
Epicurus
Answer: \\\'God either wishes to take away evils and is unable, or he is able and unwilling\\\'
2.
Mackie (Problem of Evil)
Answer: \\\'God is omnipotent, God is wholly good, and yet evil exists\\\' David Hume: \\\'Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent\\\'
3.
Mackie (contradiction of omnipotence)
Answer: \\\\\\\'Can an omnipotent being make things which he cannot subsequently control\\\\\\\'
4.
Paul Draper/ William Rowe:
Answer: \\\\\\\'gratuitous evils\\\\\\\': unnecessary evils that do not contribute to the greater good
5.
John Holroyd (strength of the Evidential Problem of Evil)
Answer: \\\\\\\'The strength of this argument as a challenge to belief in God, compared with the argument from the logical problem of evil, is that the burden of proof is lower here and the conclusion, therefore, more easily reached. It only has to seem likely that some instance of evil is pointless for belief in God to be less than reasonable.\\\\\\\'
6.
James Rachels (The Evidential Problem of Evil)
Answer: \\\'The problem is that the world contains vastly more evil than is necessary for an appreciation of the good\\\'
7.
Genesis 1:31 (Theodicies)
Answer: \\\'God saw all that he had made and it was very good\\\'
8.
John Hick
Answer: \\\'Virtues that have been formed as a result of a person overcoming temptations are \\\'intrinsically more valuable than virtues created within her ready made without any effort on her own part\\\'
Content preview
P3: The Problem of Evil & TheodiciesThe Problem of Evil:
Augustine: “either God cannot abolish evil, or he will not. If he cannot then he is not all-
powerful. If he will not, then he is not all Good”
The Logical Problem: God’s omnicharacteristics do not align with evil existing
The Evidential Problem: the amount and distribution of evil that exists is good evidence
that an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God does not exist
The Free Will Defence:
[associated with Plantinga]
- evil is a result of our God-given free will; it is better to have a universe with free will than
without for we would merely be robots
- we require the existence of evil to be free- if God removed the existence of evil, He would
also remove our free will
- to develop a relationship with God, we must freely choose to love him, which ultimately
means one must have a choice between doing good and evil
- as we are morally imperfect we do not always use our free will for good
- A world in which we have free will and thus there will sometimes be evil is better than if
we have no free will at all
Strengths:
1. Plantinga argues that humans only sometimes choose to do good; if God had designed us
so that we always choose good, we would not really have freedom, our choices would be
predetermined like ‘decisions’ made by robots
Augustine’s Theodicy:
1. Evil did not come from God since God’s creation was faultless and perfect
2. Evil having come from somewhere else and God justifying it in allowing it to stay
3. Natural evil is a result of moral evil of humans (free will); it was the choice of Adam and
Eve to disobey God that led to the ‘Fall’ (epistemic distance) also natural was created as a
result of the disharmony between God and nature
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