The German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz coined the term "theodicy" in 1710 in his work Theodicies. Other philosophers have suggested that theodicy is a modern discipline because deities in the ancient world were often imperfect. Theodicy is the answer to the question why God permits evil. (Wikipedia, 2015) “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things” Isaiah 45:7
A similar account is found in the New Testament where in 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 (King James Version) the distinction between the elect of God and the non-elect is clearly distinguished stating: "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:/ Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” It seems that God could have eliminated more evil in the world and still accomplished the divine purposes but then a large amount of evil in the world does not seem to be connected to the divine purposes.
"Natural evil fulfills a higher divine
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God subjected or cursed the natural world to death because of human rebellion. In doing so, God brings about a world where we are no longer comfortable in the present. God wanted us to freely love him, which meant allowing for the possibility that we might choose against him. And we have. Free will provides good—self-determination--and carries with it significant responsibility, which is also good. This is especially true of relationships involving love. Evil is an unfortunate result of human free will. If God were to intervene at every point of our wrongdoing, our free will would be compromised. So evil in the world is not entirely God's fault; however, this position does not claim that God is not responsible in any way for evil. If you have the power to intervene and do not, that implies choices. (Oxford University Press ,
The only thing responsible for evil is the human being. Throughout the whole book, the author struggles with understanding how God could watch the evil taking place. The author loses of his faith, which causes the reader to also question God presence in this tragedy of human events: World War
In the rival conceptions of God, Lewis divides humanity into two main groups; those who believe in God or gods and those who do not. Those who believe in God, Lewis divides into two subgroups. The first, Pantheists view God as “beyond good and evil” (Lewis, 1980) as if God and the universe are one. The second, Christians view God as the absolute good Creator, separate from His creation.
An example of these beliefs was Josiah Royce, who would question the existence of evil and why god would allow evil to exist, an idea that became known as theodicy. An Royce says “For consider. A suffers ill. B sees A suffering. Can B, the onlooker, help his suffering neighbor, A?
Part XI begins with Philo’s breakdown of what are, in his perspective, the four causes of natural evil. These causes, in Philo’s opinion, disprove the existence of an omnipotent and infinitely good god, for if god was all-good and all-powerful, then these grounds would not exist in our universe. INSERT CITATION Once he gives his reasoning for how these causes disprove an omnipotent and infinitely good god, Philo then states what he believes these four causes to be.
Is a God unable to suppress the evil or does he have no solution to problem of evil? The thesis posited by Mackie that evil exists and there is no God to stop the evil is still relevant to today. We still have wars, incurable diseases and struggles on this planet.
The other reason in which natural evil operates to give humans their freedom is that it makes possible certain kinds of action towards it between which genets can choose (Swinburne, p.95). For instance, sicknesses provide humans chance to find the cure and help other patients in the future. If there is no sickness, this choice does not exist at all. It is a way in which we learn how to bring about good and evil. The natural evil allows us to perform at our best and interact with out fellows at the deepest level.
Free will includes humans acting as their own agent's and making the choice to do something or not do it. In order for humans to make a choice morality has to be involved in free will. So that a human will have the capacity to make a choice and understand what that choice means, and what effect that choice will have, whether the choice is to do good or evil. One of the objections put forth against free will is that God is omnipotent and knows and sees all. This means that God knows the future and the past.
On the other hand, theists like Swinburne, believe that evil is necessary for important reasons such as that it helps us grow and improve. In this paper I will argue that the theist is right, because the good of the evil in this specific case on problems beyond one’s control, outweighs the bad that comes from it. I will begin by stating the objection the anti-theodicist gives for why it is wrong that there is a problem of evil. (<--fix) Regarding passive evil not caused by human action, the anti-theodicist claims that there is an issue with a creator, God, allowing a world to exist where evil things happen, which are not caused by human beings (180-181).
In chapter three of Aquinas for Armchair Theologians by Timothy Renick, Aquinas’s philosophy on evil in the world and the free will of humans is heavily discussed. Renick describes a very complex topic and transforms it into something the average person can read and understand. Aquinas answers the questions of whether evil exists, did God create evil, why does evil exist, and if evil exists, who or what removes it. He also answers the questions of whether humans have the free will to make decisions or has God predetermined every decision and its outcome according to his plan. While I found this article somewhat easy to follow, I can understand how some of Aquinas’s arguments can lead to debate or confusion on the nature of God, evil, and free will.
Another Milestone that effects the way we define the notion of “Good and Evil” is largely based on our religion. Therefore, the way we see right from wrong, heaven and hell, light and darkness, Good vs. Evil and God and the Devil comes from the moral criterion that we attempt to apply to our worldviews. However, given the conspicuous contrasts amongst religions, ranging from Christianity to Islam to Judaism. Many people believe that due to the simple fact of religious diversity, this provides the basis to discredit any assumption of moral truths. Some religions define evil as “the result of human sin” or that “Evil is the result of a spiritual being who opposes the Lord God”
In theory, he thinks that if God exists then evil should not, but it does. So he creates and argues a theodicy to show that God and evil can exist at the same time. He comes up with the “Free Will Theodicy” which states that humans are the cause of evil, not God. The Free Will Theodicy discusses two kinds of evil: moral evil and natural evil.
The problem of evil takes into account three defining features of God: all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful and questions whether such a God would permit evil and not interfere. Sinnott-Armstrong discusses his stance by countering responses he coins as the Glorious Response, the Modest Response, and the Overriding Response. Whereas, Craig counters the arguments made by Sinnott-Armstrong. The Glorious Response Thus response suggests evil is
The question that is asked time and time again is whether or not god exists. It is evident that people hold different beliefs. It is evident that through some of the beliefs of J.L. Mackie that it could be argued that God does not actually exist. I find this argument to be more agreeable. In Mackie’s Evil and Omnipotence, he argues many points to support why it should be believed that god does not exist.
And we read about a God who, I gather from the text, is purposefully making a tyrant out of a king by hardening his heart and sends terrible things from the sky that seem purposefully designed to create pain and suffering within his creation (I am hoping we will discover another way to read this? Was there no way to produce the same effect with less "collateral damage"?)
Humans have free will because in the everyday lives on an individual they are presented with multiple choices, none of which render the need for a divine power. Saint Augustine states this in the text that individuals are aware of the presence of God, but know they can voluntarily act on the own choices. However, God has the power of foreknowledge. This is because the Lord created everything, meaning he must be aware of what is yet to happen. Augustine again asserts in Book V that God cannot exist without the ability for him to know the future.