Evil and Suffering Essay Sample free essay sample

Separate A ) ‘Evil and agony is the consequence of a malevolent God’ discuss the job of immorality and agony in visible radiation of this quotation mark. ( 6 Markss ) There are two different types of immorality. Moral immorality and natural immorality. Moral immorality is the consequence of human actions that are morally incorrect. Examples are slaying. war and inhuman treatment. Richard Swinburn said ‘Moral immorality I understand as including all immorality caused intentionally by worlds negligently neglecting to make what they ought to make. and besides the immorality constituted by such calculated actions or negligent failure’ . Natural immorality is non caused by worlds. and it is the evident malfunctioning of the natural universe. Examples of this are volcanoes break outing. temblors. dearths. and diseases. John Hick said ‘Natural immorality is the immorality that originates independently of human actions. in disease†¦ in temblors. storms. drouths. or tornadoes’ . Evil and agony is decidedly debatable. There are several grounds for this. We will write a custom essay sample on Evil and Suffering Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page First. it produces enduring which normally seems unjust. This may include animate being enduring which. of class. is wholly unjust because the carnal normally can non make anything in it’s power to halt itself enduring. This leads to the belief that immorality does be and is a world. and is a challenging job. The following job is a theological job. This is that evil challenges the nature of God. A philosophical job with immorality is that it requires the truster to accept conflicting claims. Last. the job that evil comes in many signifiers and which demand different accounts is a diverse job. These footings do propose a malevolent God. If God is benevolent so these definitions of immorality and agony do do the job greater. because one would inquire why God chooses to do guiltless and unworthy people suffer. for which there is no existent reply available to adult male. JL Mackie came up with the ‘inconsistent triad’ to explicate the job of immorality and enduring with belief in God. He wrote about a trigon which has three points ; God’s omnipotence. evil bing. and God’s omnibenevolence. These three constituents can non be together if they are all right. therefore one of the m must be incorrect. This leads us to oppugn the nature of God. and wether he is the classical theistic God that we think we know. Part B ) Examine two theodicies and measure whether they provide an equal solution for the job of immorality and agony. ( 24 Markss ) Augustinian theodicy: Aquinas’s argues that whatever agony and evil worlds have to travel through. God puts them through for a ground which is that it’s what’s best for them. and is necessary and indispensable in one manner or another. Therefore. argued. God is still all loving or omnibenevolent. and the job of immorality and agony does non dispute this. Augustine’s theodicy is mostly similar to this thought. Augustine argued that the existence is good. therefore is a creative activity of from a good God for a good intent. The Bible shows that God created the universe absolutely. but it was made progressive when Adam and Eve succumbed to the tree of enticement and ate the out fruits. This created original wickedness. and is the ground for immorality and agony. This leads me on to the factor of freewill. Augustine argues that in order for God to be omnibenevolent. he needs to give adult male freewill. As a effect of giving adult male freewill. adult male will do evil and agony in some of their actions. Besides. Augustine argued that immorality is wholly necessary in a good universe. because it means we know what good is. With no immorality or agony or bad. adult male would non cognize what good and bad were. and the differentiation between them. This could do adult male to non appreciate felicity and good. Augustine concluded that God should non set a halt to evil and enduring or intervene. because it is a penalty for human wickedness and God is just. He said that if God was unjust. so everyone would have their rightful penalty in snake pit. but God. being the selfless and just God that he is. direct his ain boy Jesus Christ to decease so that those who believed could be saved. The Augustine Theodicy clears God of any duty for the being of immorality. There have been many unfavorable judgments of Augustine’s theodicy. including Friedrich Schleirmarcher ( 1768-1834 ) argued that it was a ‘logical contradiction’ to state that the perfect universe created by God had gone incorrectly. If the universe is perfect so how can it be incorrect? It would connote that immorality had come out of nil. He said that if God was almighty and created a universe which he had entire power of. and was besides omnibenevolent. so people would non utilize their freewill to ache others. and angels and worlds would be wholly without mistake. He argued these points in his book ‘the Christian faith’ . Another contradiction of the Augustine Theodicy is that if there is no apprehension of good and evil in this perfect universe. so why would people take to disobey God? If there was no cognition of bad. so people would non cognize how to disobey God. The fa ct that they do disobey God means that there must be cognition of good and evil already present. God’s love may be the cause for this. God’s love involves holding a loving relationship with worlds and humanity. but echt love is holding both sides have the ability to take wether to love or reject each other. God can non fault worlds if they do reject his love. Peter Cole wrote ‘without freedom we could non portion in God’s goodness by freely loving him. However. the creative activity of free animals involved in the hazard that individuals would misapply their freedom and reject the good. and this is what happened. ’ The Theodicy can besides be criticised scientifically. Augustine’s theory that the universe was made absolutely and damaged by humanity is a contradiction to the widely believed theory of development. This theory suggests that the Earth has started from pandemonium and is continually bettering. instead than easy worsening. It besides is difficult to believe that worlds one time were perfect but are non any longer. There is physical scientific grounds that worlds have evolved from lower signifiers of life. instead than demoted from perfect existences. Whilst Augustine argued that immorality is non a existent thing that is present in the universe. many people. particularly those who have truly felt agon y. believe that is surely is a existent. present thing in the universe. Overall. the Augustine Theodicy is attractive to conservative theists. because it provides a classical theistic reply to the job of immorality and agony. However. the Theodicy does open up a larger sum of unanswerable inquiries. so the failings out manner the strengths. Procedure theodicy:The procedure theodicy is a more modern theodicy. It arose from the positions of A. N Whitehead and was further developed by David Griffin in his book ‘God. Power and Evil: A Process Theodicy’ . It is extremist. and suggests that God is non almighty. This is extremist because of how widely believed the thought of God’s omnipotence is. Therefore. he can non halt immorality. This. like the Augustine Theodicy. clears God from all duty of evil whilst still leting him to be portion of the Earth and humanity. although it implies that God did non really make the existence because the existence is an ‘uncreated procedure of which God is a portion of’ . Harmonizing to the procedure theodicy. the existence is a uninterrupted procedure. Everything stems from one thing to another. and so the procedure goes on. Sometimes this creates harmoniousness. or good. and sometimes it produces ‘discord’ . or bad. Evil is hence ineluctable thr oughout the procedure. The theodicy argues that God himself is still developing. and is ‘dipolar’ which means he has two poles. one playing as God’s outlook and one as God’s ‘body’ . He is partially distinguishable and partially submerged in the universe. merely like worlds are in their organic structures. Creation itself is seen as co-operation between God and other existences. non merely as God’s duty. God’s function is seen as one to develop worlds. non make them. and to get down the evolutionary procedure. Whitehead said that God is the ‘fellow sick person who understands’ . John Hick said that God ‘ can non halt immorality because He does non hold the power to alter the natural process’ . However. if God started the evolutionary procedure so he does bear some duty for it because he must hold known he would non be able to command it. God’s function is besides to maximize harmoniousness and guarantee that the good by and large outweighs the immorality in the universe. John Hick believes that he helps people to populate in ‘the best way’ by ‘persuasion and lure’ but can non command them. H e observed ‘the world of immorality in the universe is the step of the extent to which God’s will is. in fact. thwarted. God offers the best possibility for each juncture as it creates itself. but the consecutive occasions are free non to conform to the Godhead program. ’ The procedure theodicy is questioned as to if it is a theodicy at all by many philosophers. It breaks the regulations of a theodicy and has strong failings. First. it is elitist. Whilst many are enduring. merely a choice few addition any benefit. Second. it denies that God is almighty. This is controversial because it implies he is non the God of classical theism and lacks a immense portion of him. It seems he allows a immense bulk of people to endure in order for a little minority to be free from enduring. John Hick criticised this by stating ‘The God of the procedure theodicy is†¦ God of the elite. or the great and successful among world. This is non the God of those 1000000s who have been crippled by malnutrition and have suffered and died under subjugation and development. pestilence and dearth. inundation and earthquake’ . This suggests that people who suffer will non believe the procedure theodicy. Third. unlike other theodicies. it does non explicate the nature of God in order to warrant the being of immorality. This means evil still goes on in the universe regardless of there being a God. and it does non supply a entire reply for immorality and agony. It besides brings into inquiry wether such a limited God is even worthy of worship. Last. even if it is the instance that the good outweighs the immorality. this is no solace for those who have suffered. Hick said ‘however. the starvation and the oppressed. the victims of Auschwitz†¦ can barely be expected to portion the procedure of God’s point of position. or to see God as worthy of their worship and praise’ . This quotation mark further demonstrates the thought illustrated before that people who have suffered will non believe or back up the procedure theodicy. because it would intend they have been difficult done by and below the belt treated. Overall. the procedure theodicy’s failings weigh ou t it’s strengths. which makes it a weak theodicy. and means it does non supply an equal solution for the job of immorality and agony.