show that the existence of evil gives one sufficient cause to doubt traditional theism; and that one is rationally justified in doing so. In order to achieve this end, I shall identify the problem of evil, evaluating some of the major defences and theodicies proposed by theists and ultimately demonstrating that such attempts at accounting for the existence of evil are neither adequate nor convincing. The problem of evil is presented in two distinct modes; these being the logical argument from evil
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EVALUATING THE TYPES OF EVIL III. ATHEISTIC AND SKEPTICAL ARGUMENT IV. FREE-WILL THEODICY V. POSSIBLE WORLDS VI. THE ALTERNATIVE APPROACH VII. CONCLUSION VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY INTRODUCTION Evil is a universal problem with many categories. Philosophers like David Hume and Alvin Plantinga have attempted to explain the presence of evil despite there being a God. One can choose from many theodicies on moral and natural evil. Lately work has shifted to the notion of gratuitous evil
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God has ordained things to happen and knows everything to happen. There is no real explanation for nature and why God allows anything to happen, because we do not have the mind to even grasp the tip of what God is really doing. There are several theodicies, “there are not only reasons that God does whatever He does, but such reasons are necessary laws” (Elwell, 1185). This thought is saying that God is the
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Leibniz, like many thinkers of his time, was a theist - in other words he believed in God. He thought that the universe was composed of substances, chosen and maintained by God. He declared in his Theodicy that God created the world to be the best of all possible worlds, since God, as a benevolent deity, would not have created anything different. This is a difficult assumption for the modern reader to digest, as we are surrounded by examples of evil every day in the news. Leibniz proves the existence
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There are several apologia that explain that it is not. The theodicy, or the justification of “the ways of God to man,” of Gotfried Leibniz suggests that the goodness of God mandates His obligation to create the best world possible, and to will the best for it. There is more value to a world that consists of both
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Short Essay on Topic Hamartiology: The Problem of Evil Evil and its’ affects our obvious in our world and lives. Everyone, regardless of beliefs, must at some point deal with the reality of pain, disease, and disasters that seem to flow from evil. Just being a Christian does not erase these realities or a need to find resolve. All of us must deal with these questions in a honest way, or be content to deny the understanding our minds wish for. This understanding must unify the basic beliefs we have
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John Hick, a 20th century philosopher of religion, proposed a “Soul-Making Theodicy”, which examines why God would want a world in which free will is as good as the evil it generates. Hick questions the quality of the environment in which God crafts His children to become moral beings with varying free will . The existence of
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Name: Micah Davis Writing Style Used: MLA Course and Section Number: THEO 202-B05 The problem of Evil No matter the capacity, the act of sin has been a major concern for all of mankind. This concern of moral evil and natural evil are both questions of intellectual dependencies in connection with a broader theological system and more specifically, how God and evil coexisit. There are numerous circumstances throughout scripture where individuals have experienced evil suffering while
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The prophet Isaiah as depicted in Christian doctrine, implied thatGod is ultimately responsible for everything including evil as stated inIsa.45:7 "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and createevil: I the Lord do all these things". In the Bible, the story of Jobillustrates that according to specific Christian beliefs, all have sinnedand fallen short of the perfection of God (Romans 3:23), and because we arenot perfect and commit sin, the punishment is mortality. Many religious andphilosophical
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In Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God , Marilyn McCord Adams uses another kind of defense for theism. In this reading Adams argues that the problem of evil has been directed at theism in general, which in this case has caused readers on either side of the debate to miss how important and how unique Christianity is to the problem of horrendous evils on this view. She argues that Christianity has a variety of unique tools that can meet the problem of evil more effectively when not abstracted
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