Author: Gemma

Philosophy Theme 2—Challenges to Religious Belief: The Problem of Evil Knowledge Organiser

Scholars
1. Augustine	2. Irenaeus	3. J L Mackie
4. William Rowe	5. Gregory S Paul	6. Epicurus
7.John Hick	8. Whitehead	9. Hume
10. John Hick	11. Dawkins	12. Phillips
13. Davies	14. Plantinga

Key Words
15. St. Augustine (c354 –430): Early Church bishop, converted to Christianity relatively late in life. Responsible for the formalisation of what is now accepted as Christian orthodoxy in terms of belief and ethics. Famous works include Confessions and The City of God.	16. Augustinian type theodicy: Argument based on Genesis and the Fall. Evil is caused by created beings, not God. People’s response to evil and God’s rescue plan decides their destiny. Often referred to as soul-deciding.
17. Classical Theism: The belief in a personal deity, creator of everything that exists, who is distinct from that creation and is sustainer and preserver of the universe	18. Epistemic distance: A distance of knowledge. A phrase used by John Hick in his development of Irenaeus’s theodicy to refer to the distance of knowledge between God and humankind, so allows human beings to choose freely.
19. Eschatological justification: Meaning that all things will be made clear or ‘justified’ in the end times or ‘eschaton’.	20.Evil: That which produces suffering; the moral opposite of good
21. Free will: The ability to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or by divine intervention.	22. Irenaean type theodicy: The presence of evil is deliberate and helps people to grow and develop. Often referred to as soul-making
23. J. L. Mackie (1917-1981): 20th Century Australian philosopher who famously formulated the inconsistent triad as an expression for the classical problem of evil.	24. Moral evil: Events in which responsible actions by human beings cause suffering or harm e.g. war.
25. Natural evil: Events caused by nature that cause suffering but over which human beings have little or no control e.g. earthquakes.	26. Gregory S. Paul (1954- ): 21st century palaeontologist and theological observer, who stated that the statistical weight of the amount of suffering experienced by children challenges the Christian understanding of a benevolent creator God.
27. Privation: Deprivation or absence of something that ought to be there; term used in Augustinian theodicy – evil is seen as an absence of good.	28. William Rowe (1931-2015): 20th/21st Century American philosopher who stated that the weight of evidence of suffering in the world proved that God could not exist.
29. Second-order goods: Moral goods that result from a response to evil e.g. compassion.	30. Soul-deciding: A concept in Augustinian type theodicies that describes how suffering helps humans to choose whether to do good (and choose the path God intended) or to do evil (and to reject the plan God had for humanity).
31. Soul-making: A concept within the traditions of the Irenaean theodicy that describes how suffering helps humans develop morally (from God’s ‘image’ into his ‘likeness’)	32. Theodicy: A justification of the righteousness of God, given the existence of evil.

AO2 issues

The extent to which the classical form of the problem of evil is a problem AND The degree to which modern problem of evil arguments are effective in proving God's nonexistence.		Whether Augustinian type theodicies are relevant in the C21st AND the extent to which Augustine’s theodicy succeeds as a defence of the God of Classical Theism.		Whether Irenaean type theodicies are credible in the C21st AND The extent to which Irenaeus’s theodicy succeeds as a defence of the God of Classical Theism.
‘Is a problem’ and ‘Are effective’...	Isn’t a problem and ‘aren't effective’...	‘Are relevant’ and ‘succeeds’...	‘Aren’t relevant’ and ‘doesn’t succeed’...	‘Are credible’ and ‘succeeds’...	‘Aren’t credible’ and ‘doesn’t succeed’…
33. Gregory Paul’s ‘premature deaths’ argument concludes there cannot be an omnipotent, omnibenevolent God. He argues that of the 100 billion humans that have existed since humanity evolved, over half of those died in childhood due to moral or natural evil. He puts the figure of failed conceptions at 300bn. This makes 350bn ‘premature deaths’ which Paul calls ‘the Holocaust of the children.’ / 34. William Rowe’s ‘evidential argument’ states that God is justified in not preventing some evils, but ’unjustified evils’ mean God can’t exist. The two examples he used were the rape and murder of a 5 yr old child and a fawn dying in a forest fire.	35. In response to Rowe, Hick claimed that although some suffering seems unjust, this is because we cannot see God’s ultimate plan for us. / 36. Augustinian theodicies: God made the world perfect. Moral Evil started with entities with free will (the devil and humanity) who disobeyed God, which explains moral evil. Natural Evil is not evil but simply a privation of good. God does not intervene because we are being rightfully punished for Adam’s sin. God also sent His only son to save us from the above sin. / 37. Irenaean theodicies reject problems of evil: God deliberately created humanity imperfect. Humans must have freewill to develop into God’s likeness. For us to have freewill we must have the option to choose an evil act. God doesn’t intervene because this would compromise human freedom to develop into God’s likeness. / 38. Hick: natural evil occurs because it would be too easy to choose to be like God if there was no natural evil. Everyone will eventually have the opportunity to become like God, even if this is after death (in heaven).	39. Biblically Based e.g. Fall of Man in Genesis. / 40. Brian Davies agrees with Augustine that evil is not a substance. He states that evil is the gap between what I ought to do and what I do. / 41. Aquinas: supported Augustine’s idea that natural evil is only evil from humanity’s perspective. / 42. Plantinga agrees with Augustine that God had to give humanity free will. If God created us to only choose good they would have no free will (like robots). / 43. Offers a solution to the problem of evil as it shows we are being rightfully punished for sin.	44. God should have foreseen that Adam and Eve would have disobeyed him so he must take some responsibility. / 45. Logical error: Augustine said God created the world perfect and then it went wrong. This means evil created itself out of nothing, which is logically impossible. / 46. Scientific Error: The Genesis argument claims we are all descended from Adam and so deserve punishment. Evolutionary theory suggests we came out of at least 7 different tribes so this can’t be right, plus you can’t inherit sin. / 47. Moral Error 1: Augustine argued said God would save some people through Jesus. Surely if God was all-loving, He would save everyone? / 48. Moral Error 2: Why would an all-loving God create hell for the sinful to suffer in for all eternity? This also suggests he knew his creation would sin against him, so surely he should take some responsibility for evil?	49. Biblically based: Irenaeus Theodicy is partly based on ideas from the Bible e.g. Genesis 1:26 ‘God said “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness.” Therefore, his theory is acceptable to Christians. / 50. Solution to the problem of evil: this theodicy shows why an all-powerful and all-loving God allows evil, it says we need to have freewill to choose to be like God and develop. / 51. A goal for life: Irenaean type theodicy provides a recognisable and achievable goal for humanity that gives relevance and value to life on earth i.e. every action I do has a purpose.	52. The extent and severity of suffering found in recent history (e.g. the Holocaust is unjust). / 53. Gregory S Paul- this theodicy does not explain why some people seem to suffer more than others e.g. children. / 54. Phillips– This theodicy says that God shows his love for humanity by giving us freewill and therefore the possibility to cause pain so we can become more like God. This is a poor way for God to express his love. / 55. The concept of ‘Heaven for all’ seems unjust. It also contradicts religious texts, including the Bible and Qur’an, which both promise punishment for the unrighteous. / 56. If everyone goes to heaven there would be no incentive to develop into God’s likeness in this life.