Useful Quotations Mix and Match:

 St. Augustine: Confessions“ Either God cannot abolish evil, or he will not;
if he cannot then he is not all-powerful; and if he will not then he is not all-
good”.

 David Hume: “The rock of atheism”.

 Basil Mitchell: “Full force of the problem”.

 Richard Swinburne said that the theist must have a satisfactory answer to
this problem, otherwise there is no reason why the atheist should share
his faith (pg. 43 Tyler exact quote).

 Anthony Flew – biggest challenge facing believer is admitting the

existence of suffering is a serious question that demands an answer.
 Theodicy
 A term coined by great German
philosopher Gottfried Leibniz.
 Stems from 2 Greek words: Theos (God)
and dike (righteous) = ‘righteous God’.
 Philosophical attempts to show all-loving
God has morally sufficient reason allowing
evil and suffering to occur in the world.
 Theodicy must NOT qualify God, deny
existence evil, give up faith.
 The Augustinian Theodicy (354-430)
 Soul-deciding theodicy.
 Evil is not a substance and God did not create it. Evil is a privation –
a negative absence of good (Blindness – absence of sight)).
 Universe originally created perfect paradise (Genesis 1:31).
 How did it come about? Looks into past for explanation of origin evil.
Fall of man in Genesis Ch 1-3 is basis for this theodicy (beings had
freewill turned their back on God).
 Adam sinned deliberately – original righteousness lost and
Augustine believed his descendants inherit original sin and guilt
(‘original sin’).
 Subjected natural evil - punishment caused by
disharmony/imbalance in nature because of human sin.
 Responsibility evil rests on created beings who misused freedom.
 Moral evil blamed on humanity (Gen 3:3-5 “you will be like God
knowing good and evil” )and natural evil is inevitable consequence.
 Clears creator responsibility evil. Evil is not from God. The universe
is not how God intends to be.
 This theodicy adds that in the end there will be a final judgement –
our behaviour in this world determine our ultimate destination –
heaven of hell.
 God has provided the necessary means for human beings to move
back towards God. Jesus’ self-sacrifice.
 Strengths
 Recognition of the extent of moral evil and its
cause.
 Satisfies what sets out to achieve – clear creator
of responsibility.
 Offers explanation moral and natural evil.
Problems here –
What natural disasters and animal suffering
walked earth before man???? Problems this
theodicy rests on the Fall.
 A more complicated problem is associated with
the idea of collective responsibility. Why should
people suffer for the misdemeanors of past
generations? Even the Bible argues this:
Jeremiah 31:27-44.(should the children’s teeth
be set on edge because the Fathers have eaten
sour grapes?).
 How can such a God be worthy of worship? Only
a malevolent God allow suffering for the sins of
others. Not acceptable say compensated in next
life.
 Problems/criticisms
 Augustine suggested that there was a state of
blissful ignorance in the Garden of Eden, which
was then knocked off balance by the Fall.
Biologists have formulated the theory of natural
selection, in which the innate selfishness of
creatures becomes a virtue in the battle for
survival.
 However if God can be held responsible for the
system by which the natural world works, he
should be held responsible for the suffering that
this system causes.
 Augustine makes much of the idea of Hell
– as a part of Creation, God must be
responsible for its creation, so he must
have foreseen the need for punishment.

If he could see the outcome wouldn't it have

been better not to create??

Notion of Hell – inconsistent with all-loving God??

 Outline
1. God is perfect. The world he created
reflected that perfection.
2. Evil is not a substance (see Thomas
Aquinas) – it is a deprivation.
3. Sin and death entered the world through
Adam and Eve, and their disobedience.
4. This brought about ‘disharmony’ in our
human nature and in Creation.
He also based it on 2 assumptions:
1. Evil is not from God – God’s creation
was faultless and perfect.
2. Evil came from within the world.
5. We all share in the evil nature brought
about by Adam and Eve, because we
were ‘seminally present in them. We
therefore deserve to be punished.
6. God is justified in not intervening,
because the suffering is a consequence
of human action.
 Augustine’s theory hinges on the idea that
evil is a privation . He uses the analogy of
blindness – blindness is not an ‘entity’, but
an absence of sight. Augustine accounts
for evil by ascribing it to human agency.
Evil came about as a result of the misuse
of free will
 All suffering is therefore a consequence of
this abuse of free will.
 Natural evil is caused by the imbalance in nature
brought about by the Fall.
 Moral evil is caused because the world has
become estranged from God, and immorality
has been able to thrive.
 However, God has not relinquished any
responsibility for the world. If God were simply
just, everyone would be suitably punished.
Instead God’s grace brought about the
possibility of reconciliation through Jesus Christ,
whose crucifixion saved a certain number from
eternal punishment.