|
Advantages
- FOR:
- Irenaeus: God allows suffering in order for our souls to grow, reach higher goals and moral developments. "Let us make mankind in our image in our likeness." - Genesis WE develop our morality through hard work rather than being pre-programmed like robots. There has to be evil for us to appreciate good. in order for suffering to be morally justified everyone must attain perfection through eternal salvation with God.
- Hick: God deliberately made the world with epistemic distance in order for us to build free, loving relationships with God. God remains partially hidden so humans can make free choices and not feel forced. for this uncertainty to work there has to be good and evil - "A person making environment cannot be a pain free paradise."
|
Disadvantages
- AGAINST:
- Dostoevsky - Brothers of Karamazov: Disagreed with Hick - "the price to pay for our freedom is too high" He accepts God but wants to "return his entrance ticket" - no part in a world where the price to pay for others suffering is too high. Would a God really create a world that is perfect except it needs people to suffer in order for it to exist?
- We cant guarantee that people will learn from other peoples suffering. A nurse may learn/develop compassion and patience from dealing with a terminally ill child but is this really adequate compensation for the child's parents. What about animal suffering - who is there to witness the suffering of animals in the jungle? We're taught animals don't have souls so how do they benefit from suffering, they're not compensated.
|
Comments
No comments have yet been made