The problem of evil

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What is a theodicy?
A theodicy is an attpemt to resolve the problem of evil with existence of God. Theodicy is trying to justify God to show that God is good even if moral and natural evil exist in the world.
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Anders Nygren about theodicies
He argued that it is WRONG to attempt any theodicy by a reliious believer. He said that we must try explain ourselves to God and not explain God to us.
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John Hick disagrees with Andres Nygren because....
Hick suggests that it is possible to understand the existence of evil and suffering in the world. He argues that Christians have to try and understand God and evil because it is central to other aspects of faith such as the notion of sin, redemption.
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Bertrand Russel about theodicies
"The universe needs no explanation; it just is the way that it is."
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Iranaean Theodicy
Humanity was not created perfect but they reqiure growth in order to approach spiritual perfection. However, God does not intend evil to provide means for this growth - obeying God laws leads to perfection.
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Iranaean Theodicy
This theodicy is sometimes described as a process of soul-making as opposed to the soul-deciding theodicy of Augustine.
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What does Iranaeus do?
He balances the free choice of humanit with the work of God as essential to our salvation.
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Analogy of the Clay
Human beings are the clay being moulded and that is what shapes us. Unpleasant things that happened makes human being appreciate what they have and evil makes us more mature.
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Strength of this theodicy
It does extreme justice to the Christian religion as it justifies the theistic point of view that God is omnipotent and created ex nihilo as described in Genesis.
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What is the criticism to this strength?
Atheists might ask why God didn't create the world perfect in the first place.
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Weakness of this theodicy
Natural evil seems to be a major weakness but it is not explained in a way that shows natural evil as a consequence of free will but that of living in this world that is still developing and striving to become divine. Theodicy is too optimistic.
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Can evil serve a purpose?
For Iranaeus the key to understanging evil is to recognise that the evil of the world can serve a purpose.
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Heaven
A good place in the presence of God
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Inconsistent Triad:
Evil Exists, God is omnipotent, God is omnibenelovent - It presents Christians with a problem: should they drop oine of God's characteristics so that his existence is incompatible with the existence of evil.
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Book of Job
God's test of Faith of a man who truely believed in God throughout his life, even though he has been through a tough time and questioned his faith he didn't stop believeing in God.
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Freedom of choice
Hicks version of theodicy is the Free will defence. The only worthy relationship is the one freely chosen.
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Veridical
Coinciding with reality
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Epicurus
Famous argument against the existence of an all-powerful and providential God or gods.
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Empiricism
The theory that all knowledge is based on experience and derived from senses: stimulated by the rise of experimental science by John Cocke and David Hume.
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Objectivist
A philosophy of rational individualism: someone who honors achievement and rejects envy.
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Subjectivism
It teavhes that there are no objective or moral truths
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Inductive
Characterized by the inference of general laws from particular instances
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Omnipotence fallacy
It is a family of semantic paradoxes which addresses two general issues and three soecific issues
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Rationalism
The practice or principle of basing opinions and actions on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

He argued that it is WRONG to attempt any theodicy by a reliious believer. He said that we must try explain ourselves to God and not explain God to us.

Back

Anders Nygren about theodicies

Card 3

Front

Hick suggests that it is possible to understand the existence of evil and suffering in the world. He argues that Christians have to try and understand God and evil because it is central to other aspects of faith such as the notion of sin, redemption.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

"The universe needs no explanation; it just is the way that it is."

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Humanity was not created perfect but they reqiure growth in order to approach spiritual perfection. However, God does not intend evil to provide means for this growth - obeying God laws leads to perfection.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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