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Defenses of God (“Theodicies”): How Can an All-Good, All-Powerful God Exist and There Still Be Evil in the World? 1.Pain is useful as a warning of injury.

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Presentation on theme: "Defenses of God (“Theodicies”): How Can an All-Good, All-Powerful God Exist and There Still Be Evil in the World? 1.Pain is useful as a warning of injury."— Presentation transcript:

1 Defenses of God (“Theodicies”): How Can an All-Good, All-Powerful God Exist and There Still Be Evil in the World? 1.Pain is useful as a warning of injury Objection: most pain does not warn and is useless 2.Evil is needed to help us appreciate the good Objection: so evil is ultimately good? And why so much evil? Why can’t God just give us such knowledge?

2 Problem of Evil (continued) 3.Evil is defined from our perspective Objection: this makes evil (& good) unreal 4.Evil is punishment for our wrong-doing Objection: evil is not tied to moral desert 5.Evil results from misuse of our free will Objections: (a) why couldn’t God create us to choose freely to do good always—like him or the blessed in heaven? (b) What about natural evil? Al Plantinga

3 Problem of Evil (continued) 6.Experience of evil is part of the process by which we develop into moral beings Objections: the horrific suffering necessary for such moral development is inconsistent with the existence of a loving God. What does a dying infant learn through suffering? And how does moral development justify the suffering of animals?

4 Evil is real, so is God: that situation is unintelligible and its acceptance relies on faith alone Suffering (especially in children and animals) is never made up and is unforgivable. It has no purpose or rationale: that is why faith is not rational and does not make sense The Existence of God and Evil Are Irreconcilable (Fyodor Dostoevsky) (1821-81)


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