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Preface
I am working on Chapter One from my PhD for a potential journal article. This struck me as most interesting from today's monotonous 'torture' while dealing with MS Word and the turning of United Kingdom style footnotes into Harvard style in-notes, among other things. If you appreciate my theological, Biblical Studies posts such as the James and Matthew posts, my previous two articles, please comment on them and this is an indicator besides pageviews. Yes, I intend to present both articles related to theodicy/the problem of evil and other on this blog.
Thank you very much.
I am primarily researching and writing on
the logical and not the evidential, gratuitous problem of evil, since although
I can accept that Plantinga has primarily successfully dealt with the logical
problem of evil, as described within his system and assumptions,[1] I reason that Plantinga’s free will approach is not the best and
most effective system within Christian theism for dealing with the issue.[2] A well-constructed sovereignty approach,[3]
such as will be presented by John S. Feinberg in Chapter Three: Sovereignty
Theodicy, is better equipped at dealing with both the logical and gratuitous
problem. I also embed my own sovereignty
theodicy throughout this thesis, particularly in Chapter Three.[4] Within this thesis my own
concepts of sovereignty theodicy are discussed in contrast to the approaches
reviewed.[5] Plantinga’s (1982) approach
is problematic due largely to his support of the idea that God could not create
significantly free, good creatures that would only commit good acts at all
times.[6] Welty rejects Plantinga’s
idea that God cannot create a world containing moral good and no moral evil,[7] and raises the objection that God brought Christ into the world as
a sinless human being.[8] Welty’s point here is that
every human being could have therefore been sinless[9] and the world could contain good and no evil with significantly free
human beings that would not commit wrong actions.[10] I have a similar objection to Welty’s,[11] which shall be discussed in Chapters Two and Three. Within my theodicy, I reason that God could
have, if he wished, made significantly free human beings, or human like beings
who would have been perfectly morally good and would not commit wrong actions.[12] God’s choice not to create
such beings, in my mind is not a sign of a lack of power, or moral failure, but
rather the use of his own perfect and significantly free will for good
purposes. In Chapter Four, with my
discussion on the evidential, gratuitous problem of evil, it shall be seen that
a sovereignty theodicy can reasonably and successfully deal with both the
logical and evidential problem of evil, and therefore the evidential problem is
not a greater difficulty for theists than the logical one, rather it is simply
a newer type of criticism since theism has been able to defend itself
substantially through the use of free will approaches.[13] However, I can agree with
Durston that even if there is no such thing as gratuitous evil,[14]
which is my position, large amounts of evil that appear gratuitous will exist.[15] This would be evil that I would consider
unexplainable, humanly speaking, but would not be gratuitous from God’s
perspective. God can use evil for his
greater purposes, but this does not mean that any person will completely
understand why certain evils exist.[16] God’s attribute of omniscience provides him
knowledge in order to work his plans for the greater good within creation that
no other being can possess without God revealing this information.
[1] Primarily from Plantinga’s book, God,
Freedom, and Evil (1977).
[4] It is similar, but not identical to
Feinberg’s approach, which I shall point out.
[5] It is not necessary for me to present my
own theodicy Chapter within this work, as my views shall be explained
throughout this thesis.
[6] Plantinga (1982: 166-167). This is an aspect of incompatibilism, which
shall be primarily defined and discussed in Chapter Two.
[7] Plantinga (1977)(2002: 30). Welty (1999: 1).
[8] Welty (1999: 1).
[9] Welty (1999: 1).
[11] Welty (1999: 1).
[12] This is an aspect of compatibilism, which
shall be primarily defined and discussed in Chapters Two and Three.
[13] Freewill approaches can be logically
coherent, although not necessarily true.
[15] Durston (2000: 79).
DURSTON, KIRK
(2000) ‘The Consequential Complexity of History and Gratuitous Evil’, in Religious Studies, Volume 36, pp. 65-80.
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
PLANTINGA, ALVIN
C. (1977)(2002) God, Freedom, and Evil,
Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
PLANTINGA, ALVIN
C. (1982) The Nature of Necessity,
Oxford, Clarendon Press.
WELTY, GREG
(1999) ‘The Problem of Evil’, in Greg
Welty PhD, Fort Worth, Texas.
Philosophy Department, Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary.
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Further comments
End
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Further comments
End
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A large part of the problem, I think, in people struggling to understand the problem of evil, is that people tend to put themselves (or human beings in general) as the center of the universe, and tend to think that it's all about them. In fact, it's not about them primarily, but about God. It's not about glorifying people; it's about glorifying God. And if there were never any problems in life, and everyone always did the right thing, then I think people would tend to take God for granted. But when Christ, Who is God the Son, lowers Himself to become one of His own lowly creations, to be born as a baby in a manger, and be helpless, and have to deal with the realities of human life (pooping, etc.), and humbles Himself to that degree, and then, on top of all that, suffering and dying one of the most slow, torturous deaths ever devised, and then, on top of that, the worst part being that, for the first time in eternity, the Son is separated from the Father when the Father turns away from the Son because the Son has become sin...in all of that, God is glorified in the paramount event in all of history. Even more than He was glorified in leading Israel out of slavery from Egypt, and all the other things recorded in Scripture.
ReplyDelete'A large part of the problem, I think, in people struggling to understand the problem of evil, is that people tend to put themselves (or human beings in general) as the center of the universe, and tend to think that it's all about them. In fact, it's not about them primarily, but about God.'
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I am not convinced that evil, as such, really exists. There certainly are acts committed by humans that are beyond normal acceptance which may appear monstrous but is evil, like the concept of time, merely a human construct?
ReplyDeleteIt strikes me that when the male lion vanquishes another he then goes on to kill the cubs before having his way with the lioness. This act is, by virtue of the laws that govern animals, natural. To mankind it is of course vile, barbarous. We would not do such a thing would we? But we do. With this in mind are we not subject to natures curious laws too? And if we are is it not the society we belong to that then enforces a manufactured set of rules by which we live?
You often hear claims that Hitler was evil. Personally, I think we was one apple short the whole fruit basket but evil?
I think evil has been created by man as much too govern his natural instincts as promote the concept of a divine God for without Satan what purpose does God have?
Hopefully not to contentious an arguement but you get my point?
‘I am not convinced that evil, as such, really exists. There certainly are acts committed by humans that are beyond normal acceptance which may appear monstrous but is evil, like the concept of time, merely a human construct?’
ReplyDeleteHi Russell, thanks for the participation. I hope the family is very well in England. One that takes a naturalistic point of view or perhaps some Eastern/Hindu perspectives is more likely going to deny evil and the problem of evil I would reason.
One from theistic and/or Christian perspectives that believes in an infinite God and his goodness is going to see this contrasted with finite evil and a lack of infinite goodness.
So, I would not from my theistic Christian perspective view evil as merely human in origin philosophically.
‘It strikes me that when the male lion vanquishes another he then goes on to kill the cubs before having his way with the lioness. This act is, by virtue of the laws that govern animals, natural. To mankind it is of course vile, barbarous. We would not do such a thing would we? But we do. With this in mind are we not subject to natures curious laws too? And if we are is it not the society we belong to that then enforces a manufactured set of rules by which we live?’
Lions although made by God (implied by Genesis) are not made in the image of God as are human beings Genesis 1: 26-27. Human beings were and are spiritual beings (Genesis 2: 7). This all seems to indicate a greater rationality and moral and ethical responsibility than animals or other animals have if we wish to put it that way because of DNA similarities, in the context of human beings. Therefore we have the Ten Commandments for example of Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. There is also the New Covenant of the New Testament. All would recognize good and evil. There was a fall in Genesis 3, Romans 3.
‘You often hear claims that Hitler was evil. Personally, I think we was one apple short the whole fruit basket but evil?’
Reasonable point, but could not a person be both insane potentially and evil?
‘I think evil has been created by man as much too govern his natural instincts as promote the concept of a divine God for without Satan what purpose does God have?
Hopefully not to contentious an arguement but you get my point?’
I get your point, Russell. I think human beings and Satanic beings both fuel evil as secondary causes with bad motives and God wills evil as the primary cause with good motives. Also contentious.:)
Thank you, my friend. Back to bed for me. I just got up to add that webcam section, but cheers for the comment!
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