Annoying Theodicy Objections
As a philosopher, this kind of thing frustrates me to no end. From a recent book review:
"A solution to the problem of theodicy, that is, the reconciliation of
the existence and effect of evil with the righteousness of the
traditionally defined Jewish or Christian God is, to my mind, simply
philosophically impossible. The problem arises due to a certain cluster
of defined characteristics of God. God is one, omnipotent, omniscient,
omnibeneficent, omnipresent, immovable, impassible, the purposeful
creator of all, and involved in history. One simply has to give up one
or more of these characteristics to explain how evil came into the
world, or one has to argue that evil is not truly evil but only appears
to be evil from our limited human perspective."
It annoys me
when I see this kind of thing coming even from some otherwise good
evangelical theologians (having philosophical training, contemporary
theologians can often annoy me). One of my favorite Christian authors
has even stated that trying to do theodicy or answer the problem of evil
is immoral. Unfortunately, they do not give very good reasons -
showing that the existence of the traditional God and the existence of
evil are compatible is NOT the same thing as making evil good or
belittling it or anything of the sort (that is one way of doing it, but
only ONE among many). Some people need more philosophical training! I
for one would not opt for either side of the false dichotomy that shows
up in the quote above.
4 comments:
What you describe is a false dichotomy. I fight it against atheists and theists alike.
God allows people to suffer and die because we're better off than not living as mortals.
www.the-problem-of-evil.com
Hi Roman, glad you agree that it's a false dichotomy. You're third sentence came out a bit garbled, though. I did look at your website and I must say that it seems to have a lot in common with several well-known theodicies and a lot of the same problems. For instance, you seem to think that evil is required for human life but that does not show that God and the existence of evil are compatible since God could have decided not to allow humans to exist in the first place, thereby avoiding all that evil.
I should also say that as a Christian, I believe that life without evil is certainly possible since such will be a reality at the eschaton.
Hi Ian
It looks as though you and I maybe in the same boat. I myself have started working on the problem trying to combine Philosophy and Theology. I would be interested to hear your answer to the question if you have one.
Phil.
My Blog http://godandsufferinganswers.blogspot.com.au/
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