Classical Theism: Good Or Evil?

The Book of Eli is the Bible. The worldview depicted in the movie is that of Theism. Eli held this worldview through his belief of Christianity in my opinion. Although the movie never actually states that Eli is a Christian, he was tasked with delivering the words of the Bible to the west. The bible is considered to be a written record of how God communicated with man. Although they are many different types of bibles, the common factor is this book is full of scriptures and text considered sacred. Eli is on a mission to head to the west, I feel it is God telling him to go west to complete this extraordinary task. Along the way he encounters Carnegie and his followers. You have heard the phrase knowledge is power, and power corrupts.

Before we can dive into the problem of evil, we must define a term. Whenever the word “God” is used in this paper, it is referring to the classical theistic conception of God. In this view of God, God is that, “than which nothing greater can be conceived” in your mind. Any attributes or qualities that make a being great, God has to the maximum. This means that, among many other qualities, God is benevolent(all good), omnipotent(all powerful), and omniscient(all knowing). Furthermore, God is the creator of the universe and is personally connected to the human race.

Christianity is one of the dominant religions on the planet, and Christian Theism has played a major role in shaping the development of Western culture. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of Christian missionaries, Christian doctrine has even influenced the views of non-Christians. Nevertheless, the contemporary world is a pluralistic and diverse one, and postmodern perspectives have arisen to challenge the wide-ranging influence of Christian Theism. The purpose of this paper is to show how a belief in Christian Theism can help one understand the nature and meaning of life, and this paper will show evidence that this belief brings both uniformity and order to everything.

One of the oldest dilemmas in philosophy is also one of the greatest threats to Christian theology. The problem of evil simultaneously perplexes the world’s greatest minds and yet remains palpably close to the hearts of the most common people. If God is good, then why is there evil? The following essay describes the problem of evil in relation to God, examines Christian responses to the problem, and concludes the existence of God and the existence of evil are fully compatible.

God allows evil to exist because evil is absorbed by greater good. (John Mackie). Specifically, if free will exists then people have the choice to either choose good or evil. The benefit of having free will outweighs the disadvantage of the possibility of the evil option being chosen, and thus allows for the existence of evil, supporting the reality of god. If we are free to choose, even though we may choose evil, the evil is absorbed by the benefit of free will. John Mackie presented the absorption argument, which was used to argue for the theist reply to the problem of evil.

Question 2: According to Louis P. PoJman, theism (If true), provides eight these which are advantageous to humans. Unpack what the eight claims involve and why they can supply a sense of meaning to humans. Can some of these eight be attained through secular world views? If so, which ones and why? Why does PoJman think theism is a better option than secular approaches when it comes to meaning of life issues? PoJman recognizes one serious difficulty to theism; what is it and how does he attempt to minimize it or switch gears to another way of looking at it? Do you think that PoJman stance is convincing? Why or why not?

John Hick discusses in his essay The Problem of Evil, the objections to the belief in the existence of God is the presence of evil in the world. He begins by posing the traditional challenge to theism in the form of the dilemma: That if God was perfectly loving, he must wish to abolish evil, and being all powerful, is able to perfectly do so as he will its. He then proceeds to present some views regarding this issue, giving insights from three point of views, that of contemporary Christian Science, the Boston Personalist school, and the theologian Augustine. The first opinion takes evil as an illusion, as a construct of the human mind. The second confers upon God finity, God as a struggling ruler,

The problem of evil as suffering is a problem of what to do with the obstacle for the believer but also an obstacle to unbeliever to converge because they do not think it harmonising. In contradiction to compatibility, an atheist often suggested that the present of evil entails the absence of God. Atheist argued, if God exists, then as an omnipotent, he is able to prevent the evil occurrence. For omniscient, it implies under any circumstances evil will occur if he does not act. Then, being perfectly good, he will prevent its occurrence and so evil will not exist. Based on this above proclamation, the existence of God does not compatible with the evil of whatever kind. However, theists response to this logical problem of evil by an atheist is that necessarily perfectly good being, foreseeing the occurrence of evil and able to prevent it, will prevent evil. The essay will first, define what evil is according to Swinburne as one of the philosopher of religion, Second, Swinburne four categories of evil will be discussed (Physical evil, mental evil, state evil, moral evil). Third, Phillip logical and existential problem evil will be discussed through. How will all these above assertions be a problem to those that and does not believe in God.

The Problem of Evil questions the existence of evil in a world constructed by a seemingly omniscient God. Evil’s existence in a world with a God that is both benevolent and all-knowing is within itself a paradox. Therefore, a God that is omnipotent cannot exist with evil being present in the world. I argue that Leibniz’s argument for the Problem of Evil outclasses that of the likes of John Perry’s because Leibniz’s argument states that evil is a result of there being a need for a greater rather than a limitation on God’s power. Leibniz’s main position in addressing the Problem of Evil is that the world with evil is more than likely better than the world without evil due to evil being often accompanied by a greater good or meaning.

Evil cannot be justified within a theistic framework. Five ideas attempts to argue the existence of evil coincide within a theistic framework. However, all five ideas are flawed and cannot justify how evil can exist within a theistic framework. Counter argument against the five ideas will be discussed below.

Evil, a “thing” we all fear that comes in many shapes and sizes, the most malevolent “being” in the universe. Why is it here, why does it exist? We can all give examples of evil actions, people, things, and places that we as a society believe are truly evil, but it is important to understand where did we conceived these ideas. Theodicy is defined as the many different views on the existence of evil, but we must go more in depth in order to correctly define what is good and bad. Evil is known to be the source of bad and God, the creator of heaven and earth, the divine being, is the counter opposite of evil.

For one to be considered theist, the idea that there is an existence of a supreme or supernatural being must be present. Someone can either be a monotheist, polytheist, or pantheist. Monotheists believe in one God, while polytheists believe in many Gods or Goddesses. A pantheist believes in the concept that God and the universe are identical. Being a Christian, I fall under the category as a monotheist since Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God. Jesus was crucified on a cross and died for our sins, which shows his lovingness and forgiveness of our sins. After his death, Jesus was resurrected on the third day and ascended into Heaven to be seated next to the right hand of God. Part of God’s nature is being all-knowing and having the capability to predict our future ahead of time. He is also an all-powerful, perfect being that was in charge of creating the beautiful world that we interact with every single day. Christians believe God is in charge and predicts our lives ahead of time in the sense that he chooses when we come into this world and when it is our time for the entrance of the after-life. He also watches over us to see our everyday choices in order to determine if we follow and stay true to our faith in order to be ascended into heaven and not descended into hell. Jesus is the God of our salvation, in which we ask for forgiveness after the action of our sins. He sees

Theodicy is an attempt to address the existence of moral and natural evil with the perception of an Omni-max god that encompasses three key properties; omnibenevolence all-good or all-loving, omnipotence all-powerful, and omniscience all-knowing. High theology accepts that God does exist in the universe as the greatest being of the Omnis, whereas low theology acknowledges the existence of God without one of the key properties of the Omni-max god. The various defenses that aim to solve the problem of evil that include the Soul-Making, Best of All Possible Worlds, and the Free Will defense are not compatible with the existence of a Omni-max God. All three of these defenses would have to surrender one or more of the key properties of an Omni-max god that is not consistent with high theology. Low theology accepts that God has limitations to his powers in the universe. In order to explain the existence of evil in the universe one or more of the Omni-properties; omnibenevolent, omnipotent, or omniscient has to be surrendered that pertain to the high theology belief system and the low theology should be acknowledged as the principal belief structure. I argue that low theology is an acceptable conviction for the existence of God, because it can solve the problem of evil by giving up one or more of the Omni-max God properties.

Open theism is a theological and philosophical position holds by some Christian scholars which basically asserts that the future is not completely set (by God). Accordingly, God’s foreknowledge does not necessarily rule out the human’s free will. That is, there are certain things/outcomes that God leaves it to a probability that may be caused by the exercise of human’s free will. Apparently, the proponents of the position presupposed the reality of “free will” with the rejection of absolute predestination that pertains to human’s eternal fate. The proponents argue that since God wants us to have an authentic personal relationship with him, it is fitting and logical that we can freely choose

LEIBNIZ’S CONCEPTION OF THE PROBLEM OF EVIL BY OKOJIE E. PETER epo4escriva@yahoo.com MAY 2013 INTRODUCTION For many centuries, philosophers have been discussing evil, how it exists in the world, and how this relates to God. The discussion on evil and its relations to us is not an easy one though. It is commonly called the problem of evil. The problem of evil in contemporary philosophy is generally regarded as an argument for atheism. The atheist contends that God and evil are incompatible, and given that evil clearly exists, God cannot exist. The problem is generally used to disprove God’s existence by showing an inconsistency between an all-powerful, all-good, and all-knowing God; and the existence of evil. Philosophers over the centuries