Philosophy of religion

Physical and Moral Evil Evil has the dictionary definition of “morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked.” Evil, as the Catholic faith would explain it, is the absence of God, everything morally good. Evil exists in this world because of the fall, when Adam and Eve committed the first sin. Their actions created sin, thus creating evil. There are two main types of evil: physical evil and moral evil. While they are both morally wrong, they are distinctly separated. The quality that separates…

Part One, Thesis: The Good old question that has been around since the beginning of mankind growth in to the whole. Can good exist without evil, can we somehow get rid of the evil that plagues us all. I believe that we can’t that Evil cannot exist without good simply because they are the fabric of existence, just like yin and yang, two sides of the same coin. If you truly believe that there is evil in the world, then you must believe that there is good in the world as well. We can’t know what…

Introduction The logical problem of evil by J. L. Mackie seeked to show a logical contradiction between the existence of a good omnipotent God that traditional theists propose, and the existence of evil. In his Free Will Defense, (henceforth FWD) Alvin Plantinga responds by arguing that agents with significant freedom are more valuable than those without, but that God cannot determine that such agents cannot choose wrong. Hence, it is possible that God exists but creates agents with…

Throughout history, religion has never been a unanimous belief among all societies. Such a strong disagreement can be evident for various reasons, but personal experiences are an incredibly influential aspect. Through observations or experiences of evil, society often disregards the concept of an “all great” entity because of a lack of intervention. Common points of this include allowing the holocaust to take place, but also point to forms of non-moral evil such as natural tragedies that take…

An easily noticed problem with this argument is seen in premise 3. The problem is commonly seen as an argument over whether God is justified in creating evil, but instead it is about how God is not allowed to intervene and stop or create evil events. If God is all good then God would be separate from all evil; because God is separate from all evil if God was to intervene in evil events no matter how small this would mean that God is now involved in evil events. Because God is not involved with…

In this paper, I will support the idea of the existence of God. First I will present Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God, then I will present Gaunilo’s criticism on Anselm’s argument. Finally, I will show the coherent existence of God and evil. To understand the argument for the existence of God, we first define the usage of God in this paper. God is the greatest conceivable being who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. He is capable of knowing everything and doing…

Evil exists because we chose it to. We, as free agents can choose between right and wrong. Through this we can justify our actions. What kind of world would we lead if everything was already decided for us and all we would have to do is perform it? God, although knows how we will choose, plays absolutely no role in our process of choosing. When we choose the wrong from right, we are creating evil, but that's our choice. Just like Hick portrayed in his theodicy, when…

As a believer of the divine, one could make three statements about the world: 1, God is omnipotent 2, God is wholly good and 3, evil exists. J.L. Mackie takes a logical approach to why there is evil in this world and concludes that if God is what He is defined as – omnipotent, omniscient, and wholly good – evil should not exist for either God is not omnipotent, meaning all powerful, or He is not wholly good. Mackie claims that at least one characteristic of the divine must be untrue because it…

This essay will outline Cullison’s sacrifice argument against the problems of divine hiddenness. It will then show that this argument does not work, as a world in which true human sacrifice is possible is not a better world than one where God is not hidden. I will refer to the former as a ‘Godless World’ and the latter as a ‘Godly World’. There are three themes which this essay will address: true human sacrifice, two potential worlds and human freedom. I will conclude that a ‘Godly World’ – even…

Can Satan be said to have self-knowledge, as he seems to in Book IV? Is it possible for one to know oneself when one has rejected God and one's own creatureliness? If we are to accept that Satan "has self knowledge," we must define this self- knowledge: what does is mean to know one's self? By knowing one's self, does one better understand one's essence, or does one better understand one's emotions and the causes of one's state? In short, is Satan's self-knowledge of his emotions and responses,…