Religion has always been a big part of my family. I was raised in a pretty strict catholic home. Going to church every Sunday, needing to learn all the prayers, doing my first communion, and then doing my confirmation. As I started to get older I started having more of an open mind towards things, especially religion. All you have to do is look on the news and you can see all the evil in the world. Terrorist attacks, kids getting shot down by cops, and school shootings. How can someone be so evil to walk into an elementary school and kill innocent 6 and 7-year-olds? There isn’t any justification for this; the kids and parents didn’t deserve this undeserved pain and suffering. That’s why I believe that there is an evidential problem with evil. The argument goes as follows, premise one: God would not permit an evil. This is a pretty concrete statement everyone could agree that God would not permit any evil. This is a big thing in many major religions if you commit any evil acts you will burn in hell. Premise two: There are evils that even God would have no justifying reason (as far as we know it). This is an interesting premise, what if God has a master plan for all of us? He may have these evils’ occurring now because there might be a reward in our afterlife. The only problem with this is that it is easier to believe in unexplainable evil instead of having an afterlife because there is evidence of unexplainable evil in the world. Like David Hume said, “A wise man proportions
My parents have discovered a different religion since then, one even closer to God, and me not being religious drives a wedge between us. I believe that if I hadn’t gone to catholic school, there would be a possibility of me being religious, as I would have been taught a different mentality than Catholicism regarding religion.
But since evil exists, no such being exists. Therefore, God doesn’t exist. Atheists believe this to be a problem because they say that the first and second premises contradict each other, therefore proving the existence of God false. God, as we know it, is a perfectly good God. Since this God is perfectly good and all-powerful, then we assume he would eliminate evil whenever/wherever it is present. While this does hold a strong standpoint against theists, they can come back with an argument that basically states that evil can be allowed if it gives way to the opportunity of a greater good coming from that
This sounds like he is simply speaking in circles about the subject. He tries to say that God knows about the future, but he knows about our free will, which will give us the power to decide things, but in the end is also foreknown by God. This is where I start to defer from his beliefs, since I believe that free will is the cause of evil, but that God should be taken out of the equation. While it can argued that God only knows of all the possibilities and not what will directly happen, which would make it so that he is providing free will and is part of a triangle relation between himself, free will, and evil, it is simply much more logical to believe that if there is a God, then there is no free will, and if that is such, God is the originator of evil.
Now that’s all well and good, except for the fact that the logical problem of evil spends so much time focused on the omnipotent and the omnibenevolent aspects of God that is all together neglects the fact that God is also omniscient. He knows everything, past, present, and future. Therefore, it is only logical to assume that God also knows the best way to achieve the greatest good, which as established is the singular goal of an omnibenevolent being. If such knowledge is true, as it must be according to the laws of Omni-three, then it is possible that God has determined that the greatest good can only come by human-choice, also known as freewill, not by His force. In a bit, I will attempt to explain just
From this, some possible solutions arise. Simply, if stating that one of the premises is not true, then the problem of evil does not exist. Maybe one does not believe that God’s power is limited or perhaps are prepared to say that evil does not exist and is merely an illusion. It is hard to truly prove that these solutions are true, but they are solutions nonetheless. Along with these adequate solutions, are some solutions that Mackie describes as “fallacious”. The most noted one very well could be the Free Will Defense.
The argument from evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly good God. It states that if there was a God with those qualities, then he would know about evil, have the power to stop evil, and because he is good, he would stop evil.
Following this line of thought, the next logical step for our human minds to pursue would seem to be that in order for God to experience Himself as the all-consuming good, there had to be something called the all-consuming evil. This is a flawed argument for there is only one deity we recognize as God. God is all there was, all there is, and all there ever will be. The existence of evil cannot be used as a pathetic excuse for God to be able to justify His existence.
For atheists, apologetics, and non-believers, a big topic of contention is the existence of evil in a world with God. This is known as the problem with evil. How does a God that is all knowing, all powerful, and perfectly good allow such atrocities to occur under his watch? It is this question that so many people have discussed. The argument centers on God being omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good (Mackie, 1955 p. 200). Omnipotent is to be all powerful. Omniscient is to be all knowing and to be perfectly good means that God would prevent a morally bad event from ever happening (Swinburne, 1998 p. 13). In the problem of evil, God’s powers are taken at face value, and applied to God’s inaction to evil on earth. People who argue against the topic of evil typically make generalizations on the attributes that God
Mackie saves the strongest and probably the most popular theistic response to this argument for last. The free will solution claims that the existence of 2nd order evils is not a product of God but of mankind’s own freewill. The supporters of this claim hold that freedom is a good even greater than 2nd order goods and believe that God is justified for letting 2nd order evils exist in exchange for the ultimate good of freedom. This is to say that even though God is omnipotent he chooses not to use his power to control the will of men. In comparison to the first two theistic responses this one seems to be the best. So it is surprising how easily Mackie disproves it. He asks, if God is all good and all powerful, and if free will is good enough to justify 2nd order evils, why didn’t he create men so that they would freely choose to do good? The only possible objection to this is to say that God’s power is limited and that he is not omnipotent. Also if God is omniscient doesn’t he already know the outcomes of the men which he has created? To truly allow man to have free will God would have to restrict his own power in order to be unable to control men and this leads us to the Paradox of omnipotence.
As long as evil and suffering exists in this world, God cannot exist. More importantly, it does not only contradict with the idea of God being “all-good”, but also him being “all-knowing” and “all-powerful” as well. Because, if God only desires good, how evil was formed unless God was evil in someway. If not, then if God has all knowledge, he should know evil exists. Even more, if God is “all-power”, he should be able to the evil and suffering in the that he created. So, the existence of evil contradicts
This then begs the question; what are the reasons that God believes that the existence of evil is necessary? There are two ways of approaching an argument for the belief that God has his reasons to allow evil. These two ways are a theodicy and a defense. In his book, Inwagen says “The difference between a theodicy and a defense is simply that a theodicy is put forward as true, while nothing more is claimed of a defense than that it represents a real possibility” (31). Theodicy takes into account the evidence of evil and shows that it is still reasonable to believe in a God despite the existence of evil. Overall, a theodicy is a justification for God. A defense, on the other hand, offers a logical explanation for the existence of evil. A defense may say that there are reasons that God allows evil to persist, but, humans may never know these reasons. There is one well known and most rational defense. This is called the free-will defense. The free-will defense says that God made the world and included rational beings. He gave them the power of free-will. This meant that humans held the ability to make their own decisions and to have their own desires freely without any barriers. God decided that overall, free-will was a great enough good and that the existence of it outweighed the existence of the evil that results from the abuse of
I was born into a family with Native American heritage that practiced a strict protestant religion. As a child, I would often wonder why people's attitudes, behaviors and beliefs could be so different from one another. I wondered why some people believed in things with great zeal, yet other people believed the contrary just as vehemently.
I try not to think too much on the negatives of religions and find most of them very connecting, unique, and beautiful in their own light. I wasn't raised any particular religion. I did, however, go to Catholic services when I would visit my grandmother at a young age and that's probably around when I started looking at the different religions. I read every book in elementary the library had to offer on Egyptian beliefs, Christian beliefs, and whatever else I could get my hands on and the fascination never really stopped. I continually question people who have a religious belief about the "what's" and "why's" to why they believe. Which have ended in some pleasant conversations and some heated conversations.
Both religion and family are essential parts in the running of any society. Religion is the belief in a supernatural authority which unites a group of people. Normally, a family consist of people who share the same bloodline; however, it may also consist of a group of people who are legally bonded such as adopted children. In whatever type of the family, strong and healthy bonds are necessary. Among other factors, religion plays a significant role in strengthening the family bonds. In many religions of the world, family comes first. For instance, in the Bible, God created man and woman so that they could reproduce and fill the earth. In addition, God gave man power over all other living things. This shows how important people are to God. Notably, various religions have different values and expectations on families. For instance, Islam allows polygamy while Christianity allows monogamy. The relationship between family and religion can be evaluated using the functionalism perspective of sociology. This essay explains the functionalism perspective and analyses the interactions between religion and family.
To begin with, religion is one aspect of my life that I could not be happy without. My brothers and I have formed this conviction in the Lord from being taught the right way. My father is the minister at Sims Hill Christian Church and he has always taken us to every church service held as long as we were able. It has always been a priority in the Jones’ household to read the Bible and to present ourselves in the correct manner. Without God, the pursuit of happiness