The Role Of Evil In Man's Search For Meaning

owe to prove his thesis about the problems of evil and atheism, Rowe asks three fundamental questions. The first question, “is there an argument for atheism based on the problem of evil that could rationally justify atheism?” Supporting his question, Rowe by uses the idea of human and animal suffering.is it reasonable for omnipotent, omniscient being(s) to permits its creation to suffer by extinguish each other for their own personal benefits. If there is such a thing as an omnibenevolent, omnipotent holy being how come the ultimate and unescapable suffering is this world has no vanish. How good is a god(s) that permits humanity to suffer greatly? In religious Christian Bible study, Jesus, many times referred to as god, vanish evil from

John Hick argues in this writing that the all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good Christian god is compatible with an abundance of suffering. He offers solutions to the problem of suffering which relies heavily upon a tripartite foundation. Hick divides evil into two: Moral Evil = the evil that human being cause - either to themselves or to each other. And Non-Moral Evil = the evil that is not caused by human activity - natural disasters, etc. He tries to explain that a world without pain and suffering, moral traits such as courage, patience and sympathy would not be developed.

In the course of this essay I will argue that evil is not compatible with the existence of god. This means that evil and God cannot coexist because if god were present, the existence of evil would contradict all that god is believed to be. Abrahamic religions insist that God both created the world and that he preserves and maintains it. Christianity claims that God is all knowing and is boundless in his abilities. Religions claim that God is benevolent, and only wants the best for humanity and the universe, as his creations. If all of the above statements be true, then it is hard to understand why god would allow evil to thrive right from the beginning of time.

Why Does God allow suffering? This question is probably as old as religion itself. It is a stumbling block for some of us, and for many more at given moments of tragedy. There are as many answers to this question as there are people who care to engage in theological dialogue. One understanding is that yes, God allows "bad" things to happen; God does not cause them to happen.

In the book of Genesis in the Bible, God created the heavens and the Earth and all was good. God told Adam and Eve that they can eat from all the trees in the Garden of Eden except for one, The Tree of Knowledge and Good and Evil. God was and is compassionate enough to give the beings he created freedom of choice. Nobody wants someone who is forced into love. God also does not want us to be made to love Him but wants us to do so out of our own free will. That free will that God gives us is the source of evil. Just as Adam and Eve used the free will God gave them to be disobedient and sin, human beings evil because of their freedom to do so. In addition to free will God allows evil to exist because without it, the beings he created could not develop ethically. The Problem of Evil states that God cannot be all loving, all good, all powerful and everywhere because evil exists. Philosopher, John Hicks states that evil is necessary for soul and moral development. How would humans know that is good without it counterpart for comparison? In situations like the Charleston church shooting, where loved ones lives are violently taken by evil, the families of the victims are made to develop morally. When confronted with evil, violence, and grief, they either exhibit patience, love, courage, forgiveness, acceptance, and/or faith. Otherwise they conform or give into evil and become timid, weak, angry, or even become violent themselves. Without evil our world would be blissful.

First of all, it is possible that God has his reasons for allowing evil to exist that we just do not understand. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” There is not much we can do in this case, we just have to have confidence in God and understand that his ways are above our ways. God may also just be letting evil run its course. He might want to prove that anything contrary to what he says will cause pain and suffering, eventually leading to death. Personally, I don’t think God created the world how it is now but rather evil was created because of man. God created man because he wanted people to love him just as he loves us. However, natural love can only exist through free will, and thus man was given free will to either accept or reject God’s love. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God they brought evil into the

If it is so easy for humans to stray from the path of God’s love, why does he grant us free will in the first place? This begs the question of why God would give humans free will, and the meaning behind giving humans the choice to use their will to do either good or evil. Free will seems to be a representation for God’s love. If we were predetermined to serve God, our love for Him would lose the meaning it has when we choose to devote ourselves to Him. Free will also acts as a portrayal of God’s trust in us. Trust is an essential part of love, and one could argue that, without trust, love could not exist. God puts his trust in us to serve and love Him. Our free will allows us to either follow this or to turn away from it. It is up to us as to whether we seek God’s love, seek it in the wrong ways, or seek evil. The souls found in Inferno have effectively rejected God’s love in favour of

William Rowe defines gratuitous evil as an instance of intense suffering which an omnipotent, omniscient being could have prevented without thereby losing some greater good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse.(Rowe 335) In a world with so much evil it raises the questions If God is all powerful, all knowing and all good, how can he allow bad things to happen to good people? Can God even exist in a world with so such gratuitous evil? These are questions that has afflicted humanity for a very long time and has been the question to engross theologians for centuries. The existence of evil has been the most influential and powerful reason to disprove the existence of God. It is believed among many theist that God is the creator and caretaker

Moreover, curses fall over all creations causing the natural evil. The answer why evil exists in our world still has not been found; however, there are various views of theodicy that try to explain this doubtful question. Gottfried Leibniz believes that "God is obligated to create the best" (Elwell 1185). In short, humankind is created in the image of God, as can be seen in the quote: " So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them" (Gen 1.27). Additionally, the Eden garden that God created in the first place for Adam and Eve seems like a utopia, a perfect world which has everything (Gen 2.10-14). However, his theodicy is somehow lacking in persuasiveness as it also means that the best possible world must contains moral and natural evil. John Hick suggests the soul-building theodicy: "God 's intent in creating man was not to create a perfect creature, but rather to create a being in need of moral development". Even though his system seems to answer the problem of evil, it means that the world God created in the first place was not perfect. Furthermore, why would people created in His image not be perfect? The free will defense points out that God is not the cause of evil, but the abuse of human free will is (Elwell 1186). Most people agree with this concept; the only minor thing people might imply is that rather than the choices we are

The problem of evil has been around since the beginning. How could God allow such suffering of his “chosen people”? God is supposedly all loving (omni-benevolent) and all powerful (omnipotent) and yet He allows His creations to live in a world of danger and pain. Two philosophers this class has discussed pertaining to this problem is B.C. Johnson and John Hick. Johnson provides the theists’ defense of God and he argues them. These include free will, moral urgency, the laws of nature, and God’s “higher morality”. Hick examines two types of theodicies – the Augustinian position and the Irenaeus position. These positions also deal with free will, virtue (or moral urgency), and the laws of nature. Johnson

When pain and suffering attach people lives, again, because of their brokenness, they hunger for God’s solutions. When God does not give them what they want, their emotions take over. People start to ask why He allows it. More than that, they question: is He there? This question has caused incalculable individuals to judge their religion, question their beliefs, and, in some cases, abandon the concept that there's a God. Several reach a conclusion just like this: If there is a caring, almighty God, he would rid of the planet of evil currently. Since he does not, there should not be a God—and if there is, he is either not caring or not almighty, either of that makes Him unworthy to our worship. To answer this question, Zacharias points out: “the explanation must meet both the intellectual and emotional demands” (89). Christianity as a worldview is the only one that accepts the reality of evil and suffering, explains both the cause and the purpose, and offers God-given strength to survive it. Evil is real and the source of it is: humanity rebelled against the holy Creator. Because they both suffer and cause suffering, evil seems mysterious to them and they put the blame on God. The only solution is they have to allow God to transform their hearts to bring an end to evil because He already has a plan for

Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning is not your average psychological research text. In fact, much of the book’s information is based on his own experiences at Auschwitz: the infamous Holocaust death camp. Having experienced the worst of human nature, one might think that Frankl would argue that man is a product of his environment. However, this couldn't be farther from the truth; according to him, character is determined by a person’s decisions, not their habitat. He came to this conclusion while in Auschwitz, saying that he saw “some of our comrades behave like saints while others behaved like swine”. This comparison is applicable to any tale of imprisonment, including the captivity narratives of Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca and Puritan settler Anne Rowlandson. On one hand, Rowlandson decides to, for the most part, play the part of the pig, denying any facet of her Native captors’ humanity; de Vaca, on the other hand, is slightly more understanding.

Its impossible to reflect on the origins of evil without bringing up the concept of free will. God created man with this idea of choice; the choice to believe and obey, or the choice to disobey. It was this free will that allowed Adam and Eve to fall from their initial glory and introduce evil and suffering into the world. We can justify a large amount of sustained suffering by acknowledging that it actually benefits us and is not incompatible with God's loving nature. We learn lessons both physically and spiritually that allows us to grow and mature according to God. Some suffering is used to spark revival or for a great advancement in his kingdom, cause after all we're

In this paper I will be analysing/ reflecting on Viktor Frankl’s Man 's Search for Meaning. In my reflection I will compare the main philosophical message of frankl 's experience and try to compare its meaning to my very own life experience. In order to do this I must give you some personal background while growing up I was born with some challenging complications due to a lack of oxygen at birth I was diagnosed with ataxic cerebral palsy. The thing about ataxic cerebral palsy is that it has affected my life in many ways some miniscule others immense. I can write an entire book on my childhood / adolescence and some of the many challenges I have faced but that 's neither here

The idea of religion is based upon the belief that there is some all knowing, all-powerful source at work in the universe that is much bigger than all of us. Many religions have come to label this power as God. The main characteristic we have come to understand about God is His unconditional love for all humans and His desire to be in loving relationships with us. It is also our understanding that all people are created good, as we are created in His image. So then why do bad things happen to good people? Why does He allow us to suffer and feel such immense pain? We normally associate love with joy and happiness, but sometimes the world can be so painfully unfair and cruel that it makes us question whether He is really looking after our best interests. Different cultures and religions all provide different theories and the first perspective I researched looking for answers to this difficult question was that of the Islamic faith.