The Problem of Suffering and Evil

Questions posed by some philosophers:

Why God allows evil and suffering?

Does the amount of evil and suffering in the world prove that God doesn’t exist?

Page 33

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As with the previous arguments, our starting point in the examination of ‘The Existence of God’ is the religious belief:

Religious belief : The attributes of God

Omniscient (all-knowing)Omnipotent (all- powerful)All- loving

How do believers respond to the problem of evil and suffering if God is all of theses things?

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What words would you use to describe evil

wicked, bad, wrong, immoral, sinful, shocking, atrocious…

sufferinghardship, distress, misery, pain, torture, hurt, sadness, sorrow…

Do we all have the same idea of what evil and suffering is?

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Philosophy of religion talks about two types of evil:

Moral Evil and Natural Evil

Moral Evil – caused by human beings themselves.

Natural Evil – caused by the way things happen in our world.

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What images come to mind when we think about Moral

Evil?

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What images come to mind when we think about Natural

Evil?

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Why does God allows genocide?

OR

Do acts like genocide prove that God doesn’t exist?

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An example of moral evil is genocide ; the mass murder, often of an ethnic or religious group.

Ivan Karamazov – the suffering of innocent children

BackgroundIvan Karamazov is a character from ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ by the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, also author of ‘Crime and Punishment’.Dostoyevsky was thought of as the greatest psychologist in world literature.The novel was published in 1880, 21 years after Darwin’s Origins of the Species, and following the period called The Enlightenment or Age of Reason.

The Enlightenment was a cultural movement of intellectual thinking in Europe in the 18th Century. It promoted science and intellectual thinking as opposed to superstition, intolerance and what it saw as abuses of the church and state against people’s rights.

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Read ‘Ivan Karamazov- the suffering of innocent children’ p. 34

Dostoyevsky’s character Ivan Karamazov , doesn’t deny God exists but wants nothing to do with a God who is supposed to be all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful yet allows the suffering of innocent children.Others who read the novel however took the view that God never existed in the first place.

Natural EvilWaste and suffering in the evolution process.

Read p35

Some writers such as F R Tennant accept the possibility that the theory of evolution is compatible (in line) with belief in God, i.e. God also created evolution.

However others argue that if God did create evolution then why did He allow so much waste and suffering?

Life for all things is a struggle with only 10% of living things surviving the evolution process.

The ‘survival of the fittest’ theory would therefore appear to contradict (go against) the belief that God is all-loving. 16

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Natural Disasters

Examples of natural disasters can be seen as far back as records began, such as earthquakes, tsunamis and drought causing famine.

Look at some of the statistics on p 35-36

Does suffering and evil show that there is no God?

We have looked at the problem of suffering and eviland some people’s view that it proves that God doesn’t exist.

We are going to look at a Christian response to this.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

•Describe the meaning of the free-will defence

•explain why Christians argue that it is human choice and action that leads to moral evil and suffering.

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Read page 39

Theodicy :

The type of argument theologians present in defence of God when faced with the reality of suffering.

The free will of defence is rooted in the idea that God created humans with free choice.

Read ‘Genesis’ p 39

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Read the representations of Genesis on p 40.

Some theologians believe the story of Adam and Eve should be understood literally(word for word).

The FallSome believe Adam and Eve’s sin broughtguilt and misfortune on the human race andthat all natural and moral evil stems from this original sin.

Others believe that the story of Adam and Eve is best understood as an allegory (analogy).

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Watch and listen to the following excerpt from the film Shutter Island.

In the clip, Teddy (Leonardo Di Caprio) is picked up by the Warden after attempting to escape from the asylum.

The Warden strikes up a discussion about what he calls 'God's gift' of violence. He believes that God loves violence because he sees it in all of God's creation, even in people. Teddy says that he thought God gave us moral order, but the Warden insists that moral order doesn't exist.

Christians would disagree. 21

The Free-will Defence

Read p 40

•Christians believe that humans are different from animals in that God gave us the ability to act and think.

•We can choose to accept God and follow his way or take our own path which could lead to suffering and evil.

•The Fall, the story of Adam and Eve making the wrong choice, is often used as an example of this.

•These wrong decisions, that humans often deliberately make, are at the heart of all moral suffering.

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Read page 41 & 42

St Augustine & Thomas Aquinas both believed that by choosing to do evil or making bad choices, people have fallen short of what God intended. Therefore the blame for suffering lies entirely at the feet of humans.

Do you think that it’s possible for God to have created humans such that they would always choose to do the right thing?What would life be like if we always did the right thing and followed God without question?

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Read page 41

Traditional Christian belief says that if we didn’t have the freedom to make our own choices we would be like puppets.A central idea is that people find love with God and others. Love cannot be forced and needs free choice. If humans didn’t have free-will they would not have the opportunities to love; with this comes the possibility of pain.

The character Ivan Karamazov felt the price of having free-will was too high if even one innocent child suffered. Instead he rejected the freedom offered by God by contemplating suicide.

What do you think?

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Task Answer questions 4-6 on page 45

Read page 42

The Crucifixion is seen by Christians as a symbol of suffering but also hope in that the knowledge that God is somehow involved and will one day (Judgement Day) end all pain.

Life after Death is another form of comfort to Christians believing that there is an afterlife.

Without this faith some believe there would be nothing but despair and no hope of an end to suffering.

What do you think?

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Read page 43

Theologian John Hick follows the theodicy of Father Ireneus (AD 130-202) believing that God created humans imperfect who have to grow and develop to become perfect beings.

The traditional Christian view sees Adam & Eve as basically good but making bad decisions. Like children they have to develop and grow and suffering is part of this creation process.