Epicurus's Argument: The Problem Of Evil

259 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Does evil exist essay

To fully understand Epicurus’s argument, known as the problem of evil, we must first understand four basics statements about God. Firstly, God has unlimited power. Secondly, God has unlimited knowledge. Thirdly, God has unlimited love. Finally, evil exists. According to Epicurus, these statements are contradictory to each other; therefore, he presents the idea that God does not exist. The problem of evil has the following format.
First we must ask the question is God able to eradicate all evil. If no, then he is not omnipotent and thus there is no God. If yes, then we ask is God willing to eradicate all evil. If no, then God is not Omnibenevolent and thus there is no God. If yes, then we ask why does God allow evil to still be present in the

Show More
Related

  • John Hick And Richard Swinburne: The Problem Of Evil Argument

    1651 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the world, most people believe in some type of god or gods, and the majority of them understand God as all-good, all-knowing (omniscient), and all-powerful (omnipotent). However, there is a major objection to the latter belief: the “problem of evil” (P.O.E.) argument. According to this theory, God’s existence is unlikely, if not illogical, because a good, omniscient, and omnipotent being would not allow unnecessary suffering, of which there are enormous amounts.

    Read More

  • J.L. Mackie's Evil and Omnipotence

    1664 Words  | 4 Pages

    The problem of evil is a deductive a priori argument who’s goal is to prove the non-existence of God. In addition to Mackie’s three main premises he also introduces some “quasi-logical” rules that give further evidence to his argument. First he presumes that a good thing will eliminate evil to the extent that it can and second, that omnipotence has no limits. From these two “additional premises,” it can be concluded that a completely good and omnipotent being will eliminate all possible evil. After establishing these added premises Mackie continues with his piece to list and negate several theistic responses to the argument.

    Read More

  • Descartes Leibniz Essay

    593 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Problem of Evil is the question that asks if God is perfectly benevolent, all-powerful, and all-knowing, then how can he allow evil to exist? Many philosophers have tried to answer this age-old question, often focusing on the intellect and the will. This essay will explore and compare the ways in which Descartes, Leibniz, and Berkeley each attempt to solve this dilemma.

    Read More

  • Michael Tooley's Argument For The Existence Of God

    1649 Words  | 4 Pages

    Evil exists. No philosopher (and typically no other human) denies this. As well, any God that may or may not exist is omnipotent and omnibenevolent. Omnipotent being “all powerful” and omnibenevolent being “all good.” If He is not, then he probably would not have earned the status of “God.” So one who believes in God typically willingly admits that God obtains both of these qualities. So how could all three of these facts possibly be so at the same time. In other words, how can someone who has the power to do whatever He wants, who is also incapable of doing bad, allow evil to happen. How could He either create evil or stand by as evil happens, without interfering? The argument then goes, for

    Read More

  • The Co-Existence Of Evil In Voltaire's Candide

    550 Words  | 2 Pages

    The problem of evil is a concept that attributes the fact that because there is evil in the world an omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent God cannot exist. In brief, it makes the point that the co-existence of evil and such a God is improbable. It uses suffering and corruption as compelling evidence for the non-existence of a supreme being. On the grounds that the existence of an all-powerful, loving God and evil coexisting contradict each other, there really isn’t a reason to believe that God exists or that God is omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent.

    Read More

  • The Existence of God: Theories of Thomas Aquinas, St. Anselm, and William Paley

    2119 Words  | 5 Pages

    if God truly existed, there would be no evil. Since evil does exist in the

    Read More

  • Understanding Epicurus's Argument

    302 Words  | 1 Pages

    Understanding Epicurus’s argument is not the difficult part of the ideological equation, the real problem lies in the idea that we will never be able to understand God’s intentions or motivations. This scapegoat allows Epicurus’s ideas to be ignored rather than refuted. The only way to combat these ideas for a person of faith, is to not truly address them at all. In fact, this argument is often the reason why people of faith start to falter in their beliefs. If one thinks hard enough about these questions instead of just brushing them off, the idea of an omnipotent being becomes hard to reconcile with reason.

    Read More

  • Q&A: The Three Principles of Epicurus and Lucretius

    2658 Words  | 6 Pages

    ‘By contrast slavery, poverty, wealth, freedom, war, peace, and all other things whose arrival and departure a thing’s nature survives intact, these it is our practice to call, quite properly, accidents’.

    Read More

  • Essay Does The Fact Of Evil Count Against The Proposition That God Exist

    658 Words  | 2 Pages

    At first, we should have a clear definition about god if we want to figure about whether the fact of evil count against the proposition that god exist. From the theory of Anselm and Aquinas, God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived. God is the cause of being, and goodness, and of every perfection in all existing things (Fieser and Pojman, 205). In conclusion, god is perfect, all-good, omniscient, and omnipotent. If god is like Anselm and Aquinas described, the fact of evil is a good argument to count against the proposition that god exist. We can see evil in reality, but no one has ever seen god in reality. God did not create a world without evil, and god did not extinguish evil.

    Read More

  • Solomon's Argument On The Problem Of Evil

    1474 Words  | 3 Pages

    The most famous argument against God’s existence is the problem of evil. God and religion is often a hot topic in society and many people often steer clear of bringing up the topic unless they are sure they will not get into a heated discussion about it. Information is extremely limited when it comes to trying to figure out the problem of evil. That being said; the problem of evil is defined by trying to argue that “if god is all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowing (omniscient), and just, then how is it possible that there is so much unearned suffering and unpunished wickedness in the world?” (Solomon, et al.75). Theodicy argues that god exists and that he also allows evil in this world. Additionally, an excellent question is brought up upon

    Read More

  • Problem Of Evil Essay

    1753 Words  | 4 Pages

    An omniscient, omnibenevolent and omnipotent God would not allow evil to exist. 4) Therefore, God does not exist. This argument has been debated for centuries and has led to various responses from theists, including the idea that evil exists as a result of human free will. However, the Problem of Evil remains a significant challenge to the belief in a morally perfect God.

    Read More

  • Leibniz: The Problem Of Evil

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    The problem of evil has been a huge debate between atheists and theists. The problem of evil is how can evil occur in the world if God, a perfect being, created the world, and why do bad things happen to good people if God is in charge. Used to critique theism, the problem of evil questions God’s perfection and his existence. It questions God’s perfection by saying, “Whoever does not chose the best is lacking in power, or in knowledge, or in goodness” (Leibniz 89). This means that people do not think that God can be all powerful or perfect because they do not think that this world was the best possible choice. The problem of evil also critiques the question of God’s existence by saying, “If there is more evil than

    Read More

  • Augustine and The Problem of Evil

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning, God created the world. He created the earth, air, stars, trees and mortal animals, heaven above, the angels, every spiritual being. God looked at these things and said that they were good. However, if all that God created was good, from where does un-good come? How did evil creep into the universal picture? In Book VII of his Confessions, St. Augustine reflects on the existence of evil and the theological problem it poses. For evil to exist, the Creator God must have granted it existence. This fundamentally contradicts the Christian confession that God is Good. Logically, this leads one to conclude evil does not exist in a created sense. Augustine arrives at the conclusion that evil itself is not a formal thing, but the result of corruption away from the Supreme Good. (Augustine, Confessions 7.12.1.) This shift in understanding offers a solution to the problem of evil, but is not fully defended within Augustine’s text. This essay will illustrate how Augustine’s solution might stand up to other arguments within the context of Christian theology.

    Read More

  • The Two Kinds of Evil According to Augustine

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, which makes us wonder what kind of morally sufficient reason justifies God to allow evil. We know that evil exists in our world, but so does God, so would God be the source of evil as well as good? We have established that God is the omnipotent and benevolent free creator of the world, but suffering and evil exist. Is God unable to prevent evil? If so, he would not be omnipotent. Is He able to prevent the evil in our world but unwilling? If this were then case then he wouldn’t be benevolent. A Persian thinker, Mani, suggested that the answer to this question was a kind of duality between the good and evil. This pluralistic view of the good and evil in our world would suggest that God is not omnipotent, which is why Augustine would reject Mani’s Manichaeism philosophy. Augustine later says that there are two kinds of evils: Moral evil, which would be the suffering from a result of the action of a rational being, and there is natural evil, which would be suffering that comes from physical events (i.e. natural disasters).

    Read More

  • Good Versus Evil: Good Vs. Evil

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    Evil has plagued the lives of all creatures and has existed throughout all of time. The problem of evil is that since God created the world and is all omniscient; omnipotent; and omni-benevolent, and since a good thing strives to rid evil; and because there are no limits to an omnipotent being: then because God is all three the world would therefore not contain evil. But fact is that evil does exist and from this some conclude that God does not exist because he would possess all three omni’s and rid evil. He knows of evil because he created it and had knowledge of what it would be, but he does not stop it even though he is omnipotent then that would explain the conclusion against God’s existence due to the problem of evil. If he exists then why does he allow suffering? pain?

    Read More

More about Epicurus's Argument: The Problem Of Evil

Open Document