An Analysis of Peter van Inwagen’s The Magnitude, Duration, and Distribution of Evil: a Theodicy
In his essay, "The Magnitude, Duration, and Distribution of Evil: a Theodicy," Peter van Inwagen alleges a set of reasons that God may have for allowing evil to exist on earth. Inwagen proposes the following story – throughout which there is an implicit assumption that God is all-good (perfectly benevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient) and deserving of all our love. God created humans in his own likeness and fit for His love. In order to enable humans to return this love, He had to give them the ability to freely choose. That is, Inwagen holds that the ability to love implies free will. By giving humans free will, God was taking a risk. As Inwagen argues, not even an omnipotent being can ensure that "a creature who has a free choice between x and y choose x rather than y" (197)1. (X in Inwagen’s story is ‘to turn its love to God’ and y is ‘to turn its love away from God,’ towards itself or other things.) So it happened that humans did in fact rebel and turn away from God. The first instance of this turning away is referred to as "the Fall." The ruin of the Fall was inherited by all humans to follow and is the source of evil in the world. But God did not leave humans without hope. He has a plan "whose working will one day eventuate in the Atonement (at-one-ment) of His human creatures with Himself," or at least some of His human creatures (198). This plan somehow involves humans realizing the wretchedness of a world without God and turning to God for help.
The telling of this story provokes many questions. Why didn’t God, being all-good and benevolent, "immediately restore His fallen creatures to their original union with...
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... passage to suggest the essential role natural evils play in this story: "People who do not believe in God do not, of course, see our living to ourselves as a result of a prehistoric separation from God. But they can be aware – and it is a part of God’s plan of Atonement that they should be aware – that something is pretty wrong and that this wrongness is a consequence of the intrinsic inability of human beings to devise a manner of life that is anything but hideous" (203). Nowhere does experience prove this inability of human beings to escape the hideousness of the world more than in the case of natural disasters. They have existed as long as the human race, and though it may be possible for a person to delude him or herself into believing he or she is living a good life in a seemingly good world, no one can deny the horrible dangers that natural disasters present.
The U.S. Border Patrol is the organization that polices the access of illegal immigrants into our country. The bureaucrat task of the United States Border patrol is to defend the boundaries of the United States by preventing illegal admission, and by detecting, interdicting, and detain illegal aliens, smugglers, and illegal imports. Today, the United States Border Patrol is accumulative of 21 sectors. A chief patrol agent controls each sector. There are 145 stations placed throughout the continental United States, and in Puerto Rico. The Border Patrol controls the border by land, sea, and air. The Border Patrol has jurisdiction across all of the United States borders and at least 25 miles off the border. One of the most important duties of a Border Patrol Agent is line watch. This involves the finding, prevention, and fear of terrorists, undocumented aliens, and smugglers of aliens next to or close to the land border by maintaining surveillance from a concealed position, following up leads, answer to electronic sensor television systems, aircraft sightings, along with understanding as well as following tracks, marks and other physical evidence. Some of the major activities are farm along with ranch checks, traffic checks, traffic observations, city patrols, transportation checks, organizational, intelligence, and anti-smuggling activities. The Border Patrol agents are also responsible to check factories for illegal workers. The job of a Border Patrol is indefinitely a hard-working job, which is not a simple job to execute. Each agent has a task to carry out and complete within a days of work. Even though the Border Patrol Agents show hard work, courage, and dedication, some skeptics believe that the Border Patrol does ...
According to Haviland, Kilmurray, Fedorak and Lee (2013), religion is universal across cultures, and it serves several purposes for humankind, both psychological and social. It meets human needs by explaining the unknown, promoting group membership, denoting right from wrong, and absolving accountability for individuals by placing responsibility on god(s). In recent years, however, interest in mainstream religions has declined. In its place, Haviland et al. (2013) explain that there has been a resurgence of pagan religions, now referred to as neo-paganism. The most followed, according to Jorgenson and Russell (1999), is known as Wicca, and they say that most Wicca practitioners are white, Western middle class women. Arthur (2008) says that Wicca is a matriarchal, Goddess based religion, and its focus is on Earth, nature and the environment. It includes practices such as white magic and rituals that are said to heal the body and the earth. He says that it is difficult to make any assertion about Wicca that would be relevant to all followers; this is because aside from the core beliefs that “…the 'Earth is a deity' and 'All life is sacred'…” (p. 202), Wicca comprises a diverse assortment of beliefs. However, while every individual’s reasoning for following Wicca is unique, as a group this demographic’s interest in Wicca is related to attempts to satisfy human needs once fulfilled by mainstream religion, including assuaging apocalyptic fears and providing a sense of identity and group belonging.
Wicca is a relatively new religion that was created in the early 20th century in England and was made popular in 1954 by a Gerald Gardner. It is a Pagan religion because it is centered on nature. The word Pagan means “village Dweller”. Wicca is a...
These explanations above, apparently, do not give explanations of the problem of natural disasters. Why there are tornadoes, epidemics, hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes happen in our world? These evils cannot be explained by free will of creatures. Because of these natural disasters many innocent people die or lose their families and friends. How can natural evil be explained and what is the reason behind it? Moral evil is explained through the concept of free will, but we cannot do the same with natural evil. Therefore, there is a problem: God is the one who is responsible for the natural evil, and, as a result he is also responsible for death and suffering of innocent people. (Geisler, 2011)
There exists a popular Wiccan saying that goes, “If it harms none, do what you will.” Most likely founded by Gerald Gardner in the 1950s, the beliefs of Wicca encourage freedom of thought and action, so long those actions do not cause hurt to the living and to nature. (Melton, John., 2014, brittanica.com) This neo-pagan religion boasts theological simplicity and a strong stance for environmental protection. While every Wiccan has his or her own personal set of beliefs regarding just about everything, there are a few common principles and traditions. These include worshiping the Goddess, the Horned God, and performing ceremonial and ritual magic to celebrate new and full moon, the summer solstice, and Samhain, or Halloween. Some of these rituals
...ng on randomly, evil things happen to people who don't deserve it. Is this state runs counter to the idea that God is just. Or God could not control how much evil is necessary to bring to whom. These replies are unsuccessful, because Van Inwagen's response is to say that God entails "being the playthings of chance." living in a world with no justice is a consequence of our separation with God; it's one more evil thing about our world. God's infinite perfection allows him to control how much evil is necessary to bring to whom, but he is executing his plan and waiting people to recognize how horrible it is to be apart from God.
A foundational belief in Christianity is the idea that God is perfectly good. God is unable to do anything evil and all his actions are motives are completely pure. This principle, however, leads to many questions concerning the apparent suffering and wrong-doing that is prevalent in the world that this perfect being created. Where did evil come from? Also, how can evil exist when the only eternal entity is the perfect, sinless, ultimately good God? This question with the principle of God's sovereignty leads to even more difficult problems, including human responsibility and free will. These problems are not limited to our setting, as church fathers and Christian philosophers are the ones who proposed some of the solutions people believe today. As Christianity begins to spread and establish itself across Europe in the centuries after Jesus' resurrection, Augustine and Boethius provide answers, although wordy and complex, to this problem of evil and exactly how humans are responsible in the midst of God's sovereignty and Providence.
Culture is an essential part of conflict and conflict resolution. Cultures are what shapes our perceptions, attributions, judgments, and ideas of self and other. We are all born individuals; then we are raised, socialized and sensitized to the norms of our respective civilizations which led us to identify consciously and unconsciously to our societies. In 1993, Samuel Huntington wrote an influential paper that was published in Foreign Affairs titled “ Clash of the Civilizations.” Huntington states, “The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural (Huntington 1993, 1).” According to Huntington, cultural identities bind people together more fastidiously than those identities of nation state citizenship. Religion and culture are huge factors in people’s motivations from business, to politics, down to personal interactions. At the macro level Huntington adds, “Differences in religion and culture create difference over policy issues ranging from human rights to immigration to trade and commerce to the environment (Huntington 1993, 5).” Huntington describes the current riffs between civilizations as fault lines, elaborating “fault lines between civilizations are replacing the political and ideological boundaries of the Cold War as the flash point for crisis and bloodshed (Huntington 1993, 29).” The fault line between Christianity and Islam has seen conflict for 1,300 years but today we are witnessing the fault lines reemerge and deepen. In this paper I will discuss what historical events and policies led to the current conditions in Sudan, how the conflict in Sudan illustrates and supports Huntington’s theory, and I will examine how this conflict has effected United States foreign policy.
“…the primary response of God to the problem of evil. It states that the unification of the world with God’s plan for it will bring about the eventual conquest of suffering and evil, if not in this world, at least in the world to come.”
Wicca is a spiritual practice that is heavily based on the cyclical aspects of nature and life. This path centers around the desire to move with the natural seasonal changes (commonly referred to as "The Wheel of the Year"), lunar phases, and life cycles of the Earth. These earth tides are the heart and soul of the Wicca religion and it's philosophy advocates developing as close a connection with them as possible. Wiccans strive to build an awareness of these tides, to embrace them, and most of all to learn from them. This can be done a variety of ways such as through ritual practice, theological study of Gods, and even from looking at one's family members.
“Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and caldron bubble,” is a famous quote from the three witches at the beginning of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Though it may involve popular imagery, it is not at all how witches are viewed in this modern age. Wiccans, though misconceptually thought to have satanic ties, are practitioners of “Wiccanism” or the religion that respects and worships the Earth through harmonic interaction and offerings with a decentralized structure (Robinson 2010). Wiccanism is often monotheistic with a strong bulk of its followers worshiping “The Goddess” which could in fact be the mother of Earth referenced in Grecian mythology as the Titan “Gaia” or the goddess Artemis (Robinson 2010). However, there is also “The
The same misinformed people believe that those who practice Wicca have done such absurd things as selling their souls to the devil or simply putting hexes on people that cross them. In reality these things don’t occur; People who practice the religion of Wicca are just like anybody else on the outside they simply hold different beliefs than others. Like any other religion they have certain ceremonies that from an outsiders point of view may seem archaic. Take Christianity for example. If somebody who had never known anything about Christmas traditions came into a Christian household saw a dead tree inside the house and stockings over the fire they'll probably scratch their head wondering what was happening. The same is true fo...
After many centuries of witchcraft continually being practiced, a religion was created. It is known as Wicca and includes both men and women. They believe nature is superior to humans and there are no sins, therefore no need for forgiveness. Witches believe in karma and reincarnation instead of heaven and hell. Witchcraft is still practiced by many through the use of rituals, spells, and chants.
Based on one of Friedrich Nietzsche's most distinguished philosophy books written during the 18th century, he develops a new philosophical ideal. In the book "Beyond Good and Evil," Nietzsche inquires a philosophy of the future for "free spirits". Conard argued that Bart Simpson was not Nietzsche's ideal while, on the contrary, Felder argues that Carrie Bradshaw embodies some of the ideals of Nietzsche's new brand of a philosopher. This leads to the question, is Nietzsche's ideal partly embodied in Carrie Bradshaw or Bart Simpson?
The definition and presence of evil in the temporal world, while largely recognized as a theological subject, has major political implications. Political institutions, what power they retain, and the types of laws constructed are each determined by evil and what it implies about human nature.