The problem of evil is the notion that, how can an all-good, all-powerful, all-loving God exists when evil seems to exist also. The problem of evil also gives way to the notion that if hell exists then God must be evil for sending anyone there. I believe both of these ideas that God can exist while there is evil and God is not evil for sending anyone to hell. I believe hell exists in light of the idea that God is holy and just. The larger is how anyone can go to heaven. I will try to answer the problem of evil with regards to the problem of heaven and hell. When I look out into the world it does not take long for me to realize that we are all different in a plethora of different ways. We all grow up in many different societies and cultures that have shaped the way we think and act. Our behavior patterns are in large part due to our culture that we grew up in. We grow up with certain biases and different perspectives on what is good in life and what is not. Some of us have grown up in religious homes of some sort that had a large impact on what we think about life. Some of us have developed habits and traditions from our culture or religious practices. Some of us grow up in non-religious households that find it more meaningful to live without the boundaries and traditions of religion. The point is that we are all different from each other. The interesting thing about this is that we did not choose any of this. What about us did we choose? We did not choose when we were born. We did not choose what family, culture, or religion we were born into. We did not choose our parents and the way we look. We did not choose some of the tendencies and behavior patterns that we inherited from our parents. We did not choose the gifts and t...
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...o fails to realize that evil has no weight in which there is no such thing a greater evil. Evil is not a being that comes in all shapes and sizes. Evil is making a decision that does not please God and if God intervened to stop every evil Rowe would not have been able to argue that God does not exist.
Works Cited
Davis, Stephen T., and John B. Cobb. "Free Will and Evil." Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy. Atlanta: J. Knox, 1981. 74-89. Print.
Hick, John. "The Irenaean Theodicy." Classical and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Religion. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970. N. pag. Print.
The Holy Bible: The King James Version. Canberra: Bible Society in Australia, 1993. Print.
Murray, Michael J. "Heaven and Hell." Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide. By William Lane. Craig. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2002. N. pag. Print.
Religion has been a controversial topic among philosophers and in this paper I am focusing
Kreeft, Peter. (1988).“The Problem of Evil.” Chapter 7 in Fundamentals of the Faith. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
There are two kinds of evil, moral and natural. Moral evil is things like murder, rape, stealing, terrorism, etc. Natural evil is things like suffering and unpleasantness typically as a result of moral evil. Evil is that which has no power of its own. Evil is darkness, a negation of light. Its power is in us, in our fear of it, in that we consider it a "something" worth responding to.
An Analysis of Peter van Inwagen’s The Magnitude, Duration, and Distribution of Evil: a Theodicy
Peterson, Michael - Hasker, Reichenbach and Basinger. Philosophy of Religion - Selected Readings, Fourth Edition. 2010. Oxford University Press, NY.
In the excerpt from Philosophy of Religion, John Hicks outlines the problem of evil as such:
Shirley Jackson’s short story “ The Possibility of Evil” is about a little old lady named Miss Strangeworth. She thinks she’s in charge of the town and to make sure it’s free from all evil because her grandfather built the first house on Pleasant Street. At first Miss Strangeworth is a nice little old lady, worrying about people and wondering what others are up to. Then in the middle of the story she becomes a little rude to a few of the townspeople. In the end Miss Strangeworth thought she was getting rid of the evil in the town, but in reality she was causing evil in the town by showing her true colors and being extremely mean and cruel to others. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover because people aren’t always what they seem to be.
The article I picked to show the evil in the world today was about a man named Abner Louima. This man was arrested in 1997 and is suing the state of New York for being beaten in a restroom in the station while being questioned. The sole witness Conelle Lugg, 19, he heard loud screaming and banging noises against the wall of the bathroom while he was in his cell, he then saw a police officer push Louima into a cell pants down and blood rushing out of his open wounds. The officer then proceeded to tell Louima to get on his knees. After all this Lugg said, that Louima fell to the floor and screamed in pain and begged to be taken to a hospital.
In the following pages I will discuss this metaphor, as well as Rudolf Otto and his theories on the creation of religion, Peter L. Berger’s theory of “the sacred canopy,” and finally the intermingling of these two theories in the evolution of religion.
Oxtopy, W., & Segal, A. (2007). A concise introduction to world religions. (1st ed., p. 258). New York: Oxford University press.
The simultaneous presence of evil and God has been an ongoing debate for a long time. Evil is defined as being morally wrong and by definition, God is the supreme; he is morally perfect and has the power to control everything and everyone. He should then be able to prevent evil from existing or get rid of the evil that does exist, but this is not the case. The question that arises, is if there is a God and he is morally perfect, why does God allow for evil in the world if? The problem is that there is no straightforward answer to this question. Or as some philosophers argue, this is only a problem for those who believe in God and that God is morally perfect and omnipotent (J.L Mackie).
Eastman, Roger. The Ways of Religion: An Introduction to the Major Traditions. Third Edition. Oxford University Press. N.Y. 1999
Smart, Ninian. "Blackboard, Religion 100." 6 March 2014. Seven Dimensions of Religion. Electronic Document. 6 March 2014.
Oxtoby, Willard G., and Alan F. Segal. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. Oxford, Canada: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.