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Argument about god's existence
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“All of nature, therefore, is good, since the Creator of all nature is supremely good. But nature is not supremely and immutably good as is the Creator of it” (Enchiridion, St. Augustine). It has been argued that the existence of evil in the world is the result of a non-existent God. If there were a God, He would not allow the suffering of the people or for malicious acts to take place. On the contrary, there are those who say that God is present through all things; therefore he is omnipotent and omniscient. The following essay will discuss both arguments for the claim of whether or not evil or suffering in the world is compatible with the conception of an omnipotent and good God. One argument that is presented by Thomas Hobbes is that people …show more content…
In this situation, one cannot be without the other. Evil cannot exist without good, dark cannot exist without light, and destruction cannot exist without creation. This proposal is the one that justifies the argument that an omnipotent and good God goes hand in hand with the existence of evil. The idea of free will is assimilated into this example where people follow their morality in order to justify their actions. God then comes into the picture when one decides what to do; he praises those that make the morally correct decisions, but also punishes those who do not follow their moral instincts. When creating human beings, God integrated beings with human freedom: the freedom to choose what to do and what not to do. God’s intentions are good, He wants people to be good, but he sets barriers so that as humans, we can find the good in ourselves and overcome the evil that is brought upon us. One last perception of the correlation between God and evil is the impression that people are good, but evil serves a purpose. As mentioned before, the purpose of evil is to balance with the good in the world. Evil allows for people to jump out of their comfort zone and face certain obstacles or fear that they would not experience if good existed all by itself. Evil presents a challenge, a challenge where one grows as a person, and really, is that not what God would want to see out of His creations? To appreciate the good, to see the rainbow after a dark storm, to be content and grateful with what one
The lines that define good and evil are not written in black and white; these lines tend to blur allowing good and evil to intermingle with each another in a single human being.
In, “The Problem of Evil,” Eleonore Stump holds the belief that the existence of evil in our world does not automatically disprove God’s existence. The belief that God cannot live alongside evil is considered to be the Evidential Problem of evil and this is what Stump is arguing against in her paper. Stump argues, the ability to fix our defective free will makes Union with God possible, which overwrites all the un-absorbable evils in the world, showing both God and un-absorbable evils can coexist. In this paper I hope to show that God can exist, but also show that human free will is limited.
The existence of suffering and evil in the presence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent God has proved to be one of the most pressing concerns raised in arguments against the existence of God, since the beginning of Christian traditions and beliefs. In Dostoevsky’s work, The Grand Inquisitor, several chapters allude to thoughts on this topic. In chapter 5 of Dostoevsky 's book we see the link between freedom and human suffering. Older philosophers such as Epicurus also had arguments that resonated with Dostoevsky. The freedom bestowed upon us by this all powerful and all loving God has led to much of the suffering present in our world today. Dostoevsky’s argues not against the notion of suffering nor that of a God, but that of a just
The problem of reconciling an omnipotent, perfectly just, perfectly benevolent god with a world full of evil and suffering has plagued believers since the beginning of religious thought. Atheists often site this paradox in order to demonstrate that such a god cannot exist and, therefore, that theism is an invalid position. Theodicy is a branch of philosophy that seeks to defend religion by reconciling the supposed existence of an omnipotent, perfectly just God with the presence of evil and suffering in the world. In fact, the word “theodicy” consists of the Greek words “theos,” or God, and “dike,” or justice (Knox 1981, 1). Thus, theodicy seeks to find a sense of divine justice in a world filled with suffering.
This essay examines a paper by Peter Van Inwagen, “The Argument from Evil”. Inwagen’s paper attempts to give a possible reason for why there is evil in this world. However, this essay will attempt to give reasons for why Inwagen’s reason for evil does not explain evil without compromising God’s essential quality of moral perfection.
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.
While traditional theology has characterized God as being omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good, we all have seen instances of evil in the world, from the genocide currently occurring in Darfur to the mass torture seen in the Spanish Inquisition, where people have been forced to suffer at the hands of others for millennia. Mackie’s argument is that an omnipotent, omniscient and perfectly good God has the means, knowledge and desire to prevent such instances of evil from occurring, and yet evil clearly exists. Mackie argues that the removal of any one of the ascribed characteristics would solve the problem of evil; however few theologians have been prepared to accept this as the only solution. (Mackie, 1955)
Since God is perfect, he could not have created evil. Rather, the origins of evil date back to Adam and Eve. Satan, a fallen angel, managed to tempt Eve into eating the forbidden fruit; thus introducing evil into the world. One may wonder why God, whom is omnipotent, decided not to eradicate evil from the world. The answer is straightforward. When God created man, he gave him free will due to his immeasurable love. As a result, the introduction of evil into the world gave man a choice; to follow God and pursue righteousness, or pursue evil and henceforth separate oneself from
God is the source of evil. He created natural evil, and gave humans the ability to do moral evil by giving them a free will. However, had he not given people free will, then their actions would not be good or evil; nor could God reward or punish man for his actions since they had no choice in what to do. Therefore, by giving humans choice and free will, God allowed humanity to decide whether to reward themselves with temporary physical goods, and suffer in the long run from unhappiness, or forsake bodily pleasures for eternal happiness.
Beginning with the understanding that God as written in biblical text is all powerful, all knowing, and good we then seek to more deeply understand how it is that God allows evil to exist. From the initial text in the Bible referring to the creation of Adam and Eve we are able to see the step-by-step creation of the different elements in our world. With the creation of elements came the assimilation of a guideline or law to follow. Understanding of this initial and key guideline could be one of the main contexts to understanding the first concept of wrong, how wrong came to exist, and why it is allowed to continue. Also the generalizations that are made and the multiple interpretations they hold in different contexts is another example of how we are encouraged to come about our own perception and belief based on what we understand overall of God being good and seeking love for us and from us, and the desire for God to give us the opportunity to learn, make mistakes, and return to him as the prodigal son did. I do not intend
The pervasive problem of evil in the world has pleagued the Christian faith that proclaim God as a good and perfect God. There has been a need for theist to address this issues as a disclaimer for those that use evil as an reason to disprove that God could be good, perfect or even exist. Therefore, theist theologians and philosophers have turned to theodicies to attempt to explain the problem of evil. Theodicy is an attempt to explain why God permits evil in the world. This essay will show the historical approach to theodicy, the opposition to said theodicies and why theodicies could still play an important role today.
To understand evil we must first understand the concept that good and evil are term or words referring to what one given individuals believes to be the right and wrong thing to do. Good, many times symbolized as god or light, is usually associated with an action that many individual see as helping one or many people. This definitions is again very hard to define due to it bias and opinionated nature. But many and most people will agree that good, is what helps not only the common people become a stronger as a community but also become stronger as in...
Evil exist in the world; evil is something humans created, the definition was defined by humans, not nature. There is no presence of evil in nature, therefor nature before humanity was pure. This brings up the question that if an all-powerful and knowing God created humanity, then why he would have created evil to go alongside with that. There are established theories that say evil exist because free will exist, and the theodicy of soul-building, which means to prove Gods existence through building religious muscle (building faith and falling, but getting back up; you must suffer for God’s love etc.) But what is in question is if there are any reasons an all PKG would put evil on earth, and why would a creator put something bad on their domain.
Evil 's beginning can be found in Genesis chapter three when the serpent begins to tempt Eve. Evil can be anything of God 's creation that man has put a twisted spin on in order for it to be pleasurable or satisfying. Because humans find pleaure in evil, it begins to diminish the relationship to God, and blinds man from the truth of the gospel. Because of evil, some have tried to pin the point of evil onto God since He is the creator of everything, thus creating problems between God and evil by trying to draw distinctions between the two. The problem with evil is that it takes different forms, according to Erickson one form is that of religion when "some particular aspect of one 's experience has had the effect of calling into question the greatness or goodness of God, and hence threatens the relationship between the believer and God." 11 The next form is theological saying that "it is not a question of how a specific concrete situation can exist of light of God 's being what and who he is, but of how any such problem could possibly exist." 12 By identifying these different types of problems with evil, the soultion will be realized. One way of solving this debate is to leave the idea of God 's omnipotence. This approach is called finitism, which says that there are two principles within the universe, "God and the power of evil" 13
Suffering and pain are all around us. The world is filled with famines, wars and diseases. Evil is a part of everyday life. Some of these evils are due to man’s own inhumanity (moral evils), while others seem to have no reasons for occurring (natural evils). At times it seems as if it is too much to bear and people begin to question the evil in the world. The problem of evil leads people to question the existence of God. Surely if there was a loving and all powerful God, there would be no evil. Why would a God who loves His people allow so much pain and suffering to occur? According to Moreland and Craig, “The greatest intellectual obstacle to belief in God is the so-called problem of evil (Moreland and Craig 536).” This paper will look at the logical argument for evil and the Christian’s response to the argument.