Problem of Evil
Evil has always been with humanity. From the first man that walked upon the earth up to the present day, evil has been part of life. The purpose of this paper is to show that evil is everywhere, and that, while good is also in abundant supply, evil will never totally be removed from society. The two are part of an alignment of forces; they compliment each other, and therefore they both must exist (Steel, 1994).

In this paper I will argue that evil cannot be removed from the world and I will begin by presenting the strongest argument for this position, after which I will present the strongest argument against it. eaker arguments both for and against the issue of evil remaining in the world will be discussed after the stronger arguments in their respective sections, and in order of significance. Both of these positions will then be…...

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Works Cited

Morrow, Lance. "Evil. (war in the Gulf, blood feuds in Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka, random street violence: is there less evil now than there was five centuries ago?)." Time. (1991).

Steel, Carlos. "Does evil have a cause? Augustine's perplexity and Thomas's answer." The Review of Metaphysics. (1994).

Sundberg, Walter. "The Conundrum of Evil." First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life. (2003).

Once again, the theist can simply point out that human knowledge -- either our own, or in the collective sense -- is not only incomplete but not even necessarily close to complete. Furthermore, inference from incomplete evidence is dangerous; before Columbus, European philosophers would have felt themselves on firm "rational ground" to suppose that no edible starchy tuber existed, and yet the potato would have proved them wrong.
Attempts to prove the nonexistence of God through arguments from evil often founder on either the definition of "God" or the definition of "evil." However, while an imperfectly benevolent or even amoral God does not pose a logical problem for those who prefer to consider the divine as unmoved mover, first cause, or as some other morally neutral cosmological principle, such a God is obviously not the benign deity of modern religious orthodoxy. And while a "mystic" or other theodicial investigator may…...

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Works Cited

Hick, John. "The 'Vale of Soul-Making' Theodicy." The Problem of Evil: A Reader. Ed. Mark Joseph Larrimore. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2001. 355-61. Print

Hume, David. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and Other Writings. Ed. Dorothy Coleman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print.

Lactantius. "The Wrath of God." The Problem of Evil: A Reader. Ed. Mark Joseph Larrimore. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2001. 46-52. Print.

Larrimore, Mark Joseph. The Problem of Evil: A Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2001. Print.

Even before one gets to owe's argument, however, one may disregard Hick's argument because it depends on imagining an infinite number of possibilities to explain away evil, rather than accounting for it. Instead of actually explaining how a benevolent and omnipotent god can allow evil to exist, Hick's argument simply states that this evil is not really evil, although with no evidence to back this up other than the convenient fact that believing it makes an omnipotent, omni-benevolent god logically possible. While one is entirely free to take this approach, it renders further argumentation irrelevant, because one side has simply decided to redefine a central term, apropos of nothing, in order to make its position tenable.

Although Hicks and others would like the reader to believe that there is more nuance to their arguments, in reality this rebuttal is merely an attempt to redefine terms in order to make them logically…...

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References

Augustine. (2009). Evil is the Privation of Good. In M. Peterson (Ed.), Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings (4 ed., pp. 251-254). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hick, J. (2009). Soul-Making Theodicy. In M. Peterson (Ed.), Philosophy of Religion: Selected

Readings (4 ed., pp. 301-314). Oxford: Oxford University Press,

Hume, D. (2009). Evil makes a strong case against god's existence. In M. Peterson (Ed.),

From there, it is apparent that evil cannot disappear until we examine our own personal evils and discuss them to gain further insight so that it will vanish from society.
Once we recognize the existence of something that can reasonably be called personal evil, we must then also recognize that it has collective as well as individual dimensions. Organized crime syndicates, militant emerging nations, oppressive social structures, and profit-crazed multinational corporations are, in a real sense, the social extensions of personal evil. On both individual and corporate levels, one of the saddest features of human evil is its strange admixture with good or apparent good. Marriages are wrecked for lack of mutual understanding, educational communities are undermined by disagreement about how to pursue common ideals, political parties are thrown into disarray by excessive ambition, and nations are ripped apart by struggles for power. (eterson, 1998, p. 4).

Organized crime is becoming…...

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Peterson, M.L. (1998). God and Evil: An Introduction to the Issues. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Retrieved June 14, 2008, from Questia database:

 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=8919726 

Peterson, M.L. (1991). The problem of evil.

theodicies and explains the problem of evil, focusing on the merits and the faults of this theodicy. The paper seeks to explain why sin exists among humankind and why bad things happen in nature. The paper also answers the question of why theodicy must be internally consistent, it concludes with a brief explanation of how evil can affect ones relationship with God.
The Problem of Evil

The world is filled with numerous occurrences of evil manifested in calamities such as earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, diseases, and many others. Philosophers and theologians have categorized these evil occurrences into two categories, moral and natural evil. According to Nash (1988), moral evil is a consequence of human beings actions and natural evil occur naturally, this involve such occurrences as earthquakes, floods that happen with little explanation or no direct human action. Some people have resolved to a common belief that God is neither omnibenevolent nor…...

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Bibliography

Bratcher, Dennis. "The Problem of Natural Evil." www.crivoice.org. 2001.

  (accessed March 23, 2012).http://www.crivoice.org/evil.html 

Magee, Joseph. "Aquinas and the Necessity of Natural Evils." www.aquinasonline.com. August 27, 1999.   (accessed March 23, 2012).http://www.aquinasonline.com/Topics/probevil.html 

Nash, Ronald H. aith and Reason: Searching for a Rational Faith . Grand Rapids: Zondervan

Philosophy and the Problem of Evil
If God is good, and has created a good and just world, how can evil exist in such a supposedly good world, a world created by a good God? The Manicheans, of whom the early Christian philosopher Augustine was a member of during his early youth, provided a dualistic (two-God) rather than a monotheistic (one-God) solution to such a problem of evil in the world. Namely, the Manicheans suggested that there were two divine forces or beings in the world, that of a good and evil force, and the evil was the creating force that formed the evil world, while the good force existed apart from the evil world. However, human beings could still strive to access this good, pure force, despite the intrinsic evil of the creation through understanding and removing themselves from the influences of the evil, created world.

Augustine, however, did not find…...

C.S. Lewis and Suffering
The problem of human suffering has been one that has plagued many philosophers, skeptics, and Christians alike. For some, it is difficult to understand how an all-good and all-powerful God could, or would, allow suffering to plague humanity to the extent that it does. Most people want to believe that God would want all creatures, especially those who are made in his likeness, to be happy. Therefore, when people begin to come to terms with the fact that many people are unhappy and many people are in a state of suffering and misery, it can be difficult not question the will of God and question your own faith. C.S. Lewis apparently wrestled with such questions himself which led him to many insights. Lewis writes (Popova, 2014):

"There is no reason to suppose that self-consciousness, the recognition of a creature by itself as a "self," can exist except in…...

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Works Cited

Harmon, J. (2012, Fall). C.S. Lewis on the Problem of Pain. Retrieved from C.S. Lewis Institute:  http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/C_S_Lewis_on_the_Problem_of_Pain_page1 

Popova, M. (2014). C.S. Lewis on Suffering and What It Means to Have Free Will in a Universe of Fixed Laws. Retrieved from Brain Pickings:  https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/07/25/c-s-lewis-problem-of-pain-free-will/

"
Defenses against it may be equally inconclusive, but in their fertility they at least promise a solution some day.

Bibliography

dams, Marilyn McCord. Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.

Belliotti, Raymond a. Roman Philosophy and the Good Life. Plymouth: Lexington Books, 2009.

DeRose, Keith. "Plantinga, Presumption, Possibility, and the Problem of Evil," Canadian Journal of Philosophy 21 (1991), 497-512.

Draper, Paul. "Probabilistic rguments from Evil," Religious Studies 28 (1992), 303-17.

Dueck, a.C. Between Jerusalem and thens: Ethical Perspectives on Culture, Religion, and Psychotherapy. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1995.

Ferreira, M. Jamie. "Surrender and Paradox: Imagination in the Leap." In Kierkegaard Contra Contemporary Christendom, edited by Daniel W. Conway, 142-67. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Griffin, David Ray. God, Power, and Evil: Process Theodicy. Louisville: Westminster Press, 2004.

Hick, John. "The 'Vale of Soul-Making' Theodicy." In the Problem of Evil: Reader, edited by Mark Joseph Larrimore, 355-61. Malden, M: Blackwell Publishing, 2001.

Hume,…...

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A.C. Dueck, Between Jerusalem and Athens: Ethical Perspectives on Culture, Religion, and Psychotherapy (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1995), 153.

M. Jamie Ferreira, "Surrender and Paradox: Imagination in the Leap," Kierkegaard Contra Contemporary Christendom, ed. Daniel W. Conway (New York: Routledge, 2002), 145.

Larrimore, xx.

Evil
The free will defense suggests that God permits, but does not cause evil. Therefore, it is possible to live in a universe in which good and evil continually coexist. Human beings are blessed with the ability to make a choice that can further the objectives of God and good, or to promote the interests of evil. Although this view is logically coherent, there are clear objections to it.

One objection is that God has nothing at all to do with evil, and human beings, made in God's image, likewise have nothing to do with evil. Free will is therefore irrelevant and in fact negated. There is no such thing as free will, according to this point-of-view. All human beings have is a fate that has been pre-determined by God. Using this objection, it is easy to see how the human being is portrayed as a passive recipient of life rather than…...

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References

"Introduction to Philosophical Inquiry." Retrieved online:  http://philosophy.lander.edu/intro/hick.html 

Speaks, Jeff. "Swinburne's Response to the Problem of Evil." Retrieved online:  http://www3.nd.edu/~jspeaks/courses/mcgill/201/swinburne.pdf

Initially St. Augustine favoured the dualistic view that evil was external and separate from the world and mankind that in evident from the Manichean worldview. However, he was later to reject this strict dualism and taker another view of the nature of evil. This was more Platonic and was based on the writings of Plotinus and Porphyry. This refers to the view that evil is a measure and result of our separation from God.

For Augustine, the measure of all existence was God. Instead of the Manichean view that evil existed outside humanity "…as an invasion," he posited the view that evil only existed to the extent that we do not acknowledge and live within God's word and law. ( Augustine Influences Christianity). Stated in another way, evil exists only because mankind refuses to acknowledge God. In essence Augustine defines evil as "…a privation in goodness." (A Brief Response to the…...

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Works cited

A Brief Response to the Problem of Evil. April 22, 2009.

Augustine Influences Christianity. April 22, 2009.

 http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch25.htm

If humans are not the architects of good and evil, then, it is easy to see how a human cannot be wholly good or wholly evil. An architect may be trying to emulate the style of Frank Lloyd right, but his or her work will, ultimately, be different from right's in some ways. The emulating architect will create some aspects of his or her building that are entirely his or her own. In the same way, a person may be emulating the metaphysical creator of good or evil, but he or she will be flawed in some ways, meaning that he or she is not wholly evil or wholly good. Edgar Allen Poe gives a good example of this in his story "The Black Cat." hile the main character commits atrocities to his cat, Pluto, readers are able to find a glimmer of good through his actions before he commits…...

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Works Cited

Brians, Paul et al. "St. Augustine on the Problem of Evil." Washington State University.

18 December 1998. Resources for the Study of World Civilizations. 18 May 2009.

"Evil and Otherness."

Govier, Trudy. "Forgiveness and the Unforgivable." American Philosophical Quarterly.

God would have never created human beings if everyone was to be perfect.
There are certain problems with the view that there is evil in the world despite the presence of an almighty God who is omnipotent and omniscient. Critics believe that evil should not exist if God is omnipotent and omniscient. They believe that there is evil in this world because God doesn't exist. There is no to govern what is right and wrong. This view is contradicted by some religions which rightfully believe that God is there and he created the world as He knows what's best for his beings. This point-of-view leads critics to argue that God is not morally good and that if He has so much power then He would be able to get rid of evil from the world without any problems.

Epicurus was quoted to have said "Either God wants to abolish evil, and…...

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Bibliography

The Philosophical Problem of Evil, Philosophy of Religion, David A. Conway (1988) 24: 35-66.

Evil and the God of Love, first edition. John Hick, 1966.

The Coherence of Theism, Richard Swinburne, 1997

2000 years of Disbelief, Epicurus

1. Using the language of possible worlds, explain what it means to say that ‘p is consistent with q.’ The idea that p is consistent with q is a logical premise that supposes there is a world in which p and q can both be true. This premise contrasts with the premise that p is contradictory of q, which states that if p is true, q must be false and there can be no possible world in which both are true and neither can there be one in which both are false. The idea here is that when p is consistent with q, the world in which such a premise could be true is one in which there may be a conjunctive proposition underlying the concept or there may simply be a nullification of the linguistic theory of necessary truth.
2. What is P.S.R. (The Principle of Sufficient Reason), and how is…...

Personal Theodicy Apologetics The problem of evil is something everyone has to face sooner or later. As Schlesinger points out, philosophers want to understand “why there is any suffering in the world at all.”[footnoteRef:2] The problem with a philosophical approach to suffering is that it does not reveal the whole story or the whole picture of why suffering (evil) exists. Religion, on the other hand, does provide that whole story—and depending on the religion, the story will be a little different. Christianity teaches that evil is a result of sin—that it is not something that came of its own into the world or that God created but rather something that His creatures chose of their own free will. The choice to pursue evil (defined as an absence of the good) altered God’s world—or at least man’s perception of it. Prior to man’s fall, he lived in happiness in the Garden of…...

Evil Problems
The role of evil is generally misunderstood in the human approach to life. The fear of committing evil lies paramount within all facets of society. The purpose of this essay is to argue that to solve the problem of evil, humanity must begin to embrace the benefits and solutions to problems that evil provides. This essay will first define the concept of evil and discuss the problem in a philosophic manner that can help transmute evil ideas into more productive energies that can be used for growth and evolution

Defining Evil

The power of words carry emotional value that create energetic fields that permeate in the environment. Some words carry great power and instantly polarize the conditioned mind into an immediate and often irrational emotional reaction. "Evil" carries with it spiritual, moral and ethical values and energy that suggest the word's meaning has super power on and over or minds. To…...

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References

Boase, E. (2008). Constructing meaning in the face of suffering: Theodicy in lamentations. Vetus Testamentum, 58(4-5), 4-5.

De Wijze, S. (2002). Defining Evil: Insights from the Problem of" Dirty Hands." The Monist, 210-238.

Jung, C.G., & Stein, M. (1977). Jung on evil. Jung, 436.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (nd). "Evil." Viewed 7 Dec 2014. Retrieved from  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/evil

1. Analyze Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways to prove the existence of God and evaluate their effectiveness in addressing modern scientific and philosophical challenges.
2. Compare and contrast Thomas Aquinas' views on natural law and ethics with those of other prominent philosophers, such as Aristotle or Immanuel Kant.
3. Investigate how Thomas Aquinas' theology influenced the development of Western Christian thought and the relationship between faith and reason in his writings.
4. Examine Thomas Aquinas' concept of the soul and its relationship to the body, and explore how it differs from other philosophical and theological perspectives on the nature of the human person.
5. Discuss....

1. The Essence of Thomas Aquinas's Natural Law Theory: An Exploration of Its Foundations and Implications

Discuss the metaphysical and ethical principles that underpin Aquinas's natural law theory.
Analyze the concept of the eternal law and its relationship to the natural law.
Examine the role of human reason in discerning the precepts of natural law and their binding force.

2. The Harmony of Faith and Reason in Aquinas's Summa Theologica: A Critical Examination

Trace the development of Aquinas's understanding of the relationship between faith and reason.
Explore the arguments Aquinas presents for the compatibility of faith and reason.
Evaluate the strengths....

Essay Topics on the Afterlife

The concept of the afterlife has captivated human imagination for centuries, inspiring countless philosophical and religious inquiries. Here are some essay topics that delve into this intriguing subject:

Philosophical Explorations:

The Metaphysical Nature of the Afterlife: What philosophical arguments support or refute the existence of an afterlife?
The Immortality of the Soul: Are human souls eternal and destined for life beyond the physical body?
Meaning and Purpose in a World with an Afterlife: How does the belief in an afterlife shape our understanding of life's meaning and significance?

Religious Perspectives:

The Afterlife in Christianity: Explore the Christian doctrine....

Complex and Thought-Provoking Essay Topics on Research Questions About Life After Death

Topic 1: The Nature and Evidence of Near-Death Experiences

What is the phenomenology of near-death experiences (NDEs)?
Are NDEs veridical experiences of an afterlife?
How can we scientifically investigate and evaluate the authenticity of NDEs?

Topic 2: The Role of Consciousness in Postmortem Survival

Can consciousness exist independently of the physical brain?
What is the nature of consciousness after death?
Are there non-physical realms or dimensions where consciousness continues to reside?

Topic 3: Reincarnation and the Cycle of Rebirth

Is reincarnation a valid concept?
What are the empirical or experiential evidences....