Problem Of Evil And Suffering Essay, Research Paper

The Problem of Evil and Suffering A theodicy is a exoneration of God & # 180 ; s goodness and justness in the face of the being of immorality. It challenges the truth of his being, as God is told to be all-powerful and powerful and all moral, yet evil and enduring still occurs.

Different theodicies arise from different points of position. In this case the positions of Irenaeus and Augustine ; two philosophers from a similar, historic background.

Augustine & # 180 ; s theodicy defends God in a sense, through the fact that he believed God did non make immoralities but it & # 180 ; s happening is merely a want of good. This position besides came from a really celebrated philosopher ; Aristotle ( 384bc-322bc ) , this fact, backs up Augustine & # 180 ; s instance.

Augustine continued to backup Gods morality as he stated that God couldn & # 180 ; T be responsible for the being of immorality. God was an all powerful and good being himself, yet all of adult male can non be the same, so no-one will hold the same moral values as God. Augustine claimed that this was caused by the autumn, this effected all of creative activity and the spread was finally made to be so large that adult male began to departure from God and this is where the creative activity of evil arose.

Peoples have argued, why didn & # 180 ; T God prevent the autumn? Though, Augustine suggested that God foresaw the autumn, yet didn & # 180 ; Ts know its effects. He made the autumn to make adult male as moral and good, yet Adam and Eve used their generous assisting of free will to their ain selfish ethical motives and rebelled against God. Which brought about the nucleus of immorality and progressed in the autumn.

So finally, Augustine came to the decision that immorality was a consequence of psyche make up one’s minding through human determination and free will. Though, once more inquiries arose from this ; why didn & # 180 ; T God erase the construct of free will? However, Augustine ever had an reply and proclaimed that God allowed free will to happen as it was more of import than holding an absence of immorality as a universe without immoralities would non be every bit good as the universe today.

Irenaeus & # 180 ; theodicy differs from Augustine & # 180 ; s

, as it is more in the sense that God created evil, whereas Augustine described its being to be more of a error. Yet some of Irenaeus?s points relate to Augustine?s, though are different signifiers as they are based on different sentiments.

First, Irenaeus still claims that God exists, yet explains him as being responsible for the happening of immorality because he created us to be imperfect. However, in Irenaeus & # 180 ; s position this was indispensable to existence as he claimed that immorality is a manner to greater good, so God intended for immorality to be. Irenaeus & # 180 ; s suggested ground for the job of immorality today is the fact that immorality and good constructs are non balanced. He felt that if there was a healthy balance between good and evil so it would be the best possible universe for psyche devising. Augustine would reason against this as he can non come to footings with the universe being a good topographic point when it involves evil and agony.

Irenaeus supports God & # 180 ; s ethical motives through the fact that free will would no longer be without the doggedness of immorality. Because some evil happenings are a consequence of people making as they please through their ain free will. Though we can & # 180 ; t unrecorded under regulations all the clip as if we were all portion of a large school, so free will is indispensable and really of import.

However, Irenaeus did acknowledge that there is a negative side to liberate will through the fact that it grants us with the possible to turn away from God and take evil. Though accepted by Irenaeus, this would be more recognized by Augustine & # 180 ; s theodicy, as Irenaeus points seem to differ with the fact that this really happens though he does state that it & # 180 ; s a possibility.

The struggle between Augustine and Irenaeus arises from their hugely different positions on Theodicy, for case, Irenaeus believes that immorality is indispensable to be and God created it for our well being, yet Augustine merely claims that it shouldn & # 180 ; Ts have come about and God did non mean for it to go on. All of their positions relate to each other yet have a somewhat different background as the sentiments behind each are different so are brought across in different ways.