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Evil and a Theistic God
In order to understand if god exists, and if he is to be ombivalant, omnipotent and omniscient we must always take into consideration what challenges these propositions, in order to show that there is rationality in a theistic god.
The biggest challenge that the notion of a theistic being faces is the empirical argument for evil. (Peek, 2004) This is, the amount and types of evil that exist in the world make the idea of an all good, all knowing and all loving God unlikely. Evil is stated as (Oxford, 1984) that it is anything bad, harmful or wicked, or from St Thomas’s perspective, (Mooney, 2001) “. ... the absence of evil due to a thing.” (Peek, 2004) There are two types; one is that of natural evil, which exists by the earth and is not of direct human moral action for example situations that naturally occur are earth quakes, floods, drought and fire. The Second is that of moral evil, which is harm or suffering caused by actions of moral agents, which are people or us.
One of the arguments to disprove a theistic god is that of the Free Will Defense. It is defined as (Oxford, 1984) the power of directing one’s actions voluntarily and (Mooney, 2001) evil arises as to be the result of bad choices made by intelligent free beings such as humans and angles. ... God can not be all good and all powerful and still permit evil to exist throughout the world 2. Morality involves the knowledge of good and evil and from this we are able to choose what is right and differentiate between the wrong or evil. ... (Gaita, 1991) Pain and evil were not created by god so none of them exist.
(Evil and God, website, 2004) However, to offer a reply to this, that the existence of evil is a mystery which finite human minds cannot properly comprehend; and if we just put our faith in God, we can maintain the confidence, that he actually does exist. ...
A second argument that assists in the difficulties of having an empirical god is that of the contrast principle.
Approximate Word count = 1792
Approximate Pages = 7.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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