Augustine theodicy

Question 1

Seminal presence

Answer 1

• This is the idea that humans were present in Adam when he ate the apple this means that we are also responsible for the bringing of sin into the world.
• We are also all related to Adam and eve as we are all descended from them. Meaning that we are also responsible for the sin and that gets God off the hook
  -humans in the bosom of Adam.

Question 2

Hierarchy of beings

Answer 2

• This was when the angles fell from heaven, and this shows that they turned away from the good life that was provided to them by God.
• So, it was not gods doing it is just the turning away from good.
  turned away from harmony and that means that evil is a result of disharmony.

Question 3

the fall

Answer 3

• The Hebrew word means to know, and you cannot know without doing it first like you cannot know what a strawberry yoghurt tastes like if you have never had one this means that we cannot know goodness until we see evil in the world, we cannot know one without the other.
• When Adam and eve release that they are naked this shows that they no longer in harmony with the world.

Question 4

free will

Answer 4

• This is good as it allows us to have autonomy over our decisions and allows us to be able to do the things that bring happiness and goodness to the world and people like getting married if free will was not a thing, we would not be able to do it.
• This is also far better than having a robot that is programmed to act a certain way but one that can think freely and act how it chooses.

Question 5

privation

Answer 5

• This means that evil is just a lack of goodness It is not there it is just lacking something.
• You may have both eyes but be lacking in vision this means that you lack sight.
• So evil is a lack of goodness.

Question 6

genesis story

Answer 6

• The garden was made in harmony and there was not evil this means that evil is only a result of disharmony.
• Humans are not just physical, but they are also spiritual, and this means that they also have the ability to reason, and this is a god like quality.

Question 7

The inconsistent triad-

Answer 7

Idea that if God is omnipotent and can stop evil but does not and does not stop evil then he is omnirelevant and of he is omnibelovenat and cannot stop evil he cannot be God as these are the characteristics that are given to God.

• This is the idea that God is (a) omnipotent and (b) omnibelovant but evil exists so means that these characteristics are wrong and not true, or would it be easier to say that God does not exist. As without these things god cannot be God.

Question 8

logical problem of evil.

Answer 8

• God is both omnipotent and omnibelovant but evil exists so he can’t exist he should be able to remove suffering in the world
  . limits hm as the benefactor meaning that he would not be all knowing meaning that the characteristic fail.either god does not know or does not want to.

Question 9

evidential problem

Answer 9

• This is the idea that there can not be an all-loving god in the world that allows evil to exist as that goes against being all loving. children having cancer and suffering why should we worship that god that allows children to suffer.

Question 10

list the componments of the Augustine theodicy.

Answer 10

• seminal presence
• the fall
• the hierarchy of beings
  -genesis story.
  -privation.
• free will

Question 11

critiques of Augustine.

Answer 11

• hicks says that a lot of educated people believe the genesis story to be literal and not myths.
• Dawkins says why should all people suffer for the actions of other people 2 people. not all everyone is religious.
  -schiermacker says that how could a perfect world become imperfect this means that it would not have been made well in the first place if there was room for error.

Question 12

defence of the free will theodicy.

Answer 12

• this is the idea that an all knowing god should have been able to make a free will that always results in good and not evil. but this could limit the free will thought it might not be total free will.

Question 13

what did cs.lewis say about evil?

Answer 13

he said that evil was or is atheisms most promenant weapon. this is the idea that the fact that evil exists in the world is the greatest argument against the existence of god. Stephen fry why should we worship a god that allows children to have flesh eating diseases that eat their eyes from the inside out.