Discussion

Description

Make sure to watch this video: Problem of Evil and look at the PPT slides regarding the problem of evil as well as the possible solutions.

Case Study: God

Imagine a scenario in which you are talking to your friend who is an atheist (someone who does not believe in God). The reason why your friend doesn’t believe in God is because God’s all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good qualities cannot all be true when there is clearly evil in the world. The traditional conception of a Western God demands all of these three qualities to be essential towards one’s belief. However, when you look at your friend, you realize that they are deeply troubled by this problem and are asking you for some possible solution, so that they may believe in God once more. You recognize that your friend desperately wants to believe, so even though you may not believe yourself, you try your hand in trying to solve the problem.

Questions:

1) Explain in your own words what is the “problem of evil.”

2) Then offer a solution to that problem. You may appeal to your own solution, as long as it makes sense, or you may use one of the several solutions in the textbook/PPT slides. Make sure to explain your chosen solution and provide reasons why it is a preferable one.

For your reference, they are: 1) Least of All Evils; 2) An Aesthetic Solution; 3) The Free Will solution; 4) The Afterlife solution; 5) Appeal to Irrational Faith; 6) Denial of one of these three essential qualities.