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Topic 4: Challenges to Religious Belief

(Evil and Science) What I need to know: 1. The Problem of Evil 2. Moral and Natural Evil 3. The two Theodicies 4. Creation of the Universe

(religion and science) 5. Creation of Life (religion and

science) 6. Modern day theories

This is the final topic which we covered in the Philosophy of Religion. This topic was largely consolidatory – much of what we covered elsewhere fits in here. However you do need to learn the Theodicies from scratch.

The final piece of the philosophical puzzle!

What is evil? Evil is well known issue. We define evil as any cause which leads to discomfort by a living being. In the world of Philosophy there are two main types of evil: Moral Natural

The Problem of Evil: The problem of evil is the philosophical debate about how and why God would let evil happen. The issue is here because God is supposed to be the omni’s and the existence of evil and the omni’s seems contradictory.

Recap

What are the omni’s of God?

Based on the description of God the following should be true: Premise 1: God is all-powerful and all-loving and all-seeing Premise 2: An all-powerful, all-loving and all-seeing God would oppose the existence of evil, particularly if it could affect his highest creation (human beings) Conclusion: Evil does not exist in the world

What are they

doing?!?

However, we know that evil does exist. The results of this then show that either: 1. God is not all powerful and cannot do

anything about evil 2. God is not all loving or all good and

doesn’t want to do anything about it 3. God does not know that it is

happening and is not all-seeing / transcendent

Any one of these conclusions would be unacceptable for a religious believer as it would drastically alter their interpretation of God.

Who cares about student fee’s – I’m rich

and bright, that’s all that

matters!

In an essay you would focus on how if God is omnipotent, omni-benevolent

and omniscient evil should not happen.

Remember – context becomes the classical view of God!

Support each point with examples and link them to scholars like Dawkins and

J.L. Mackie.

The aim then of Philosophers is to somehow marry together the existence of evil with the existence of God. When we do this we call it a Theodicy. A Theodicy is just a justification of the righteousness of God, given the existence of evil

I do!

Theodicy No. 1: Irenaeus: Irenaeus was raised a Christian and believed in the literal word of the Bible. For Irenaeus the source of evil in the world can be traced directly to the Fall of Man in Genesis and that this passage is an entirely truthful representation for how evil came to be.

The Fall of Man in short: 1. God created the Garden

to be a perfect place 2. God created man to live

and rule over the garden 3. From Adam’s rib woman

was formed 4. Eve was tempted by the

‘serpent’ to eat from the tree of knowledge

5. Eve suckered Adam into it too

6. The pair now saw right from wrong and perceived evil

7. God got mardy and kicked them both out

For Irenaeus evil was caused because Adam and Eve had succumbed to the temptation of the serpent because they were not developed enough to understand what was right and wrong = IMMATURE. This is possible because in the Bible God said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). This is the 2-stage distinction.

Here Irenaeus makes an important distinction. For Irenaeus, mankind was made in the image of God but we are working towards his likeness. It is a two-stage process. In short, we are not born perfect but are working towards God’s grace. This is why we call it soul-making because evil exists to help us get to God.

The key point to notice here is that for

Irenaeus evil is a positive.

It exists to help human beings

become as good as they can be.

How does Irenaeus explain natural evil? For Irenaeus natural evil is the result of the world being soul-making. The Garden of Eden as designed to be perfect but the rest of the world exists to help make us better. How does Irenaeus explain Moral evil? Moral evil is simply because we are not created perfectly – we have the choice (free will) to do what we want. Remember Free Will is a good thing!

The key question we need to ask is why doesn’t God just make us good. For Irenaeus there is an Epistemic Distance between man and God (a distance of thought) and he cannot just make us good. Also, for Irenaeus people choosing to love God is better than someone being forced to love God (after all God is good)

You shall love me!

For Irenaeus all evil is justifiable because it is helping us attain the likeness of God. For Irenaeus all people, regardless of what they have done, will reach God’s likeness (heaven) because we have many lives. This is known as the Eschatological Justification

We can present Irenaeus’ Theodicy as follows

1. God is the creator and is all-loving / all-powerful 2. God’s creation was not created ‘perfect’ – it was designed

to develop over time 3. Human beings were created imperfectly because it is better to evolve into the likeness of God than be created

in it 4. Our world has evolved to be soul-making and this

explains the existence of natural evil 5. There is an epistemic distance between God and human

beings – he is hidden because it is better to turn to him than created loving him

6. All humans will eventually attain the likeness of God (eschatological justification)

7. This is all allowed because free will is good and explains the existence of moral evil

Irenaeus in the Modern World: One Philosopher, John Hick, decided to take Irenaeus’ argument and develop it. The main difference between Hick and Irenaeus is that Hick does not believe in the literal interpretation of the bible.

The literal Bible – what nonsense!

Hick argued that humans are in a long process of evolution and are moving towards both God’s image and likeness. For Hick, God’s image is when we become rational and fully aware. God’s likeness will be obtained some time in the future. Natural evil exists to help us on that journey.

God has been on a new power diet for

the summer holidays!

How does Hick justify this long process? For Hick, humans had to evolve because if we were created in the direct presence of God the Epistemic Distance would be too small and there would be no Free Will. Remember, Free Will is a good thing.

Oh shoot – all I’ve done is make an army of storm troopers!

How does Hick justify Natural Evil? For Hick, natural evil exists to challenge us. He called this the “Challenging environment”. How does Hick justify Moral Evil? Like Irenaeus, Free Will gives us the ability to act independently of what God would want.

We can write out Hick’s argument in the following way

1. God is the creator and is all-loving / all-powerful 2. God designed his creation to evolve into the image and

then eventually the likeness of God 3. Human beings were created imperfectly because it is

better to evolve into the likeness of God than be created in it

4. Our world has evolved to be soul-making and this explains the existence of natural evil

5. There is an epistemic distance between God and human beings – he is hidden because it is better to turn

to him than be created loving him 6. All humans will eventually attain the likeness of God

(eschatological justification) 7. This is all allowed because free will is good and explains

the existence of moral evil

Remember, the central theme of Irenaeus and Hick’s work is that all evil is justified because we will all eventually achieve God’s likeness.

The second Theodicy that you need to know comes from Augustine. This version is slightly harder and widely considered to be less effective than Hick’s work.

Augustine, like Irenaeus, believed in the literal interpretation of Genesis.

The central argument of Augustine relies on his definition of evil. For Augustine evil is a “privation”. This means that it is a lacking in what it good. In other words, ‘evil’ is when something does not live up to our expectations of what it should be like. Augustine uses the analogy of blindness to help explain his point.

This point is crucial. Evil is not a force in and of itself – it

is what happens when the world does not agree with

how it should be.

What caused evil? For Augustine God created the Garden of Eden in a perfect state (it was good). We say that it was in harmony. In this Garden he created all creatures, from the animals to humans and angels. Some creatures, including humans and angels were given the gift of Free Will. Remember, Free Will is a good thing.

How does Augustine justify Moral Evil? For Augustine Moral Evil was caused by Adam and Eve making a choice to rebel against God and eat the forbidden fruit. This was the original sin and was passed onto the future of humanity because we were all seminally present in Adam’s loins.

How does Augustine justify Natural Evil? Natural evil was caused by the angels choosing to turn away from God. Their rebellion caused a disharmony in the Garden of Eden and this resulted in natural disasters. However, it is interesting to note that according to Augustine, God had predestined the angels to rebel.

Thought Point

How can fallen angels effect the environment?

Also…according to most

theologians, angels don’t have free will!

So how is evil a good thing?

In short evil is a negative force (different to Irenaeus’ positive). However, Augustine offers several arguments to defend it’s

existence:

1. To overcome evil God sent his only son, Jesus, to die for our sins. It is through this atonement that humans are able to achieve

salvation. Jesus is seen as the ultimate solution. 2. By turning back to God and following Jesus’ teachings we can

escape evil – this will be rewarded with heaven 3. Those who do not turn to God will be punished in Hell

4. We only have one human life and therefore have to do the best with the time that we have

5. Evil is justified by the existence of Free Will 6. When viewed as a whole the existence of evil makes the

goodness of the world even more clear. This is called the Aesthetic Value.

We can present Augustine’s Theodicy in these simple steps:

1. God is the creator and is all-loving / all-powerful 2. God’s creation was good and was created to be in perfect

harmony 3. Within God’s creation he created Angels, Humans and

Animals 4. Evil is a Privation (a lacking) – it is not a substance directly

created 5. Angels and Human beings were given Free Will and used

it to turn away from God. This caused both Moral and Natural evil.

6. Through Jesus, God provided humans with a way to escape evil and achieve salvation

7. Not all people will achieve heaven – there is a consequence of turning away from God, this is Hell.

Remember, evil is seen as a negative and we have the choice to turn back to

God.

This is why it is also called the soul-deciding theodicy.

Bonnett’s evil review: 1. What are the two different

kinds of evil? 2. Both Irenaeus and Augustine

believe in the literal word of the Bible, true or false?

3. Irenaeus argues that we are in a two stage process. What are the two stages?

4. How do Irenaeus and Hick justify evil?

5. Augustine calls evil a ...........? 6. What causes natural evil in

the Augustinian Theodicy? 7. Give two ways that Augustine

justifies evil

Remember, we haven’t looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the two theodicies but they

are all in your notes!

The final part of this course focuses on the challenge of science to religion. For this part you need to know the two chief arguments 1. How does science change our

understanding of the creation of the universe

2. How does science change our understanding of the creation of life

Creation of the Universe: The main distinction here is between the scientific view of the Big Bang and the Bible view of Creation. Some people argue that science destroys any reason for a God. As you can guess some people are unhappy with this.

Thought Point

Do you think science will ever get

rid of a belief in God?

Creation in the Bible: Genesis 1 and 2 offer two arguments for how the world as created. Although there are differences between them the message is the same. God created the world in 6 days and designed humans with a specific role to rule over the land. The 6 days of creation go: light, sea and sky, land and vegetation, sun and moon, sea creatures and birds, animals and humans. Many Christians take the Bible absolutely literally and believe that the world is 4,004 years old. They are called Young Earth Creationists.

Creation in Science: In the scientific world creation was caused by the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. This was an implosion of all matter that is now in a process of expansion. Our planet, the Earth, was created by this mass implosion 4.6 billion years ago.

What are the main differences: 1.Significance of the Earth

2.Independence from God

3.Difference in Order

4.Difference in Purpose

5.Difference in Time

This kid is upset that the Earth means nothing!

Some Christians have tried to marry together their belief in the bible and their belief in science. 1. Day-Age Theory: This is the belief

that the bible’s ‘days of creation’ took place over millions of years

2. Gap Theory: There is a gap of time between the Genesis 1 and Genesis 2

3. Analogy

4. God as source of Big Bang

Thought Point

Which one of these interpretations do you think

is the best?

The second dilemma is the creation of life. Like with the universe, the bible explicitly says that God is responsible for the creation of human beings. Furthermore it argues that all creatures were created in their final form and in a perfect state.

Charles Darwin developed a theory known as evolution which argued that all organisms are the result of long, slow and random mutations. This shows that the bible has to be wrong!

Many Christians, now known as creationists, argue that

science will never replace the Bible because these are only theories and do not account for the purpose of humans.

Modern Interpretations: Many people have tried to resolve the existence of evolution with the existence of science. For the purposes of the exam there are 3 that you need to be aware of: 1. Theistic Evolution (God kick started

the whole thing)

2. Intelligent Design (some God must have brought this chaos into order

3. Irreducible Complexity from Michael Behe (some parts of nature cannot have rocked up on their own)

Scientific Question time: 1. What are the two main

challenges that science poses to religion?

2. How old is the universe according to the Big Bang Theory?

3. Give three differences between the Big Bang theory and the Genesis account

4. Who came up with the theory of Irreducible Complexity

Any Questions?