Theories of Human Nature Test

Omnipotence — All

powerful

Omniscience — All

knowing

Omnibenevolent — All

good

Moral Evil

Evil caused by human free will (e.g. genocide)

Natural Evil

— Evil caused by nature (e.g. earthquakes, fires)

Evil (Augustine)

— A privation (lack/absence) of good

Privation

— The absence of something that should be there

Gratuitous Evil

— Evil that has no purpose or greater good

Everlasting

— Exists forever within time

Eternal

— Exists outside of time

Problem of Evil

— The conflict between God’s goodness/power/knowledge and the existence of evil

Free Will Defense

— Argument that evil exists because humans freely choose wrong actions

Augustine’s Theodicy

— Explains evil as a result of free will and lack of good

Cause of Moral Evil (Augustine)

— Human free will

Cause of Natural Evil (Augustine)

— Imperfection/limitation of creation

Key Claim (Augustine)

— God created only good; evil is not a real thing

Weakness of Augustine

— Cannot explain gratuitous evil

Soul Making Theodicy

— Suffering helps develop moral character

Purpose of Evil (Hick)

— To build virtues like compassion and kindness

Two Stages (Hick)

— Physical creation + soul making process

Key Problem (Hick)

— Some suffering seems excessive or undeserved

Afterlife (Hick)

— Needed to complete soul making process

Freedom of Desire

— Acting based on strongest desire

Freedom to Choose

— Ability to choose between desires (true free will)

Why Free Will Matters

— Needed to explain moral responsibility

Problem with Free Will

— God’s foreknowledge may eliminate freedom

Cosmological Argument

— Everything has a cause; must be a first cause (God)

Teleological Argument

— The world shows design; must have a designer (God)

First Cause

— The initial cause that started everything

Efficient Cause

— Something that brings something else into existence

Method of Doubt

— Doubting everything to find certainty

Skepticism

— Doubting knowledge from senses

Dream Argument

— You might be dreaming, so senses are unreliable

Evil Demon Hypothesis

— A powerful being could be deceiving you

Cogito

— “I think, therefore I am”

Thinking Thing

— A being that doubts, understands, and thinks

Wax Argument

— Shows that knowledge comes from the mind, not senses

Conclusion (Wax)

— The mind understands reality, not the senses

Ontological Argument

— God must exist because existence is a perfection

Perfect Being

— A being with all perfections

Cartesian Dualism

— Mind and body are separate substances

Mind

— Non physical thinking substance

Body

— Physical extended substance

Problem of Dualism

— Hard to explain interaction between mind and body

Physicalism

— Only physical matter (no mind)

Idealism

— Only mind exists (no physical world)

Epiphenomenalism

— Mind exists but does not cause actions

A Priori

— Knowledge based on logic (no experience)

A Posteriori

— Knowledge based on experience

Ontological Argument

— A priori argument for God

Cosmological Argument

— Based on cause/effect

Teleological Argument

— Based on design