challenges against religious belief

Epicurus

who came up with the logical problem of evil

if he wants to but cannot it is impotent. if he can but does not want to he is wicked

Epicurus quote, in relation to the existence of evil

J L Mackie

Who developed the logical problem of evil in to the inconsistent triad

God is Omnipotent
God is omnibenevolent
evil exists

what is the inconsistent triad

by removing one part of the triangle

how can the inconsistent triad be solved?

- evil plays a greater purpose
- we don't understand true evil
- we don't understand God (Aquinas)
- theodicies

arguments against inconsistent triad

William Rowe (The Evidential Problem of Evil)

book, problem of evil and some varieties of atheism
- reasonable for some suffering, but intense suffering like a fawn caught and dying in a forest fire is unnecessary
- God knows that we suffer and he should have either the power or love to stop it

Gregory Paul's argument for the 'statistical problem of evil'

- billions of children die before the 'age of mature consent', and many too die before they are born, and that no all loving or powerful being would allow this to happen

not possible to reconcile the Christian concept of a pacific creator with the state of the universe

Paul quote

Augustinian Theodicy

Soul-deciding theodicy

Augustinian Theodicy explained

God made the world perfect (God saw all that he made and it was very good) but due to original sin, a privation of good was created.
We were seminally present, during the fall, and so through evil we are punished

the penalty of sin corrects the dishonour of sin

Augustinian theodicy quote

Criticisms of Augustinian Theodicy

- how could a perfect world go wrong
- how would something perfectly made go wrong
- by allowing sin, Gods world is imperfect

Soul making theodicy

what is the Irenaean theodicy

Irenaean Theodicy

Evil is necessary for human development, and allows for a value in good. as we can't appreciate good health if you've never been ill

Irenaean theodicy in practice

Lance Armstrong, after a cancer diagnosis, he turned his life around and worked hard to become healthy

Hick's Development of Irenaean Theodicy

for humans to be free, we need epistemic distance, and our free will is what allows us to find and work to be good (so it has value).

Challenges to Irenaean type theodicy

- an omnibevolent God would not use evil and suffering as a punishment
- immensity of suffering and unequal distribution of evil (holocaust, soul breaking rather making)

It is God that has made us who we are, but it will be God, too who will raise us up again

irenaean type theodicy quote from Anne Frank

epistemological criticism of religion

- new atheists believe that belief in religion is irrational.
- Dawkins argued that "faith is the great cop-out"
- religious people are non thinking, and blindly accept the answers given by faith (leads to fanaticism)
- why do people believe their one God is the right one

criticism of epistemological criticism

- people choose to convert to religion
- some religions do not claim their God is the only one, like Hindus

Moral Criticism

stops people from seeing the true world and its creation. God is not needed as an explanation for the universe

metaphysical criticism

only reality that is meaningful is the empirical one, and that religion impedes rational, scientific evidence, as it teaches us to not change our minds.

Holy books often contradict each other, but none are changed

Religion does not teach growth

criticisms of arguments against God

- desire to study comes from faith and hope
- can be a support, and push for strength to keep researching

religion as ocd

same as obsessional neurosis (OCD), based on guilt and purity

Made to combat our anxiety

" regard obsessional neurosis as a pathological formation of religion"

wish fulfilment (Freud and religion)

religion compensates for our feelings of helplessness, and gives us security.
" religion is a system of wishful illusions"

primal horde

Dominant male has influence over a subordinate group, and we have that instinct in us, so we follow a male father figure

Oedipus complex

boys sexual desire to kill their father to marry their mother shames them, and to make up for this, they worship a male father God figure, to relieve themselves of this guilt

criticisms of Freud

- doesn't argue if God is real, just argues that people have a deep need to believe in a God
- no proof that there is an Oedipus complex
- religious beliefs can be unsettling, so not correct in saying that religion only is there to being comfort

Jung argument summarised

elements of our unconscious mind is shared with others, and it was archetypes which are shared (recurring themes). Jesus and the Trinity are not real, but manifestations of these archetypes, and we use these to reach our self

Criticisms of Jung's argument

- maybe archetypes are built by god
- Popper " feeling of the truth of an idea is no support for its being accepted as a hypothesis"