head to heads

mill vs mackie:

• Mill argues from a utilitarian standpoint.

• Believes in the benevolence of God but questions the evidence in nature.

• Mill observes brutality and suffering in nature, arguing against the existence of a benevolent creator.

• Nature's cruelty, in his view, contradicts the concept of a loving and caring God.

• He relies on empirical evidence, highlighting the apparent indifference and harshness in the natural world.

• Belief in a caring God, according to Mill, lacks support from observed realities.

• Mackie argues from a logical and evidential problem of evil.

• Proposes the inconsistency of the coexistence of evil with an all-powerful and benevolent God.

• Mackie contends that the traditional attributes of God—omniscience, omnipotence, and benevolence—are logically incompatible with the existence of evil.

• The existence of gratuitous evil (pointless suffering) challenges the traditional concept of God.

• Focuses on the logical problem of evil, questioning the coherence of holding certain divine attributes alongside the presence of evil.

• Challenges theists to reconcile these attributes without logical contradictions.

irenaeus vs augustine:

• irenaeus

  • humans made in God's image and likeness.

  • distinction between image and likeness.

  • free will is essential for humans to be in God's image.

  • evil has a purpose, helps create the soul.

  • positive response to evil strengthens the relationship with God.

• augustine

  • evil is the absence of good (privatio boni).

  • evil originated from the fall of angels misusing free will.

  • the angelic fall repeated in the garden of Eden.

  • disruption caused by the fall impacted the created order.

  • variation in the created world is part of its goodness and perfection.

  • humans fell catastrophically due to Adam and Eve's disobedience.

  • variety in creation is not evil; differences mean some creatures are more limited.

  • the first evil entered the world through the fall of angels.

  • human experience of evil results from the misuse of free will.

  • evil is not a separate force but a falling away from goodness.