Transcript Why does God allow evil?

Can we claim God exists and there is evil?
A THEODICY attempts to explain why God permits
evil
Must explain both natural and moral evil
Augustine’s Theodicy
 God created the world, and it was perfect
 This included the gift of free will
 Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and ate from the tree of
the knowledge
 When they disobeyed, this caused the Fall
 This introduced evil into humanity, and caused an
imbalance in nature – humanity and nature are now
hostile to one another
 So both natural and moral evil are a result of an
immoral act
The Free Will Defence
 A key part of Augustine’s theodicy, and at the heart of
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most others
It is better to have a world with freedom rather than a
world which is fully determined
There must be freedom for there to be moral goodness
So God had to give us freedom in order to allow us the
possibility to be good
God cannot make us act as morally – morality requires
freedom
It is better we are free and make mistakes, rather than
having a world of ‘moral robots’ (Plantinga)
So moral evil is a necessary price for freedom