Philosophy 100, Fall 2006					

Philosophy of Religion Handout 2



The three important properties of God: God is omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good.



The Argument from Evil:

	1.	If there were a God, then there would not be a vast amount of sensory 
		pain in the world.

	2.	There is a vast amount of sensory pain in the world.

	3.	Therefore, there is no God; God does not exist.
	
	

Challenging the rationale for the first premise: what reasons might God have
for permitting so much pain and suffering? We discussed several answers to this question.

	1. 	God permits all that pain out of spite.
	
	2. 	God permits all that pain because it is impossible for Him to create a
	    world with less pain.
	
	3. 	God permits all that pain so people can appreciate the goodness of the
		things that are good.
	
	4.	God permits all that pain because it is good when people who deserve to
		suffer get what they deserve.
		
	5.	God permits all that pain because preventing it would require lots of 
		miracles.
		


The Free Will Defense: preliminaries.


Definition:

	S freely performs act A =df. S performs A, and S was able to perform some 
	other act, or no act at all, instead.
	


The Free Will Defense (first version):

	God permits all the pain and suffering our world contains because free will 
	is itself good, and the goodness of all the free acts in the world 
	"outweighs" the badness of all the suffering.
	
	

An argument that acting freely is not itself a good thing, based 
on the scenario of Chris the Criminal:


	1.	Act A has a better outcome than act B.

	2.	If acting freely is itself a good thing, then act A does not have the 
		a better outcome than act B.

	3.	Therefore, acting freely is not itself a good thing.
	
	
	
The Free Will Defense (second version):

	The best world God could hope to create was one with free creatures who 
	freely choose to love Him. But by creating a world with free creatures,
	God took a risk that they would not love him, but would turn to evil
	instead.
	
	

Three questions about the Free Will Defense (second version):

	1.	Why didn't God "wipe the slate clean" once he saw that free will 
		wasn't leading to the good consequences he hoped for? 
		
	2.	Why is the vast amount of sensory pain our world contains necessary for
		God's plan for atonement? Why doesn't God "protect us from the worst 
		effects of our separation from Him?"
		
	3.	What reason does God have to permit the suffering caused by natural 
		disasters and disease, and the suffering of animals that existed
		before there were any people? That is, how is this suffering part of 
		God's plan for atonement?