PHL204H5 Lecture 5: Does God Exist? IV
Lecture 5: Does God Exist? IV
January 22, 2019
Pastoral Problem of Evil
• How to comfort someone who is suffering, who believes in god.
• How a pastor would respond to someone dealing with suffering)
The Philosophical Problem of Evil
1. If god exists, then god is omnipotent and perfectly good
2. An omnipotent bring is able to eliminate all pointless evils
3. A perfectly good being would eliminate all pointless evils
4. Pointless evils exist
5. Therefore, god does not exist
“pointless evils” – evils that don’t allow for the greater good
some evils god has to allow for the greater good….
Are all evils pointless? Looking back, years later, the evil might have benefited your growth etc.
The Tree of Life – A Narrative Response
• Director – studied philosophy
o Brother passed away at a young age
• God is yellow flickering light
• Nature and Grace (dad and mom)
• The way of Nature – dad
o Self-serving
o Way of nature can’t be slighted
▪ Flips when he isn’t shown the respect, he thinks he deserves
o Finds reasons to be unhappy
o Hypercritical
o Artificial (fake)
o Think the way of grace is naïve (For the weak etc.)
• Way of Grace- mother
o Serving others
o Accepts being slighted
o Finds reasons to be happy
o Authenticity
o Thinks the way of nature is blind
The way of grace helps with the problem of evil
(not as bad as if you approach it with the way of nature) (from the movie, using the way of grace)
1. Loving others
o Less self-absorption (makes her happier, inner contentment)
2. Sees beauty, mostly in nature
a. Sense of wonder
3. Good things are a gift
a. More grateful
4. Realizes finitude (small spec in a large universe)
a. Cannot know if evils are pointless
5. Realizes that there will be a heaven
a. Evils are brief (not pointless)
Document Summary
Pastoral problem of evil: how to comfort someone who is suffering, who believes in god, how a pastor would respond to someone dealing with suffering) Pointless evils evils that don"t allow for the greater good some evils god has to allow for the greater good . Looking back, years later, the evil might have benefited your growth etc. Three philosophical responses: cannot appreciate the good, without evil, evils are not pointless then, they help you know the good, response- but why so much evil, the amount. No need for evil at all to appreciate good: evil is needed for the development of virtue, but distribution of opportunities to develop virtue. But the value of virtue is only to combat evil then just have no evil and no loss in lacking virtues. But development of vice: god has created the world therefore there are no pointless evils, argue that classical god exists? (arg.
