Philosophy: Problem of Evil Part 2



Hi, my name is Greg Ganssle, and I’m a Senior Fellow[br]at the Rivendell Institute at Yale University. We’re discussing the[br]philosophical problem of evil. So in the last lecture, we looked at the philosophical problem of evil and we said that atheists[br]want to deny premise one, that is, “God exists and is omniscient

Omnipotent, and wholly good”, while theists want to investigate the additional premises more carefully. So let us check to see. Are these premises true? So let’s look at premise three first: “There are no limits to what an omnipotent, omniscient being can do.” Is this true? Well, let’s think about it.

You’ve probably heard this question: “Can God make a rock so big[br]that even He can’t move it?” What about this: “Can God make a class so boring[br]that even He falls asleep?” These are the kinds of questions some people think are[br]going to be unanswerable. But they boil down to,[br]especially the rock question

Boils down to, “Can God[br]make contradictions true?” You see, a rock so big[br]that an all-powerful being cannot move it is a contradiction. So the question is, can God[br]make a contradiction true? So let’s answer the question[br]”Yes” and let’s answer the question “No” and see what happens. “Yes”: If God can make contradictions true,

Then he can make a rock so[br]big that he cannot move it. But then, he can also move[br]it, because he can make the contradiction true that[br]he cannot move the rock and he also can move the rock. So this is not a problem. But what if God cannot do contradiction?

Then we will have to say that God cannot make this kind of a rock. It’s not something that,[br]as an all-powerful being, He can accomplish. Now traditionally, most[br]theologians and philosophers have understood God’s power such that He cannot do contradictions. And it’s very important for[br]the atheist to hold this view.

Because the atheist[br]wants to have an argument that God does not exist, such[br]as John Mackie’s argument. So suppose Mackie has[br]a successful argument: There’s a contradiction in believing that God exists and that evil exists. The theist can simply[br]say, “Well, if God can do contradictions, he can make[br]that contradiction true. There is no contradiction that challenges

The existence of God.” So in order to have any[br]argument against the existence of God at all, we have to[br]assume that God’s power does not extend to being able[br]to make contradictions true. So we are going to say that premise three as it stands is false.

There are some limits to what[br]an all-powerful being can do. There are logical limits. God cannot draw a square circle. God cannot make a rock[br]so big He cannot move it. These are contradictions. So we need to rewrite premise three. We’ll call it “Three*”: There are no non-logical limits

To what an omnipotent,[br]omniscient being can do. This has a chance of being true. So we’ve revised premise three;[br]let’s look at premise four. Premise four: “A good being always eliminates evil as far as it can.” This too turns out to be false. Often, a good parent[br]allows evil and suffering

Into her child’s life even[br]if she could eliminate it. In our family, we had a very[br]strict rule that the children were not allowed to eat[br]candy before breakfast, and sometimes this caused distress. But we knew we had a good reason to allow this kind of suffering. It didn’t make us bad parents.

So we have to revise premise[br]four as well. Four*: A good being always eliminates[br]evil as far as it can unless it has a good reason to allow it. This has a chance of being true. So the theist says, “We need[br]to revise those two premises. Let’s plug them back into our argument

And see if we can still[br]get a contradiction.” Premise one remains the same. Premise two remains the same. Evil exists. Premise three*. “There are no non-logical limits to what an omnipotent being can do.” Premise four*. “A good being always eliminates[br]evil as far as it can, unless it has a good reason to allow it.”

>From these four, we can[br]go through the steps. Statement five is actually going to be statement five* now: God can eliminate all the evil that it’s logically possible to[br]eliminate. Statement six becomes statement six*: God will eliminate all[br]the evil He can eliminate because He is good, unless He[br]has a good reason to allow it.

>From statement five* and statement six*, we get statement seven*: God eliminates all the evil[br]He logically can eliminate, unless He has a good reason to allow it. Statement eight*: There[br]is evil and there is no evil, unless God has a good reason to allow it. And this is not a contradiction.

So what the theists have recognized is that if it’s possible that[br]God has a good reason to allow evil, there is no contradiction in claiming that God[br]exists, God is wholly good, all-powerful, all-knowing,[br]and yet evil exists. Could it be that God has a[br]good reason to allow evil,

But we don’t have to[br]know what His reasons are for any particular evil? There are some things that[br]have come up as suggestions for why God might allow some[br]of the evils we encounter. First, human freedom. Many philosophers believe[br]that if God allows us to be free in a significant[br]way, then He cannot determine

That we always choose what’s right. That would be a contradiction: a determined action that’s free. Secondly, many people[br]think that the regularities in the universe require the possibility of natural evils such as[br]drownings and burnings. It’s the very same properties[br]of water that make it biologically useful that make[br]it possible for us to drown.

If we’re going to have a regular[br]cause and effect universe, we need to have a stable world. These might be some of the reasons that God allows evil in the world. We don’t know His particular reasons. So the charge of[br]contradiction is the charge that there is a contradiction[br]between the existence of God

And the existence of evil. We’ve shown that there’s[br]probably no contradiction. If God can have a reason to allow evil, then the argument has been answered. Of course, this leads to[br]the next problem of evil called “the evidential problem.” But that’s for another day. Subtitles by the Amara.org community

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How God Deals With Evil Without Destroying Humanity



We all long for the world to be good for people to live in peace act with love and justice but there’s a problem something compels us humans to constantly wreak havoc and destruction instead and we call this evil and from the Bible’s point of view, evil ruins

Things in at least two ways. There’s a direct effect of our evil like when someone steals from another person they’ve created injustice therefore they owe something to make it right but there’s another indirect effect of evil because they’ve also ruined the environment of the relationship creating a lack of

Trust there’s emotional damage it’s like vandalism and they need to make that right too. Now many people believe ‘Hey God is good he should be the one to just get rid of all the evil in the world.’ But let’s be honest I mean the evil that I see everywhere

Out there it’s the same evil that’s inside of me. We have all contributed and we keep doing it. So this kind of puts us in a bind if God’s going to rid the world of evil, he’ll have to get rid of us. And this is what’s so remarkable about the story

Of the Bible. This God is so good that not only is he going to rid the world of evil he’s going to do it without destroying humanity. So how is he going to do that? Well early in the story of the Bible we’re introduced to this practice of animal sacrifice which I

Know seems weird to us but for the Israelites it was a very powerful symbol of God’s justice and of His grace. So remember I’m a contributor to the evil that’s in the world I should be removed. But God is allowing this animal’s life

To be a substitute. It symbolically dying in my place. And the biblical word for this is atonement, which means to cover over someone’s death. But there’s a second part to this ritual remember evil also causes this relational vandalism and in the Bible this

Idea is described as polluting or defiling the land and making it unclean so the priest would symbolically wash away the vandalism by sprinkling the animal’s blood in different parts of the temple. So the animal’s blood is cleaning things? Well, remember this is a symbol and it’s a symbol that we’re not

Used to. The blood represents life and the sprinkling of the blood is this representation of how God is cleaning away these indirect consequences of evil in their community. In the Bible this process is called purification and so the temple in the land now become a clean space where God and His people can

Live together in peace So this ritual makes things right between Israel and God? And more than that! The Israelites experience God’s love and His grace through these symbols and by being forgiven ideally this would compel them to become people of love and grace that’s the ideal but

It wasn’t always happening right so the prophet Isaiah for example he talks a lot about this he opens his book by saying that the continual sacrifices of the Israelites had become meaningless because they were also allowing great evil in their midst. Ignoring the poor and the oppressed even the Israelite

Kings were distorting justice. But Isaiah looked forward to a day when a new king from the line of David would come and deal with evil but in a surprising way the King would become a servant and not just serve but also suffer and die for the

Evil committed by his own people and his life would be offered as a sacrifice this is the promise of Jesus believed he was fulfilling he’s the king of Israel suffering and dying on the cross. In fact, Jesus himself used Isaiah’s words when he said

That he came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. And that word ransom refers to the sacrifice of atonement and so all over the New Testament we hear about how Jesus’ death was an atoning sacrifice for us. It covered the debt that

Humans owe God for contributing to all of the evil and death in His world but the new testament authors also talk about Jesus death as providing purification and so we hear about Jesus’ blood as a symbol of his life having this ability

To wash away the vandalism that evil has caused in and around us so we can now live at peace with God so that’s the meaning behind Jesus’ death but there’s more to the story. Yeah, the New Testament makes this powerful claim that Jesus’s death was not final he rose from the dead

And so he’s the sacrifice who broke the power of death and evil which means that he lives on to offer his life to anyone who will accept it he is the perfect sacrifice to it which all the previous sacrifices were pointing all along. So because of Jesus

The early Christians stopped participating in the ritual animal sacrifice. But they were given new rituals there are two that Jesus taught his followers to perform the first is called baptism. Just as Jesus died so going into the water becomes this personal connection you now have to his death and

In coming out of the water you so to speak come back to life with Jesus baptism is the sacred ritual that joins your story to Jesus’s death and resurrection the second rituals called the Lord’s Supper which is a reenactment of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples and he use bread

And wine to portray his coming death as a sacrifice and so now followers of Jesus they take the bread and the cup regularly to remember and to participate in the power of Jesus’ death and in his life so these rituals they remind us of

God’s love and encourage us to live a life love and grace but they do more than that they connect us to a new life source the very power that brought Jesus back from the dead is the same power that can deal with the evil in our own

Lives and transform us into people who lead lives of love and peace. Hi this is Tim! And this is Jon! And we believe the Bible is telling one overall story from beginning to end and so we’re making videos about each individual book

Of the Bible its unique design and message and then how it fits into that overall storyline we also make videos we take one biblical theme we trace it from the beginning of Scripture all the way to the end. We are a non-profit and we

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#God #Deals #Evil #Destroying #Humanity