Intro to PhilosophyLesson 4:

St. AugustineThe Problem of Evil

St. Augustine

354-430 CE Born in Thagaste

(Modern Day Algeria) “You have made us

for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.”

Manichaeism

Two gods: one evil, one good Independent realities vying against each

other towards BALANCE

Anthropology The soul (spiritual) comes from the good god,

the spiritual realm is good The body (material) comes from the evil god,

the material realm is evil

Neoplatonism

A development of Plato’s thought (neo = “new”) Plotinus was the most significant Neoplatonist The highest good is found in “The One” (i.e., god) who

possesses the fullness of BEING or REALITY

“God” is a non-personal entity Unchanging Contemplates itself Existence Emanates from the One

Evil is a deprivation or lack in Being.

The Great Chain of Being

Augustine’s Break

Primary Issue: God acts, and God acts in a specific way.

For God to act means that he changes For God to act in a specific way means that he

possesses the characteristics of a “person” (will, reason, etc.)

Time

“In the eternal, nothing is transient, but the whole is present.” (Confessions 11.11)

Traditional View: time is a succession of moments Eternity is (in this view) an infinite succession of moments Eternity (where God exists) is not in time as such, but

rather outside of it. Therefore God does not change even though he acts

because change requires a succession of moments, which is impossible in eternity

Time and Eternity

Perfection

Traditional View

Unchanging Self-Sufficient Contemplates Itself

Augustine’s View

Unchanging in Eternity Self-Sufficient Love

Self-Giving Self-Emptying Volitional

Disordered Loves

“Evil, then, is not a love for bad things. Instead, evil results when we get lost in the beauty and value of good things to the extent that we neglect what is best.”

“Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, and soul…love your neighbor as you love yourself.” (Matthew 22:37, 39)

Four Loves

Love of physical things (matter) Love of other people Love of oneself Love of God The proper order of these loves constitutes proper

participation in Reality *To love others, oneself, and things as God

loves them.*

Example: Murder

Murder is not the result of a will to cause evil by itself

Motive is determined by perceived benefit; benefit is determined what we desire (i.e., what we love)

Vengeance: we murder someone because we love our honor (or the honor of someone else)

Envy: we murder someone because we love their things Fear: we murder someone because we love our security

(and they are a perceived threat)

Example: Friendship

Friendship is a natural part of the divine economy Evil results from friendship when… We sacrifice the greater good for the good of the

individual we love We seek too much from one another in terms of

emotional or material connections More than they can give More than they want to give

Detachment

In order to love something (truly) we have to distance ourselves from our dependence upon them. Otherwise we will selfishly exploit that dependence.

Therefore in order to truly love another human being we have to be completely dependent on God, thereby allowing us to return to our relationships in a selfless way.

The Problem of Evil

If God is omnipotent (all-powerful) If God is omnibenevolent (all-good) Evil exists Therefore: God does not exist. A good God that is all-powerful would eliminate

evil. Since evil exists, God must not exist or, at least, be either all-good or all-powerful.

Problem of Evil

In order to approach this issue philosophically we must decide which premise we either (a) disagree with or (b) wish to redefine.

One way of doing this is to redefine evil in terms of moral evil (evil that results from human choice) and redefine omnipotence in terms of self-restriction (God limits himself in order to give us free will).

Then the issue turns on whether we think free will is worth all of the suffering that results from it. Would a good God think that free will is worth the Holocaust (or any other tragic case of human suffering)?