1. Archie always does the morally right thing, because his father is always watching him and will beat him with a cane if he does wrong. Billy usually does the morally right thing, because he tries to be a good person, but sometimes he does wrong Cassie always does the morally right thing, because she is a robot, who has been programmed to always make the right moral choice

2. Responses to the Problem of Evil

3. Hand in on Friday 11 March. Three questions: 1.Outline the problem of evil (5 marks) 2.Explain the Kalam argument (5 marks) 3.Explain Paley’s responses to criticisms of the design argument (9 marks)

4. Target on Computer Subject review chat Folder check Orange target sheet 4 hours of homework sheet Revision RyanYY nY KlaudiaYY Y TheoY Y AdamYY Y RosieYYYYY Y Ellie y YY Y HaneetY Y HambelY Y Y Y Y Y DylanYY n Y Y RaheemYYY Y

5. Omniscience Omnipotence Omnibenevolence Eternal / Everlasting Transcendence / Immanence Immutability Moral & Natural evil Cosmological Arguments Ontological Arguments Paradox of the Stone Euthyphro dilemma Teleological Arguments Cognitivism Non-cognitivism Verification / falsification Uses of religious language Religious Language God’s attributes Arguments for God’s existence Problem of evil

6. Today you will be able to: – Explain five responses to the problem of evil – Give at least one criticism of each response

7. Afterlife Defence: suffering in this world is outweighed by the joy of heaven Free will defence (Augustine): Evil is the punishment for the sins of Adam, Eve and all humanity Unknown function (Leibniz): Evil performs some function but we are not wise enough to realise it Free will defence (Plantinga): Humans cause the evils in this world Soul-making (Hick): suffering improves our soul and prepares us for heaven Most important

8. Christianity and Islam hold the notion that the suffering and evils of this world pale into insignificance when compared with the eternity of the afterlife. Those who endure hardships in this life will be rewarded in heaven. Any amount of suffering during a lifetime is infinitesimal when compared with eternal bliss. Those who inflict suffering in this life will be punished with eternal damnation in hell.

9. Still doesn’t EXPLAIN why evil exists Do Heaven & Hell really exist? Not clear what acts will send you to Heaven or Hell Is even a gruesome crime worthy of eternal suffering in Hell? Why would an omnibenevolent God allow eternal suffering in Hell? Hell is an even greater ‘evil’ to explain

10. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” [Genesis 2:15-17] Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” She took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate it. [Genesis 3:1-6]

11. The Bible tells that Eve was tempted to eat the fruit from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil (known as ‘original sin’) Lucifer (Satan) was a fallen angel who turned away from God and started doing evil things in the universe So evil exists because of free will; Adam and Eve and their descendants must suffer for their (our) sins. Meanwhile Satan is also at work doing Evil

12. Did Adam and Eve really exist? Why should I be punished for the sins of Adam, Eve and Lucifer? If God is omnipotent, why doesn’t he destroy Satan, or limit his actions?

13. An omnipotent God could create any kind of world. A world with free will is better than one without it God is omnibenevolent, so he gave us free will. If we truly have free will, God can’t make us choose good over evil. Beings with free will might sometimes choose to do evil. Free will is the cause of evil in the world – but this is preferable to there being no free will

14. Doesn’t explain natural evils Flew says Plantinga presents a false dilemma (either we have free will, or are mindless automatons) Couldn’t God give us free will, but pleasant dispositions, so we always chose good? Reply: if he manipulated their dispositions, they don’t have free will Mackie made a similar point, arguing its logically possible for God to make a world where people freely choose good on every occasion Reply: Plantinga says that some people will still choose evil, even if God gave them a good disposition!

15. God is omnipotent and could make any possible world. He’s omnibenevolent, so would make the best possible world Evil must perform a vital function for the universe / people on Earth, although human intellect may not be able to grasp the purpose of the evil We must trust in God, who is omniscient and will know the reason for the suffering

16. Not really a solution to the problem – it just says we don’t know why evil exists Why do we need so much suffering? Maybe God has made every possible world? Leibniz doesn’t state that God is omniscient so perhaps he doesn’t realise the evil that’s going on

17. Free will allows humans to perfect themselves and become holier and more ready for Heaven. Our suffering and our moral choices allow us to develop our souls: life on Earth is the ‘vale of soul-making’. Everyone eventually ends up in Heaven, but some need to continue to work on their souls in the afterlife God maintains an ‘epistemic distance’; he doesn’t make it clear whether he exists or not, so we act freely and not out of fear of him

18. There’s no evidence that heaven / purgatory etc exists Couldn’t souls develop without so much suffering? If everyone goes to heaven, then why be moral in this world? We must still question why a benevolent God would allow (or endorse) the suffering of innocents Animals suffer – do they go to heaven? If not then what is the purpose of their suffering? If suffering is so beneficial then should we seek out suffering, or cause others to suffer to help their souls develop?

19. 15 mark questions (45 minutes) Phrased as a question 1.Does the external world exist unperceived? RYAN 2.Is Hume correct that we cannot imagine something we haven’t first experienced? HAMBEL 3.Does it make sense to doubt the existence of the external world? 4.What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for knowledge? DYLAN 5.Is our perception of the world accurate? 6.Do mind-independent objects exist? 7.How convincing is Berkeley’s master argument? ADAM 8.Is Plato right to argue that knowledge is a justified true belief? 9.Is there a sound solution to Gettier-type problems? ROSIE 10.Is the concept of God innate? 11.Does Plato successfully demonstrate that some knowledge is innate? ELLIE 12.Is there any synthetic a priori knowledge? THEO 13.Is nativism more convincing than empiricism and innatism?