STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
The biggest challenge to this narrative came in 1859 with the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Darwin proposes the Evolutionary Theory that living creatures evolved over millions of years through natural selection. Darwin's theory is supported by the diversity of life observed on earth today and also the fossil record, which supports the idea of living creatures changing over millions of years.
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evolution is real, but ... it was set in motion by God - Francis Collins
Deism ties in closely with Leibniz's idea that God has created "the best of all possible worlds". It involves believing that God loves people in a general sort of way and has arranged the universe in such a way as to optimize happiness for all his creatures, even if some of his creatures have to lose out.
This can be summed up with the famous proverb, that you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. God is like a chef making the best ever omelette (the universe) but some eggs have to be broken (human suffering) for this to happen. |
The God of Deism does not answer prayers or perform miracles - any descriptions of miracles in the Bible have to be treated as symbolic. The Deist God does not make personal appearances on Earth to special people - no theophanies or propositional revelation or other direct involvement with humans. Deism also rejects the idea of God being physically present in the Christian Eucharist or in the life of Jesus Christ.
Obviously, a lot of religious believers won't accept such a definition of God which goes against centuries of tradition and religious experience as well as the teachings of the major churches. |
Catholics, some Anglicans and many other Christians believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist bread and wine - but Deism would reject this
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The whole, simultaneous and perfect possession of unending life - BOETHIUS
There was no time at which he did not exist - RICHARD SWINBURNE
Even if we accept the view of God as Everlasting within time rather than Eternally Timeless, the Problem of Evil doesn't go away. The Logical Problem of Evil is solved (the existence of evil and suffering doesn't disprove God's existence) but there's still the Evidential Problem of Evil. This draws attention to the sheer scale of evil and suffering in the world. Even if God can't foresee exactly what freewilled creatures will do, he must be able to foresee their OPTIONS. Knowing it is even a possibility that your freewilled creatures will engage in serial rape, mass murder and genocide makes it very risky to proceed with creating them, but this is exactly what God is supposed to have done. Was that wise of him or irresponsible?
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If God has no feelings, how can he be LOVING? The answer is that God's love is AGAPE, which is deliberate selfless love rather than a mood or a feeling. Agape involves willing the best for other creatures, not having feelings about them. God doesn't have 'loving feelings' towards you, but he deliberately wills the very best for you.
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THE FELLOW-SUFFERER WHO UNDERSTANDS - ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD
In a way, innocent suffering goes to the heart of the Problem of Evil. If the only people who ever suffered were people who clearly DESERVED to suffer, there wouldn't be such a problem with God's goodness and justice. However, a lot of the time - perhaps most of the time - good people suffer who don't seem to deserve it and they seem to suffer excessively.
The main theodicies proposed by theologians have answers to this question. |
If all must suffer to pay for the eternal harmony, what have children to do with it, tell me,please? It's beyond all comprehension why they should suffer, and why they should pay for the harmony - Ivan (The Brothers Karamazov)
I renounce the higher harmony altogether. It's not worth the tears of that one tortured child - Ivan (The Brothers Karamazov)
Of course, children continue to suffer all over the world. Children are sexually and physically abused by those they trust, neglected by those who should care for them, murdered by predatory strangers, kidnapped to serve as child soldiers and slaves; they are struck down by drunken motorists; they suffer from diseases, some that they are born with, and have short lives filled with great agony.
The standard theodicies that explain the suffering of innocent adults run into difficulties when used to explain the suffering of innocent children. |
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Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these - Matthew 19: 14
Truly I say to you, unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven - Matthew 18: 3
Even if we accept that children are in some sense morally flawed and either deserve to be part of a suffering world or else benefit from exposure to suffering, that still leaves the problem of other animals.
Charles Darwin reflected on the great cruelty he observed in nature. For example, the ichneumon fly is a parasite that implants its eggs in helpless caterpillars. When the eggs hatch, the larvae eat the paralysed caterpillar from the inside out! The concept of DYSTELEOLOGY - that the animal world contains too much suffering and cruelty to be the work of a good God - is explored in the Design Argument.
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The extent of the APPEARANCE of animal suffering is hard to understate. Not only are there parasites like the ichneumon fly, but carnivorous animals hunt and kill other animals (or their young) and even herbivores battle each other for mates or territory; animals suffer from disease, famine and drought as well as other disasters; moreover, this suffering goes back a long way in history, with whole species being wiped out.
It's important to say "the appearance of suffering" because we cannot be sure exactly how much animals suffer. Does the caterpillar suffer while the ichneumon larvae feed on it? Caterpillars aren't aware of much. Nonetheless, even if we only consider the higher animals like mammals and the larger fish and birds, there's still a huge amount of death and the appearance of pain going on. |
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This view of animals as non-sentient was proposed by Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant but is most strongly expressed by Rene Descartes, who regards animals as "automata" (biological machines).
If this is correct, then there is no such thing as "animal suffering" and the Problem of Evil does not apply here. |
Why was nature made so very fragile in this way? Is not that fragility itself a defect (or evil) in creation? - William Lane Craig
It is extremely doubtful whether even a zoological paradise, filled with pleasure and devoid of pain, could have any compensatory value in relation to the momentary pangs of creatures who cannot carry their past experience with them in conscious memory -John Hick
The final point to consider is whether an Afterlife of pleasure can compensate creatures for the suffering on Earth. The Bible describes a heavenly afterlife for believers where:
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away - Revelation 21: 4 The particular issues raised by belief in Life After Death belong in another section - here we just consider the Afterlife as a COMPENSATION for earthly suffering.
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Imagine you buy a tent to go camping. The shopkeeper advises you to follow the instructions for setting up the tent. You don't follow the instructions and the tent collapses. Now you're out in a field at night in the middle of a storm with no tent! Then a car turns up. It's the shopkeeper who sold you the tent. He feels sorry for you. He pays for you to stay in a five-star hotel instead. Pretty decent of him, right? That's like God offering a Heavenly Afterlife to Fallen humans.
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Imagine you start violin lessons. It's difficult and boring and you're not very good at it and your tutor is always criticising you. When you ask why you have to do this, you're told that, once you can play the violin, you'll be able to enjoy something wonderful, the pleasure of being able to play some of the finest music ever written. That doesn't sound like much of a reward at first, but as you practise and practise you start to get little hints of what it will be like when you finally get good at this instrument. Sure, you could give up the lessons and just buy a CD of top violin music - but that wouldn't be the same. There are some pleasures that only become pleasures because you had to earn them - and you can't enjoy those pleasures without earning them first. That's like Heaven, once you're in the likeness of God.
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eternal suffering inflicted by God upon those of His creatures who have sinfully rejected Him - John Hick
utterly pointless and wasted anguish - John Hick
either that God does not desire to save all His human creatures, in which case he is only limitedly good, or that His purpose has finally failed in the case of some – [or most] – of them, in which case he is only limitedly sovereign - John Hick
I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful rebels to the end; that the gates of hell are locked on the inside - C.S. Lewis
Why might people agree-in-hindsight to their own sufferings? A good example might be sending children to school. Many children suffer at school (from boredom, from punishments, from the stress of exams, from the unhappiness of being away from home). They have to study things that they don't see the value in (such as Latin, Shakespeare and Maths). However, their teachers and parents know that, once they have been educated, these students will look back on their schooldays and be glad of their education; many of them will "see the point" of Latin verbs or Macbeth or quadratic equations. They will be glad that their parents sent them to school and that their teachers taught them. Therefore the parents and teachers are justified in doing things that make the children miserable at the time - they know the children will thank them for it later
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God will eventually succeed in His purpose of winning all men to Himself in faith and love - John Hick