The Problem of Evil and Suffering

            “The existence of evil in the world is the “rock of atheism”, this was famously said by Philosopher David Hume in the 18^thCentury. However, many philosophers have put forward their arguments to prove the reality of God despite Evil and Suffering in the world. One of which is the `Existence of God` by Richard Swinburne.  When reading his work, he presents a number of separate arguments but the one that most caught my attention was “How Evils serve Greater Goods”.

Swinburne suggests that sometimes the evil in this world serves a greater good or a greater purpose. He states that “such bad actions, like physical pain, provide opportunities for good actions to be done in response to them”, we could relate this to when a child must go to the dentist to have tooth removed, despite the pain the child will endure, he will benefit from this as it allows another tooth to grow. He also describes the consequences of having a world without pain. He states that we “show courage when threatened by a gunman, as well as when threatened by cancer; and show sympathy to those likely to be killed by gunmen as well as to those likely to die of cancer” However, if we simply imagine what our lives would be like without these emotions then “…merely would none of us have the opportunity to respond with sympathy or courage or reforming zeal…so many of us would have an easy life that we simply would not have much opportunity to show courage or indeed manifest much in the way of goodness at all”. Essentially, Swinburne means that it is vital we are able to express emotions such as courage and sympathy, for in a world without pain we would never be given the opportunity to express this. We can only help people if they are suffering, therefore Swinburne believes that God must allow evil and suffering to occur so that we can use our emotions to know when people need help. However if God was to replace disease by “such an increase of inbuilt depravity” Swinburne states that we would live in “a world in which humans (and animals) lacked much natural affection for parents, children, neighbours, etc. would be a horrible place”

On the other hand, despite this being a good inductive argument for the existence of God although there is suffering and evil in the world, I still feel that there are faults with this argument. When Swinburne suggests that everything serves a greater purpose, I think back to events in history which I am yet to see a greater purpose. The Holocaust, for example, is one of the most infamous example of moral evil to this day. 11 million people died and for what reason? I personally fail to see what goodness came from this immoral act and am sure I am not the only person who has this point of view. However, I do see how good can come out of natural disaster. For instance, the Boxing Day Tsunami in Indonesia which tragically took 230, 000 lives, it gave other people around the world the chance to donate money, provide aid and help those who were suffering. Although, it is still hard to contemplate why God would allow so many people to die and so many more people to suffer because of this event, with only some good actually being derived from it.

 Er.B

 

Response to Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry “How dare you create a world to which there is such misery that is not our fault? It is not right; it’s utterly evil… why should I respect a capricious, mean minded, stupid God who created a world that is so full of injustice and pain.”

If I refer back to St Augustine’s theodicy in response to this statement, he believes that freedom is the fundamental principle of evil and suffering because mankind abused their free will by disobeying God. This is seen in Adam and Eve rebelling against God in the Garden of Eden, therefore God did not create evil, He only created goodness but man spoilt it all by sinning and bringing evil into this world. Augustine argued that evil did not really exist as a thing in itself. Rather it is merely an absence of good. (Privatio boni) He claims that evil is a punishment of sin or an act of one person being sinful to another; none of that evil comes directly from God.

Stephen fry referred to the existence of bone cancer in children. In response, St. Irenaeus’ would say that suffering is a necessary part of God’s created universe; it is through suffering that human souls are made noble, as we develop, learn and mature through the bad things in life. The world is a ‘vale of soul making’.  We can also say that the human body is an extremely complex machine that has many faults right from birth, therefore we are put on this earth to be tested in many ways and this pain should strengthen our faith in Him.  Earth is not supposed to be perfect and full of perfect, free moral agents. This is why God created heaven and Hell. If you’re a good person, then you get to enjoy a forever-lasting afterlife in heaven. 

Fry describes the existence of underserved misery as "utterly, utterly evil." This is an interesting moral perspective, especially when viewed alongside Richard Dawkins' comments on the problem of suffering:

"In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference."                                                                                                                                                              Dawkins articulates what happens if you take God out of your view of the world. In a godless universe we lose any concept of ultimate justice, good or evil. The universe is ultimately impersonal and indifferent to any of these concerns. Therefore, removing God from the equation does nothing whatsoever to eradicate the problem of evil and suffering in this world.

At the heart of the Fry's argument is the idea that the world that exists is as God intended it to be. He assumes that God deliberately created a universe with appalling suffering. But a central doctrine of the Christian faith is that God created a good and perfect world and after the fall of humanity nothing is fully as it should be. Rather than abandoning us when we make mistakes, God stepped into our history. Jesus died on the cross to bring forgiveness and reconciliation. He promises a future where evil is finally overthrown, however in the meantime we should follow in the footsteps of Jesus, showing the same love and grace to everyone.

S.C

Where was God on 9/11?

On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

Many people may say that God caused the pain and suffering brought about on this day, because how could an all-loving and all-powerful God cause this much hurt to so many people? Ending the lives of many and destroying happiness for all their families and the entire world. This was one of the major events to have happened in our lifetime and people believe that if God did exist, this kind of suffering would never happen.

On the other hand, if we look deeper we can see evidence of God helping the people he could in this situation. For example, there were four flights on this tragic day which altogether could accommodate 1,000 people, yet there were only 226 people on board. This suggests he was discouraging people from getting on the planes they were due to catch, and therefore showing his loving nature by saving the lives of others. Also, the people on board the plane somehow had the ability to stay calm through the whole tragedy, and we know this because not one of the people who were called by a loved one on the planes said they sensed any kind of distress or panic. The peace the passengers felt must have come from somewhere and only someone like God could have given them this kind of strength to stay calm in their final minutes. Also, on one of the planes the passengers overpowered the hijackers, so God must have helped them through this and given them the courage to be so brave.

Other events which happened on this day suggests God was doing all he could to prevent people being hurt. Things which wouldn’t normally happen e.g. 30,000 people who normally worked in the twin towers were not at their desks that morning happened, here are a few reasons why: the head of one company survived 9/11 because he took his son to playschool,  another man is alive because it was his turn to bring donuts, another lady was late because her alarm clock didn't go off on time, one spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change, and the most baffling one is a man who walked to work, as normal and on time however was wearing new shoes and developed a blister and therefore stopped to get a plaster; which is why he is alive today. Too many incidents happened on this day for it to have just been a coincidence because when all the evidence comes together, it makes sense to say that God was with them helping them survive. More things like unexpected traffic which made people late for work and meetings scheduled elsewhere makes us believe God was there helping us all along.

The twin towers both stood up for half an hour which gave people on the lower floors time to escape from the burning building, and when the towers finally fell, they fell inwards which saved many people also. When this did happen, he was with all the people trying to help the victims. The firefighters, the police officers and the passers-by who got involved to try and help anyone they could; God gave them the strength to do this. So, on 9/11 God was everywhere, helping those who were affected by the 19 people who decided to turn away from him and doing everything he could to save lives.

 Now if you’re ever stuck in traffic, miss the bus or even get up late; the things that normally would annoy you, think to yourself ‘this is where God wants me to be at this very moment’. Next time something small makes you late or annoys you, remember God is there watching over you and everything is happening for a reason.

KD

Is evil and suffering really a challenge to our faith?

Is evil and suffering really a challenge to our faith?

Every single person on this earth, at some point in their lives will have experienced some form evil and suffering. Whether it is the loss of a loved one, or not achieving a mark you revised hard for on a test. Of course, everybody’s situations are different, leaving some people to possibly think, ‘why me and not him/her?’ or ‘what did I do to deserve this?’ however as Theists we know that we are not alone when we are faced with evil and suffering and can always turn to God which can act as a reassurance to us.

However, evil and suffering has been known to be one of the biggest challenges to belief in God and is described as ‘the rock of Atheism’ as it seems to contradict the characteristics we associate with God. When we ask ourselves the question ‘Is there a greater challenge to belief in God than evil?’ we can seem to struggle to find something else that challenges God’s existence this much. Many would say that if God was omnipotent, he should have had the power to create a world in which evil and suffering does not take place. If God was omnibenevolent, shouldn’t he love us too much to put us through the harshness evil can bring to our everyday lives? If God is omniscient, shouldn’t he know evil and suffering was about to take place and therefore stop it? These questions are serious challenges to belief in God as we refer to God as a loving father therefore he shouldn’t put us through suffering.

JL Mackie even produced an ‘inconsistent triad’ which states that we can have two of the following; God’s omnipotence, God’s omnibenevolence or evil and suffering. Considering that we know evil and suffering exists, this would cancel out one of God’s characteristics and if God cannot be omnipotent and omnibenevolent, is he really a God worth worshipping?

Even historic events such as 9/11 seem to work against the existence of God ‘In less than two hours Aquinas’ proofs of God were blasted, seared, choked with arid smoke and snuffed out forever along with more than 3000 lives now reduced to power in the rubble of ground zero’ Ross Mackechnie (a 9/11 survivor) as people could not cope with the idea that a loving God would let this happen and take the lives of so many.

However, I believe that instead of looking at evil and suffering as a challenge to theism, why do we not see it as something that enhances and strengthens our faith?

Using the Free Will Defence, which is taken from the fact both Iraneus’ and Augustine’s theodicies contained the concept that evil came from humans misusing their free will; we can strengthen our belief in God when faced with evil and suffering. Many people think of God as a responsible parent; one who wouldn’t let you stay out until 3am or wouldn’t let you do wreck less things without some form of punishment or lessons learned. I strongly believe that God helps us to learn from our mistakes: We would never touch a hot iron again if when we did the first time we got badly burnt? Or we would never drink heavily again if the first time we did this we got ourselves into a bad state? So it is in fact possible that God allows us to suffer so we can learn lessons and take something positive away from a bad situation. It all comes down to the idea that God does not give us a sheltered life, as we have to grow as people and to do this we must make mistakes.

‘If large scale horrors were not allowed, basically we would have a ‘toy world’ where things matter, but not much. It would be like an over protective parent’ Swinburne.

In response to Swinburne’s idea of a ‘toy world’ which I have to agree with, I believe that our accomplishments in life would not be so great if we didn’t have to suffer a bit for them. Take GCSE and A Level results for example, I know that when I received my GCSE Grades, I was a lot more thankful and happy for myself because I know I worked hard for many months to achieve them. God wants us to grow and develop as humans, not as people who are simply programmed to love him and have no free will, therefore we all experience suffering to actually bring us closer to God. If God created a world in which we were forced to love and obey him, would we really be free? God doesn’t want this sort of life for us; he wants us to grow and appreciate things more when they are not just given to us. Take climbing a mountain for example; would we enjoy the view as much if we didn’t struggle to get there? Would we still find the view breath taking if we flew to the top by helicopter? By allowing us to suffer God can actually give us a greater sense of accomplishment when we do tasks that require hard work and perseverance. God teaches us to work hard for things that we want giving humans a lot more substance that what we would have if things in life were just given to us with no hard work.

However, the Free Will Defence is not an excuse for evil; it simply states why it is there. Evil is not inflicted upon us for no reason. God gave us Free Will so we could choose to either follow him or turn away from him and can make decisions for ourselves with the idea that the wrong decisions teach us lessons; allowing us to grow as people. One can take evil and suffering and use that as a reason to not believe in God, however I think that evil and suffering can actually bring us closer to God and strengthen our relationship with him.

KF.

Solution for Social Evils

 

The observation of our today’s world enabled me to recognize that despite the growing prosperity of our economic and cultural progression, our international community is still unable to prevent and resolve many of the social evils that are still very much present in today’s society. The fact that our growing capability to embark upon these problems is becoming greater, yet we’re still unable to tackle them shows the inadequacy of the social as well as legal system. Such observation led me to believe that identification of the right tools to reconcile these problems is the key. Amongst some of the answers are ethical theories not only due to their ability to deal with a wider spectrum of problems on an international level but also due to their simplicity and basic ethical framework that they offer for both believers and non-believers.

An example of one would be Kant’s deontological theory. When looking at this particular theory we’re able to note that the theory is more concerned with actions rather than its results putting emphasis on one’s reasoning. His theory is structured based on two particular beliefs, one being that morality is rational and since rationality is universal, possessed by all human beings. Second one being that fulfilling one’s duty is the right thing to do in addition to the fact that we ought to do it. We’re able to see that ethical theories provide a moral agent with the structure needed for the making of moral decisions.

 When looking at Kant’s theory in particular we’re able to note that the emphasis on duty helps us to recognize the fact that as human beings our inner moral sense differs and is stronger or weaker towards meeting some obligations over others. Surely if we all acted out of duty and did what we meant to do more of evil would be prevailed? Whether out of duty or not if we all donated to charity surely the charity is more likely to help its cause. We’re able to see that the use of ethical theories such as Kant’s deontological theory could be seen as an answer to some of the social evils. However, some might say that it is important to note that although ethical theories provide us with the moral basis; it is the application of the theory that could potentially resolve them not the theory itself. The fact is that like most solutions this one too isn’t perfect, it is therefore up to us to ensure its success as the success of ethical theories depends on our own willingness to oblige them.

S.S

 

 

Are the Classical Philosophers Still Relevant?

 

Many modern philosophers cite the Classical Philosophers as influences; but are the philosophies of Socrates and his students Plato and Aristotle still relevant? For me personally, I would not hesitate in answering “yes.”

Socrates, who is termed as “the father of philosophy” is incredibly important in the growth of classical philosophy. Not much of his life is known and we only know of his “philosophies” through the writings of Plato, arguably his most devoted and well-known student. The most interesting aspect of Socrates’ life, for me at least, is his death. He was sentenced to death by the Athenian government for his controversial ideas and died by drinking hemlock. Plato writes in his Phaedo that Socrates’ last words were "Crito [one of Socrates’ closest friends], we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Please, don't forget to pay the debt." I find this interesting and yet conflicting on the surface. Asclepius was the god of healing. Why I find this so conflicting is Socrates was sentenced to death supposedly for his outspoken atheism and for “corrupting young minds.” However, many interpretations of this are that Socrates was referring to death – death is freedom for the soul and for the mind; in death the soul is heading for an idyllic place where it is free from society’s constraints. Fast forward two thousand five hundred years later and many people believe in the same sort of concept; albeit in a religion of some kind.

We are much more knowledgeable about Platonic and Aristotelian Philosophy, because unlike Socrates, they wrote down their philosophies. The most famous concept of Platonism is the Theory of Forms. This theory suggests that the world was far from perfect, but that there is a perfect world in which people were once acquainted with. Plato believed that we were somehow damaged by living in the imperfect world in which we live; but we could get reacquainted with the perfect world by listening to our own human reasoning. This is similar to the Augustinian Theodicy and this is because Augustine, like many of Early Christian philosophers was heavily influenced by Platonism.

Aristotle is more concerned with ethics as opposed to philosophy and is especially concerned with humankind’s ability to be virtuous. He believed that studying philosophy and being contemplative was the best way of reaching eudaimonia; a Greek word meaning the maximum wellbeing. Alasdair McIntyre, a Scottish philosopher, famous for his work in Virtue Ethics is a modern day Aristotelian. His belief that with good character comes good judgement stems from Aristotle’s work.

 I think it is very clear that the Classical Philosophers are fundamental still. However, why are they still paramount to philosophy and ethics today? I think the answer is simple. Although they lived thousands of years ago; the issues that were problematic for philosophy and ethics then are still causing problems for philosophers now. 5^th Century Athens was a place that was a cultural hot spot so to speak; the tragic playwrights were the “celebrities” of the day and they were becoming more daring and began asking questions about the Greek gods in their plays. An example of this is Euripides’ “The Bacchae,” a play in which the hero not only questions the god Dionysus’ existence, but the god himself and his all-female followers are shown to be moral deviants. Philosophy was thriving in an age in which the citizens were discovering agnosticism and becoming more aware of the world around them; and it is my belief that unless either religion or atheism become extinct; in another two thousand years’ time there will be another philosophy student making the same point about the Classical Philosophers as I have.

 

By L.L.

 

 

Community

As we begin a new school year, our focus shifts towards our school community. We are lucky enough at Sacred Heart that we belong to a loving and understanding community of faith, however I feel that this unity that lives in our school is not replicated in the wider community. Religion means something unique to each individual and that is what makes it such a powerful and diverse topic in our modern society. Living in a multicultural society such as the U.K, I would have thought that we would become much more understanding and open-minded, yet what has actually developed among some is deep rooted misunderstanding leading to many conflicts we see in the world today. Religion is unfortunately now seen as a ‘taboo’ subject as we may be afraid to upset or offend others around us. However I believe these differences should be celebrated and we should all seek to fully understand others in their own journeys of faith.

‘The greatest evil in the world is ignorance.’-Albert Camus.

This quote truly speaks to me in reference to this subject as not wanting to immerse ourselves in different cultures and religion leads to ignorance, and not fully understanding other religions can lead to the troubles we witness today such as the recent anniversary of the tragic events of 9/11.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jYwrgHONSc

This video clip shows how despite Ricky Gervais being a well-known atheist, he feels we are all entitled to our right to the freedom of speech and believes that we should all have the right to believe what we feel is right for us. We are extremely lucky in the U.K to have the freedom of speech, where our opinion can be voiced and these differences in society can exist without fear of the consequences. I feel that as we begin our new school year we should attempt to replicate the respect and consideration we have for others at Sacred Heart, in the local area and begin to see a change for the better.

By E.D

Why Philosophy?

So why study philosophy at A-Level or even at University?

• It encourages independent thought - can you think for yourself?
• It investigates the most profound questions we can ask - is there anything more important to study?
• It encourages dispute and challenge - can you come to reasoned conclusions?
• It opens mind and builds character - are you able to change and develop the way you think?
• It helps to understand complex and difficult arguments and ideas - can you learn and apply new skills?
• It develops self-understanding - are you ready to think independently and come to new conclusions about yourself, the human race and the world around you? This is real education!

Read more <here>