The Augustinian Theodicy Essay Example for Free

The Augustinian Theodicy Essay Throughout history, the problems of evil and suffering have always been prevalent in the world. The problems can be split up into two types: moral evil and natural suffering. Moral evil is generally viewed as anything that is caused by humans and inflicts pain (physical or psychological) or death or obstructs lifes freedom and/or expression; for example, murder, war, crime. Natural suffering is generally viewed as events that occur because of the physical world or environment; for example, earthquakes, volcanoes, flooding. Evil and suffering therefore present believers in the God of Classical Theism with a logical problem- one of them being the Inconsistent Triad. The Inconsistent Triad consists of three premises: 1- God is omnipotent; 2- God is omnibenevolent; 3- there is evil in the world. All three premises cannot be true at the same time which means either God does not exist or there is no evil in the world. St Augustine of Hippo, who lived from 354 to 430 AD in the Roman Province of Africa, was a Manichaean (Persian and Dualist religion) in his early until he later converted to Christianity. Augustine proposed a theodicy, which is an attempt to reconcile the existence of an omnibenevolent and omnipotent God with the undeniable fact of evil and suffering in the world; it is derived from the Greek words theos or God and dike or justice. Augustines theodicy explains that according to Genesis, God being perfect created a perfect world where because of His goodness and perfection, God gave humans free will. Therefore, the possibility of evil is necessary as the world can never be as perfect as God. The Fall is also central to his theodicy because when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, mans original purity was lost and all their descendents inherited original sin and original guilt because they were seminally present in the loins of Adam. As a result, we all deserve the consequences which means moral evil is a misuse of our freedom and natural evil is punishment for all mans sins. The theodicy goes further in explaining that we cannot blame God for evil as evil is not a thing in itself but rather privatio boni, which is Latin for the privation of good. This means evil is not an entity, but a lack of goodness or righteousness therefore evil only happens when good goes wrong. Augustines theodicy essentially says that God is right not to interfere with problems of evil and suffering in the world, as it is perfectly justified that we should suffer and at the end of our lives- if we have accepted that Gods forgiveness is necessary- we will go to Heaven, otherwise all non-believers will be punished in Hell for eternity. For some Christians- mainly fundamental Christians- Augustines theodicy succeeds in justifying evil and suffering in the world. However, for non-Christians and even liberal Christians, the theodicy fails for a number of different reasons. The theodicy fails in some ways because of the advance in science. Augustines theodicy is based on the Bible being interpreted as literal which opens him up to two scientific criticisms. In contrast to evolution theory, which is now widely accepted as an explanation for the existence of complex organisms through the gradual process of natural selection and random mutations over generations, if the Bible is taken as literal truth, then the theodicy is the reverse of evolution as it prescribes humans were created first. Another scientific criticism is whilst Augustine says we were all seminally present in the loins of Adam, our genes suggest otherwise. Not only does each person have their own unique DNA (with the exception of identical twins), other factors contribute to how a person develops, such as their socialization, which can create psychological differences too. Therefore it would be wrong to say that all humans are the same as Adam. Furthermore, there are logical criticisms of Augustines theodicy. If evil is not a thing in itself, then good and evil would unknown to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. So in Genesis, when Eve ate the forbidden fruit, she had no concept of evil. Schleiermacher, a late 18th/early 19th Century German philosopher, agreed the theodicy is flawed because he said it was a logical contradiction to say that a perfectly created world had gone wrong, since this would mean that evil had created itself ex nihilo, which is impossible. Either the world was created imperfect or God allowed it to go wrong. Perhaps the most important criticisms are moral as they challenge God. Being omniscient, God should have known that things would go wrong and being omnipotent, He could have made creation better and less flawed. Also, the creation of Hell is puzzling because surely God would not create it unless He knew that The Fall would happen which further questions His perfection. Not only that, the selection process for Heaven is discriminate as Heaven can be viewed as an exclusive club for people who have turned to Christ and accepted the need for Gods forgiveness. Therefore, God is wasteful of good souls as they would be punished eternally for having no Christian belief- even if they had been morally good people their whole lives. This clearly questions Gods omnibenevolence and fairness. At first evaluation, St Augustines theodicy appears to make some good points about the reasons for evil and suffering in the world, particularly his comparison of evil to darkness and them being an absence of good and light respectively. However on closer inspection, there are some clear flaws with the theodicy which challenge the God of Classical Theism as they criticise His creation and more importantly- Gods omnibenevolence. The theodicy works well for fundamental Christians, but is not effective in convincing other Christians and non-Christians into the reasons for the existence of evil and suffering in the world as it presents us with an arbitrary and flawed God.

Mary Shelley :: essays research papers

Mary Shelley: Bride of Frankenstein Authors have written horror novels with old props of haunted castles and moonlit dagger scenes for ages. However, there is one author deserving of significant commemorations for her horrific novel, Frankenstein. Mary Shelley, author of the most notable gothic novel of all times, inspires authors who read her work. Mary Shelley’s professional life as her husband’s editor, a novelist, and a poet began in 1816, in Scotland when she began her first novel. First of all, while Mary Shelley visited her family in England, Shelley became an acquaintance to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and later became his wife (Walling 9) and full time editor. As Percy Shelley’s reviser, she promoted the understanding of his works, which led to the history of biographical-literary criticism (Spark ix). Shelley traveled frequently, once to Italy in 1818, where she composed Italian Lives, which appeared in Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopedia (Walling 10). Shelley’s marriage persisted for eight years (Spark ix), which ended on July 8, 1822 when Percy Shelley drown (Walling 10), and left her a single mother of a child, and a son on the way (Spark ix). Second, Mary Shelley achieved her highest acknowledgments for her writings and gothic novels. Shelley began her first novel Frankenstein (T hompson 2), at nineteen years of age in the summer of 1816 and publicized it on March 11, 1818 (Walling 9). The horror novel received numerous reviews and became one of the literary events of 1818 (Walling 34). Shelley wrote five other novels in her lifetime including The Last Man (Walling 72) and Valpera. The Last Man, published in 1826 (Walling 10), and Frankenstein are Shelley’s two most sought novels, and William Walling observes that they are "two novels whose loneliness is final Mensik 2 and irreparable" (86). Valperga, published in 1823, received reviews with modern critics that were not as highly ranked as the others. Shelley first began Valperga in 1817, however, she completed the novella in 1821, during which Shelley went through a marriage crisis with her husband Percy Shelley and mourned over the loss of two children (Walling 52). Walling observes that Shelley’s other novelettes were Matilda, completed in 1819, Perkin Warbeck, published in 1830, Lodore, published in 1835, and Falker, published in 1837. Society also granted fame to Mary Shelley for her intriguing poetry. In 1822, Shelley wrote her first poem, "The Choice". Shelley’s release of Shelley’s Prometheus Poems in 1824 sold more than three hundred copies (10).

Corruption of Society Essay

First of all, technologie corrupts society because it does our thinking and increases health problems. According to a New York Times article, the average kid ages 8-18, spends over 7 ? hours a day using technology gadgets which increases the obesity rate, poor grades, impatience, violence and a loss of family interest. Also, cell phones and texting leads to texting and driving which is almost as worse as drinking and driving. You can hurt yourself or people around you while texting and driving. Are generation can’t live without a cell phone, texting or sending emails and this leads to a lack of communication. When somebody can only express their feeling in a text message or an email they are not learning how to communicate with others. Did you also know that technology not only affects our health but it affects our environment too? For example, a normal computer chip takes 600 times its weight in fuel to produce? Bullying has a huge impact on our society! Peer pressure especially because you are forced to do things you don’t want to, you get bad habits and it leads to loss of individual. When somebody is bullied mentally or physically they have depression, anxiety, loss of interest in activities, school and family, shame, fear and low self-esteem. All these side effects of bullying lead’s to suicide. According to the website ‘DoSomething. org’, Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying! Media can also be a cause of corruption of society because if you look at magazines, ads or watch television, commercial or news, beauty is often the subject. People and especially teenagers are influenced by Medias. All girls look at magazines or whatsoever and wishes to look like people on TV or magazines. Thin slim bodies, perfect face, etc. What teenagers don’t realized is that those people are edited by computers from head to toe. Over 5 million American’s have eating disorders caused by false concept of beauty. Another reason why Medias corrupts our society is because of money. In magazines and ads or television it’s all about buying things to have a better life!

Marriage Private By Stephanie Coontz - 1196 Words

For the past, few centuries the concept of marriage has become a matter of church and state. Those who wish to become a married couple within the United States must get permission from the states by obtaining a marriage license. According to Taking Marriage Private by Stephanie Coontz for sixteen centuries marriage was valid based upon the couples wishes. If both the man and women claimed they had exchanged vows, then the Catholic Church would recognize it as a valid marriage. Today all states require that a couple obtain a marriage license from the state if they want the marriage to be legal and valid in the eyes of the state. Taking Marriage Private by Stephanie Coontz discusses the concept of private marriage and the history of it.†¦show more content†¦In the United States Constitution, the Ninth Amendment is often forgotten or not commonly taught. The ninth amendment is often denoted as â€Å"Enumeration of Rights.† This amendment outlines the human rights that we re not written or protected by the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. Marriage is a right. Everybody and anybody should have the right to marriage. Putting rules and regulations on marriage is a clear violation of the United States Constitution and a clear violation of our unalienable rights. Marriage has only become a way for the government to collect extra tax money and fees. Marriage is only a business for the government. Instead of marriage being a civil union of a man and a woman. It is a union between a man, woman, and government. For many gay, bisexual, or lesbian couples privatizing marriage would allow them to marry who they want freely without any government say. Therefore, no institution will be able deny marriage to nontraditional marriage couples because of personal beliefs of government employees or because of state laws. 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