Issue 126- "Philosophy of Life, Part 7"

Written by: HPLL

Hullo, all. Welcome to an all-prose issue of Clerk's Cafe...I chose to give myself a break from pencilling after doing the special 125th issue yesterday. I didn't have time to pencil anything as Dad's birthday was today. Happy 60th, pops! Onward to Philosophy, which tonight I dig from my old Philosophy textbook. It is called 

Do Suffering and Evil Count against the existence of God?

Traditionally, two views of evil are taken into account: first is Moral Evil. Moral evil consists of bad actions and their repercussions caused or effected by morally responsible humans. Secondly, Natural Evil consists of suffering to humans and other creatures from natural disasters and the such. From these two forms of evil, four premises are derived:

1. God is perfectly good.

2. God is all-knowing.

3. God is all-powerful. 

4. Evil exists.

To produce a valid argument against God's existence, atheists add this fifth premise: 

5. If God exists and is a being who is good, all-knowing, and all-powerful, then there would be no evil in the world.

When we add this fifth premise to the others there is but one conclusion:

6. Therefore, God does not exist.

The argument is valid as stated.

Therefore, since it is impossible to declare the argument unsound without denying one of the premises, theologians have sought to rationalize God's permittance of evil upon Earth. This practice is known as Theodicy. 

In Theodicy, there are two central arguments: The Greater Goods defense and The Free Will defense. First, the Greater Goods argument says that evil is permitted to ensure some greater overall good. For example, needles hurt like Hell but children who suffer through them are vaccinated and thus better off than those who are not vaccinated against disease. Secondly, the Free Will defense says that God could not have truly created humans as totally free-thinking creatures if he had genetically or otherwise removed their propensity for violence and evil.

Well folks, that is your deep-thought-out Philosophy lesson for tonight. Lemme know where you fall on this argument, and why.

Love to you all...hope you are feeling better Sam, call me sometime and we'll chat ok?