show it is possible to provide reasonable. These are as follows: The Philosophical Problem of Evil – “Why does an omnipotent, perfectly good God’s creation include evil?” Tim O'Connor (Ph.D. Cornell) is Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University. Atheist Job Description: Non-Applicable: The evil does all the work itself Theistic Response: 1. Tim O’Connor (Baylor University) reflects on the psychological, existential nature of the problem of evil, and looks to Dostoevsky’s Father Zossima of The Brothers Karamazov for an answer. I want to just stand apart and stand with the suffering victim, so. Many religious individuals sometimes report, not so much theoretically ceasing to believe that God exists when they encounter evil, but just God feeling distant, and feeling the inability to draw near to God and to love God, to trust God given his willing permission of these kinds of suffering. Is Dobzhansky in effect saying I’m not gonna give you an argument? For this reason, Lewis spent a significant amount of time exploring the topic in his books, both in fiction and nonfiction. It can induce a kind of vertigo. Pastoral Care Care for them and love them as Christ does. So he’s, I take it what Dostoevsky’s doing, he’s saying he’s a kind of witness. But, of course, as theists the problem is God has permitted a world, for us to exist in a world where precisely such horrible things have happened. But one of them goes off. References . And I find that a helpful suggestion as just a, a possible intimation of a way that that could be done. And you can imagine trying to come in and give the person an argument, you know, a philosophical argument. 387 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<91B92E767D1D854DB417396326B98C3C><75D388A41E37AA4E930169FC45FDA94A>]/Index[380 21]/Info 379 0 R/Length 56/Prev 380449/Root 381 0 R/Size 401/Type/XRef/W[1 2 1]>>stream Alternatively, if the believer were to question whether the existence of apparently pointless evil were to render belief in God false or improbable, he would be dealing with a different sort of problem -- the epistemic problem of evil. – Robert George on Peter Singer, Abortion, and Seeking Truth, As You Love Yourself: Where Contemplation and Action Meet. The first and perhaps most important step of this stage-setting process will be to identify and clarify the conception of God that is normally presupposed in contemporary debates (at least within the Anglo-American analytic tradition) on the problem of evil. The opinions and personalities represented in The Table do not necessarily represent those of Biola University or the Biola University Center for Christian Thought. The Table is a publication of the Biola University Center for Christian Thought. of the problem of evil, some work has also been done on what we might call the existential version. Philosophers sometimes wave off this task—one some regard as “merely” addressing the “pastoral” or “existential” problem of evil. You know, that’s, it’s the people who experience wartime atrocities can become so psychologically damaged, it may be impossible, absent a miraculous divine intervention in this life for those individuals to experience the kind of peace and wholeness that a character like Father Zosima experiences. It’s set in Russia of course. “The Problem of Evil ” by Fyodor Dostoevsky beggars come in, they wear silken rags and tattered lace and beg for alms dancing gracefully, then one might like looking at them. Existentialism (/ ˌ ɛ ɡ z ɪ ˈ s t ɛ n ʃ əl ɪ z əm / or / ˌ ɛ k s ə ˈ s t ɛ n t ʃ ə ˌ l ɪ z əm /) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on the lived experience of the thinking, feeling, acting individual. Theodicy and Scripture. ...Instead we encounter a variety of perspectives... Consequently [the Bible focuses on] moral and spiritual remedies, not rational or logical [justifications]. And so why do we find ourselves confronted with all this suffering? Also Jokes This is what it looks like to be full of love, wholly trusting in God and his goodness, wholly in solidarity with the suffering This is what it looks like. So he’s not sheltered from, he’s aware of the intense suffering of many individuals. When faced with the problem of evil, we see evil clearly because we have a more direct knowledge of it. So really a model of Christian virtue, a very Christ-like figure. Biola University's Center for Christian Thought is supported by generous grants from: © 1996-2021 Biola University, Inc. All Rights Reserved. However, the “pastoral” problem is as real and important as the “epistemic” problem. As it’s treated in the writings of Theodosius Dobzhansky and his beautiful character, Father Zosima. It can make it very difficult to believe that there is a God of the kind described by traditional Christianity. It was published in serial form, as many 19th century novels were. “I don’t want to participate in that. h�bbd``b`N�@�Iĵ\G��^ �v##7H #��� k�� It’s true there aren’t that many of us that attain that level of saintliness in our lives, but there are some, and we should listen to them. There remains, however, what we may call the evidential form?as opposed to the logical form?of the problem of evil: the view that the variety and profusion evil in our world, although perhaps not logically inconsistent with the existence of the theistic God, provides, nevertheless, rational support for atheism. Theists agree (2a) and (2b) are both true, and. In the existential problem of evil, we read mostly C.S. How is it that the existence of all of this suffering we find ourselves confronted with is compatible with the existence of an all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing God? Problem of Evil (Logical and Evidential Problem) Logical problem of evil. I simply wanted to show you my point of view. 380 0 obj <> endobj And they can experience it as a moral committedness and trust in the love of God. if all of this requires the torture of this one innocent child, then I don’t want a part of it. But I think as Christians, we also have to bear in mind that the God we worship is a god who suffered greatly on our behalf. Sociologist Walter Brueggemannsays theodicy is "a constant concern of the entire Bible" and needs to "include the category of social evil as well as moral, natural (physical) and religious evil". And that’s the way that Dobzhansky frames the problem of evil in “The Brothers Karamazov,” which I think is just a terrific novel in many ways. And so he, and we’re supposed to, what we the readers are invited to take away is listen to the testimony of some individuals like that. He’s this powerful saintly figure. First two forms of the Problem of Evil. And then it’s an invitation for us to try to follow that path and to experience that for ourselves. (2b) Extreme and horrendous evil exists. But it’s also, there’s also an existential problem that we face when we encounter terrible evil in our own lives and in the lives of others. Tom Crisp, Emmanuel Katongole). So, but, this character, Father Zosima, is a sort of, he’s, we’re introduced to him as this saintly monk that people come to, and they just feel spiritual comfort often just in his presence even when he doesn’t speak. Journalist and best-selling author Lee Strobel commissioned George Barna, the public-opinion pollster, to conduct a nationwide survey. Yeah, the practical problem is sometimes we find ourselves quite rightly feeling a revulsion against certain kinds of really horrific evil that certainly others in the world experience, and maybe we, ourselves, have been touched by at some point in our lives. The inner life of God who grieves over his suffering and sinful children and longs to have them return to them and experience profound suffering and alienation in the second person of the Trinity, incarnated and crucified. So then there’s this other character that, and Dostoevsky very much wrote, he wrote it in stages. LXVIII (1994), pp. That could be, for some individuals in this life, they might say, well, I, you know, I can’t make that identification. And I think we just have to recognize that. The Existential Problem of Evil: As often called the "religious," "personal," or "pastoral" problem of evil, the existential problem is one that asks, "Why my suffering and/or evil at this time in this way in this place?" Related Issues and Problems. If you get to a point of spiritual development that an individual like Father Zosima has, it’s possible to have a integration of your deep, profoundest moral convictions about the wrongness of horrific suffering and complete trust in the deep love of God. I mean is this an effect? And a kind of brief loss for Marilyn Adams has interestingly speculated that one way in which people who’ve experience horrific suffering might actually come to, in a way, have that suffering take on redemptive value for them, even though it remains an evil thing, what they experience, but it can come to have redemptive significance if God enables them in a kind of mystical way to yoke their suffering, see their suffering as a means of identification with the suffering of Christ on our behalf, right. The “evidential” subcategory – … Evil and the Demonic. 229 - 246. In fact in, as you know, in a lot of anthologies devoted to the problem of evil, you often get an excerpt of just Ivan, the brother, the atheist, his statement of the problem of evil. Since any direct inductive problem of evil must be either existential or non-existential, without an adequate response to such objections, the success of direct inductive arguments is greatly diminished. As for what the existentialist has to say, I'm not enough of an expert on it to respond. The Existential Problem of Evil • The Philosophical Problem of Evil concerns evil in the general and in the abstract. Forms of the Problem of Evil The First Two Forms. You know, he says, “I don’t want to, even if it’s true “that God will bring great good “and cause an ultimate harmony of all things “in the eschaton. But God is capable of, Jesus is the great physician, and we are promised that individuals who cling to God will, even if they’re not capable of experiencing that wholeness, that overcoming of deep woundedness, God can bring that about. And so, I wondered if you could tell us a bit about how you think about the practical problem of evil, and what you think Dobzhansky’s solution or reply to this problem is. And if He’s all-powerful and all-knowing, wouldn’t he have the power and know how to do so? It’s, and it’s because, perhaps out of an identification with the sufferer. And he very much wanted the novel to offer response to the problem of evil, and he feared that he did a better job of framing the problem of evil than he did in giving a powerful Christian response to it. So I just think Dostoevsky’s solution is there are certain saints that are witnesses to us that it is possible. Why I Stopped Trying to Win Arguments: The Servant-Apologist Model, On Taming the Tongue: An Interview with Richard Bauckham, Global Indifference & the Mothers of Invention (feat. Yes, exactly. A philosophy webcomic about the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world. He’s a person of overwhelming love, and that’s the thing. which maybe in some cases might help, but in many cases maybe would feel cold and lifeless and unduly abstract. He specializes in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of religion. These tend to fall, however, into two main groups. Now, this is a kind of theoretical problem. The term “God” is used with a wide variety of differentmeanings. The “logical” subcategory – “The fact that God’s good creation includes any evil entails God’s nonexistence.” b. • The responses to this problem work just fine, while one sits comfortably in a nice, cool philosophy classroom. Much as Schopenhauer once suggested (1818), the existence of evil gives rise to a philosophical problem that is logically prior to and distinct from the classical problem.2 I call this problem the secular problem of … The Existential Problem of Evil. Contemplate this, and it will bring healing to you? And it induces in us a profound sense of that the things ought not to be this way. in Philosophy from Talbot School of Theology and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from University of Notre Dame. The existential problem of evil is simply this, and I say this to people: that ultimately the problem of evil is not a problem because you’ve got a bunch of philosophers or eggheads somewhere in an ivory tower debating the intellectual merits of Christian theism. h�b```"0��A�X��� �dha8k�����u���Z�u�ӹ�m8sYp�p�r�e�rm���Ym���S�u���,ͥ#�,ä5�"\�Ԁ��:%к���u����[�!��R"���J�Dn�p�v�vܑ T)��]xK�0Hr��-�@e�@j3P`K�V���ш���І�׈��������F�����������ƌ����4���9�A(���A�g������*�fb� �� ��pU��)�|�O��+: � @W��[S'�ff`�s�G�'��� ��&@� %j And so then, for some individuals, when they experience this kind of intense suffering, they find themselves just psychologically withdrawing from God. Wandering in Darkness: Eleonore Stump on Suffering, Evil, and Personal Encounter, Union with God: Love, Joy and Peace (Eleonore Stump), Suffering, the Problem of Evil, & the Desires of the Heart, The Existential Problem of Evil and The Brothers Karamazov, Purging the World of Evil: St. Thomas Aquinas on the Atoning Work of Christ, Should We Tolerate Evil Opinions? When considering their respective ethical implications, both the existential and non-existential variations of direct inductive arguments fail. And he doesn’t tell us how. The Existential Problem of Evil and Redemptive Suffering. See William Rowe, ‘The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism’ in M. M. Adams and R. M. Adams (edd), The Problem of Evil (Oxford: OUP, 1990) The argument for atheism based on evil: 1. Lewis’ works that cover his personal experiences with loss and evil, and then a fictional piece about what the afterlife might be like. But he, at one point, he recounts the story of his life, and he indicates that, actually, early on, he was a violently angry young man and participated in dueling and such. The theistic concept of God as supremely powerful, intelligent, and good makes the problem very difficult because such a being, it would seem, would make a … Right. So is it that you can imagine someone in the grip of an existential crisis, finding themselves repulsed maybe by God because of horrific suffering and experience through a witness. It can induce a kind of vertigo. And all the, he functions, I think, in Dostoevsky’s hands as a kind of witness to, because he encounters people, people come to him who are suffering horribly. Christian wisdom for life's big questions. ISBN 0-19-926347-7. The Experience of Suffering. And it’s very painful to read, his recounting of just some horrific atrocities that occurred in and around that time. So, the problem of evil. He is currently Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Biola University. He puts it in terms of the suffering of a young child and says. Natural Evil. William Hasker, in the selection here, argues The Hollowness of the Pragmatic Argument from Evil. On theone hand, there are metaphysical interpretations of the term: God isa prime mover, or a first cause, or a necessary being that has itsnecessity of itself, or the ground of being, or a being whos… endstream endobj 381 0 obj <>/Metadata 71 0 R/Pages 378 0 R/StructTreeRoot 110 0 R/Type/Catalog>> endobj 382 0 obj <>/MediaBox[0 0 612 792]/Parent 378 0 R/Resources<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI]>>/Rotate 0/StructParents 0/Tabs/S/Type/Page>> endobj 383 0 obj <>stream And we don’t want to align ourselves with any grand scheme of things such that this is a part of what’s being planned. If God is all-good, wouldn’t He want to prevent so much of this horrific suffering? ...It is simply that the Bible operates within a cosmic, mo… (1) An all-powerful, all-good and all-loving, all-knowing God exists. Citation/Other Information. Before delving into the deep and often murky waters of the problem of evil, it will be helpful to provide some philosophical background to this venerable subject. The philosophical problem posed by the existence of evil is not. This label calls attention to the “real-life” dimension of the problem in addition to the more abstract and general lines of reason - ing that are typically pursued. It can make it very difficult to believe that there is a God of the kind described by traditional Christianity. I’m gonna give you a picture. But even then we should not love them. For Clive Staples Lewis the “problem” of evil is a problem of which people need to have a better understanding, but not necessarily completely solved. Summary and Conclusions: The Problem of Evil and Pain. If God is all-powerful, all-knowing and perfectly good, why does he let so many bad things h… One of them goes off and is educated in the West and becomes a, sort of Enlightenment, atheist-type figure. 0 The Judgment of God. Because these are far from being individuals who are morally calloused. They feel they don’t want to simply say that, “Well God is wholly just and God is perfectly good, and he will bring good out of horrific evil.”. Problem # 3: Existential Problem of Evil Psychological inability to believe or practice the faith. This is the pastoral or existential problem of evil. 400 0 obj <>stream And then whether you think it works, whether you find it persuasive. Yes, I think that’s it. (2a) Evil exists. to reconcile that. The next step will involve providing an outline of some important concepts and distincti… And he frames the problem of evil this way. And over the course of his life, he embraced the Christian faith and was slowly transformed. They’re not dismissive of suffering. The survey included the question “If you could ask God only one question and you knew he would give you an answer, what would you ask?” The most common response, offered by 17% of those who could think of a question was “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?” (Strobel 2000, p. 29). Metaphysical Evil. They have great sensitivity to suffering, and yet they also have profound intimacy with God. And so you’ve done some really interesting thinking and writing about this existential problem of evil. In fact, existentialism is in one way a possible answer to the problem of evil (if one is a Christian existentialist) because it is our existential freedom that results in evil, not anything shitty that God has done. The existential problem is mainly emotional (although this does not mean they do not also consider the logical problem). %%EOF Thomas M. Crisp has a M.A. Horrific Evil. “I, and, you know, I want to declare now I want to have no part of that.” And it seems to be a kind of moral righteousness stand of saying, you know, maybe God could cause me to acquiesce in it, but I don’t want God to do that. For The Table subscribers only: Sign up for "Charting a Course Through Grief". In these readings, we learn the existential problem of evil to be the conflict of one’s emotions with one’s logic. %PDF-1.5 %���� I think he should perhaps add what he no doubt believes that some human individuals in this life may have experienced such profound suffering, say, seeing the, he recounts the story of a mother seeing her child being deliberately killed savagely right before her eyes. Yet we can miss the melodies of beauty and order available to us through a new spiritual life; a life that comes from restoring our relationship to God through Christ. The Hiddenness of God. Our free 4-week, 8-lesson ecourse on navigating the pain of loss... What Happens When We Die: What We Are and What We Will Become, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University, CCT Scholar-in-Residence and Executive Board Member / Professor of Philosophy, Biola University. Menssen, Sandra L. "The Existential Problem of Evil: Reflections on the Analogy Between Creation and Procreation, "American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly: Annual Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Vol. Philosophers sometimes distinguish between different problems of evil. • But, try speaking about Plantagina, or evil as … I meant to speak of the suffering of mankind generally, An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, Third Edition, Brian Davies, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004. The History of Theodicy. There is general agreement among Bible scholars that the Bible "does not admit of a singular perspective on evil. For an existential version of theism is a much more a special set of emphases within the theism than it is a separate worldview. It can be done. But it’s also, there’s also an existential problem that we face when we encounter terrible evil in our own lives and in the lives of others. The Politics of Theodicy. But enough of that. This perspective in The secular existentialists' perspective on the problem of evil has its root foundation upon naturalism where God does not exist. It still, it doesn’t help me to, but God could cause them to have insight into the character of God that it could somehow take on redemptive significance for them. These individuals may be rendered naturally incapable of any psychological wholeness, wellness in this life. He just says it is possible to come to see things in this way. The... a. Now, this is a kind of theoretical problem. There is evil... Evidential problem of evil. I don’t want Him to change my mind about this. If an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent god exists, then evil does not. And it’s hard to imagine sometimes how that could be. The most common statement of this problem is, “I can’t believe in a God who would allow…”. How does this analysis pertain to the theistic problem of evil? h�Ėmk�0ǿ�`oZXѓ%�PI�����4[�/�ZK �lwk�}��8q���� c�,�t�~�-�!�H!�����@A+H��_ΠSF�"0`(�%�H�$����'"X��`U�89=�����51����Y��w$!=KV�.���D�!���DpMG�d^)�����x�'J?�Bh����d��4[��`W��E�=fM��1:��Ev���G�pI��s�B/��F��0��v�o�=]��_ŕ٪.J�}�Y(��Yx�ׯ�G^^!�_�з��9'ah��g�~�A�����VJ?Y�c���!���r�����)�-0t����ʶ�곻�l�b���L�E�q1���qz}Sc���I�f��. And we have some of his correspondence. DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvpj7gm2.4 The philosophical problem of evil is the challenge of reconciling belief in God with evil in the world. a. And no doubt, it requires supernatural activity on the part of God, but we’re already. The Literature of Theodicy. And he just speaks with great confidence that it is possible to be reconciled to that without diminishing it and while still identifying with the victim of suffering. You have three sons of, that are all interesting characters. They worry that this seems to say that they should not properly grieve the suffering that human individuals experience. endstream endobj startxref Key works: Human, All too Human (1878–1880), The Gay Science (1882–1887), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–1891), Beyond Good and Evil (1886), The Genealogy of Morals (1887), Ecce Homo (1888) Martin Heidegger (1889–1976): The most thoroughly academic of the existentialists. This reason, existential problem of evil spent a significant amount of time exploring the topic in his books, both fiction... Have three sons of, that are all interesting characters, we see evil clearly because we have more. Form, as many 19th century novels were, while one sits comfortably in a God who would allow….... 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And in the love of God variety of differentmeanings author Lee Strobel commissioned George Barna, the pollster! Sometimes how that could be and around that time work itself theistic Response: 1 faced with the problem evil... The person an argument to participate in that mainly emotional ( although this not! Dobzhansky and his beautiful character, Father Zosima it induces in us a profound sense of that Bible. Davies, Oxford, 2004 admit of a singular perspective on evil us try. 3: existential problem is, “ I don ’ t want to! Overwhelming love, and omnibenevolent God exists, then evil does not mean they do also... To this problem work just fine, while one sits comfortably in a,!, all-good and all-loving, all-knowing God exists, then I don ’ t want to... Although this does not exist respective ethical implications, both in fiction and nonfiction used! Naturally incapable of any Psychological wholeness, wellness in this way stand apart and stand with the existential problem of evil of?... Special set of emphases within the theism than it is possible from: 1996-2021... Both in fiction and nonfiction argues the philosophical problem posed by the existence of has... Abortion, and omnibenevolent God exists tim O'Connor ( Ph.D. Cornell ) is Professor of Philosophy at Biola University for. This analysis pertain to the theistic problem of evil has its root foundation upon where... Mainly emotional ( although this does not and was slowly transformed, 2004 to respond it ’ hard...