Present the strengths and weaknesses of Augustine's and Ireneaus' theodicy
Present the strengths and weaknesses of
Augustine's and Ireneaus' theodicy
'Evil did not come from God, since God's creation was faultless and perfect' (St Augustine)
St Augustine was a man wrote a theodicy about the problem of evil and suffering based on the Creation and Fall of Genesis in the bible, he believed that evil was caused by something that was outside the omnipotence of God. God himself is all powerful but after creating the world, he Himself would not be able to control the actions that human beings create in changing it. When God created the world, with absolutely no evil and suffering, he saw what he had done and saw it was all good.
God did not deprivate the world from having evil and suffering and he has no reason to have any blame for it as God created the world with nothing bad inside it. Evil is not a substance that could have been created by God, therefore he cannot be responsible for it. I think that this was a weak point in Augustine's theodicy because he cannot truthfully call evil a substance as humans do not know how much more God could have done to create the world.
Human beings have chosen to make the world an evil place, they have turned away from God and what he has created to make other beings suffer. God did not put wars onto the world, human beings caused them to happen over being greedy and selfish. Other humans want what other humans have because of jealousy. For example; Why take a innocent persons life just for the sake of it in less economically developed countries? Is it just for the pleasure or fun of it? God left the world in the hands of angels and human beings and they have just abused Gods trust and his gift of freedom to them.
Augustine had a strong point that angels and humans have created the evil and suffering in the world because they themselves had the free will and freedom to take the matters of the earth into their own hands. God cannot control what happens in the world after he had finished creating such thing, so he cannot get blamed for the tragedies and bad events that happen. God did not want evil he wanted humans and angels to enjoy the world the way that he created it to be.
Evil is said to have come from the off spring of Adam, who was the first human on earth. Augustine wrote that Satan, a fallen angel, had tempted Adam and Eve with the power and free will of the earth when God had completed the creation of it. This temptation was proved to much for Adam and Eve who wanted to have power over the earth, this was one of the starter points for evil.
In the bible there is said to have been an angel called Lucifer, this angel was among the other angels. He was the 'Lord of Light'. However, he turned to evil and fell in to the darkness. This darkness is said to have evolved Lucifer in to Satan. Satan lives in hell, and hell is the darkness of all evil.
Suffering has evolved from the consequences of evil, evil had started from the small part of greed of humans and had effected the world as human beings and angels each began to disobey God. Loss of order ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
In the bible there is said to have been an angel called Lucifer, this angel was among the other angels. He was the 'Lord of Light'. However, he turned to evil and fell in to the darkness. This darkness is said to have evolved Lucifer in to Satan. Satan lives in hell, and hell is the darkness of all evil.
Suffering has evolved from the consequences of evil, evil had started from the small part of greed of humans and had effected the world as human beings and angels each began to disobey God. Loss of order in the world, caused by 'Moral Chaos', lead to 'Natural Evil'. It was like a domino effect, evil after evil after evil happened. First it started off from being made by humans and angels, now evil had become almost a natural thing to happen. Humans and angels had now severely abused the privileges that God had given them in the world, God had handed them the world willingly and in return it had been taken for granted and ruined by evil and suffering.
Augustine believed that because everyone was seminally present in Adam, each and every one deserved the evil punishment for what they had done. Every generation was believed to be guilty for something bad that happened in the world. They had all disobeyed God, even down to the smallest new born baby. According to Augustine.
Augustine concluded that God gives ways to the world to try and fix the evil and suffering in the world. God is immanent because he has acted on the world in the past, is able to do so in the present and will do so again in the future. God sent his own son, Jesus to die on a cross to save some of the Christians so that they could go to heaven instead of hell. If God is willing to sacrifice his own son, then he is willing to sacrifice more. This shows that God is merciful. He created the world and in ways he is trying to make it a better place, like it was when he created it. But evil is now taken into the world and has been accepted by the creators of it, humans, but it is not acceptable for God.
After looking at Augustine's theodicy for evil and suffering I have come to a conclusion that evil could not have created itself from nothing, it has created itself from what God has created. It might be logical to believe that evil had come from Adam and Eve as they were the first people on earth, but God created those humans. He created both the humans and the angels, which later turned to evil and suffering because of jealousy and greed.
If God made the earth, if he made it as perfect and wholly as Augustine argued, then it should have been able to be protected from the evil and suffering. Even if it was created by the humans and angels. How would evil and suffering be known to have happened from humans and angels if it had not have happened before in the past, in other words. God would have had to created evil to know what it actually was. Therefore the humans and angels disobeyed God, only from the creation of evil before them.
Augustine believes that humans and angels have made a mockery out of the earth and it's creation. But he is mocking the scientific theory that evolution of man had played a big part in this. Relying on the design argument for the universe and God helped Augustine have a stronger point saying that by evolution happening and the number of humans increasing he is assuming that this scientific theory is the answer to the evil and suffering. The determination of the humans for 'the survival of the fittest' made the greed for life which lead to evil and suffering happen more and more. God provided the materials in the earth that eventually lead to the existence of evil.
God must have created the assumption of there being a 'Hell' knowing that there would be something to go terribly wrong in the world. Therefore, 'Hell' must have been involved in the creation of the universe. By creating a 'Hell' this could prove that God is not all powerful or omnipotent because he cannot handle everything that happens in the world because he needed something to rely on in the occurrence of evil. Again proves that he knew there was going to be evil and suffering in the world.
'God did not make a perfect world and that evil has a valuable role to play in God's plans for humans' (Irenaeus)
Irenaeus was born 200 years before Augustine, his theodicy was that God did not create the perfect world. He believed that Gods reason for creating an imperfect world was that He wanted to give them a chance to improve to perfection. God gave humans the free choice to develop into the likeness of God himself. This gave humans the chance to disobey God, therefore a starter point for evil to happen. If God gave humans the potential of Himself when he had created them then they wouldn't have any free will to decide on their own.
God required the willing communication from humans and that is why he did not create them perfectly to being with. By giving the humans a choice to have willing co-operation with God. It gave them the choice to either have their genuine freedom, or have the free will to turn to evil when ever they wanted to. God stood back after creating the world and watched the humans create it and have a choice on what they wanted to do. This was almost like putting guinea pigs into a new environment and watching them to see what choices they would make.
God knew that there was a possibility of humans turning to harm and evil when he placed Adam and Eve on to the earth. Irenaeus believed that humans did disobey God and did turn to evil, this is when the Fall and original sin occurred. Irenaeus thought that evil was good in a way that even though it makes life difficult 'it enables us to understand what good is'. 'How, if we had no knowledge of the contrary, could we have instruction in that which is good?' Irenaeus, Against Heresies iv, xxxix.1.
By God creating humans and taking the chance to give them the choice of having free will or genuine freedom willingly humans cannot therefore say that God should have never let evil happen on earth. It was their, the humans, choice on whether to take evil and suffering or good and if they chose evil and suffering and say God should have never let it happen they are in fact saying that God should take away their humanity.
'If anyone do shun the knowledge of both kinds of things...he unaware divests himself of the character of a human being' Irenaeus, Against Heresies iv, xxxix.1. This quotes proves that if God intervened with the evil happening in the world each time then no human would have any freedom at all. Irenaeus concluded that evil and suffering were just a passing stage to become into Gods likeness, like it was a passing event that humans will over come and eventually will go to heaven.
Ireneaus contradicts that everyone will eventually go to heaven, even though he is avoiding the point that evil came out of no where (Augustine's theodicy). This is a criticism towards many other religions as it is mocking the bible and almost predicting that everyone will go to heaven even if people do not believe it. The question is left from Ireneaus' theodicy that 'If everyone is to be rewarded by Heaven, what is the point of going out of our way to do good?' This quote is saying that if evil and suffering exists in the world and humans try to become to the likeness of God what is the point if everyone is going to go to heaven?
If humans are left to have the choice in turning to evil and suffering or good and are still rewarded by going to heaven, according to Irenaeus, then why does there have to be such deaths such as the Holocaust where 6 million Jews were killed. Suffering cannot be an act of God, even if God did make the world imperfectly he would not approve of millions of people dying for the greed and jealousy of other humans. Love from God cannot be expressed by the death of people, that is not right. People dying of natural diseases that cannot be helped and going to heaven is not as sinful as people dying for no apparent reason and going to heaven.
'Gods gift of free will is in no way an excuse for the existence of evil' If God knows the consequences of the humans that he had created then why give them the choice of free will. Humans are like robots, their actions can already be concluded before even having chosen them yet. Therefore God would have known what the consequences of evil and suffering could be. For example; wars, dying, the Holocaust and less economically developed countries. An omnipotent God would not have made humans suffer from evil for any purpose.
By Emma Milligan
