Irenaen Theodicy cannot justify the existence of evil. Discuss

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Irenaen Theodicy cannot justify the existence of evil

Going solely off what Irenaeus states in his theodicy does justify the existence of evil quite easily for somebody that is already a religious follower and needs to have his or her faith reaffirmed, however you would need to ignore a few glaring flaws in his argument for why God allows evil if you are an atheist or agnostic.

Irenaeus follows a clear logical path making very few leaps (apart from that of the existence of God, but this is a proof for why evil can –or even has to- exist if there is a God so, for arguments sake, God’s existence must be accepted for Irenaeus’ explanation of evil to work) in logic. Irenaeus started off with the bible, stating that there is a difference between the ‘likeness’ and the ‘image’ of God and, in Genesis, God created man in his own image and an image is radically different from a likeness.

That was Irenaeus first point, that the ‘image’ of God means that we might only look like God and we have yet to achieve the content, behaviour, morals, thoughts or feelings of God. He said that humanity is immature (as proved by the expulsion of Adam and Even from the Garden of Eden) and that we needed to change and grow into the ‘likeness’ of God, he believed that humans are –as we were then and still are- simply the ‘raw materials’ God needed in his work.

After that strong foundation (for a religious believer that is) Irenaeus went on to his explanation for why evil exists despite there being an omnibenevolent God that loves us all. Irenaeus said that humans still had to learn more about the world and develop themselves and their souls spiritually, he said that this development could only come about from what we perceive to be ‘evil’ as ‘evil’ has a number of uses which, in fact, benefit humanity greatly:

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Things such as hunger and pain are considered evil by some, however without hunger there would be no way to know that you were in fact hungry and without pain there would be no way to know that you have been hurt or injured. Therefore ‘evil’ is a way for humans to learn and evil also allows us to empathise with each other which lets us help others that need it; how could you help a hungry person if they did not know they were hungry?

In a way this is similar to parenting, the majority of parents will have ...

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