Posted by alexandra_k on March 18, 2005, at 14:30:28
In reply to Re: The Greatest Happiness Machine, posted by Susan47 on March 18, 2005, at 10:00:02
>WHO THE HELL CAME UP WITH THE SICK THEORY THAT LEARNING AND GROWTH ALL MUST COME OUT OF MISERY AND STRUGGLE?
Um. That is a theodicy...
A theodicy is a defence / response to the problem of evil.
The problem of evil is thought to be fatal to the existence of an all powerful all knowing all loving god. It is thought that if we cannot come up with a good reply to the problem of evil then such a god cannot exist.Here you go:
1) God is all powerful; all loving; all knowing.
2) Evil (or suffering if you prefer) exists. Both natural - natural disaster and moral - people doing things like killing 6 million Jews.
Either
3) God cannot prevent this evil / suffering. If this is true then he cannot be all powerful.
4) God does not want to prevent this evil / suffering. If this is true then he cannot be all loving.
5) God does not know about all this evil / suffering. If this is true then he cannot be all knowing.So If we accept that God is (by definition) all powerful; all loving; and all knowing (which is how the peoples of the Judeo - Christian tradition define their god)...
...and we accept the existence of evil / suffering...
...then something has to give. That kind of god is a logical contradiction. It is impossible for that kind of god to exist.
So. The theodicies are attempts at saving the Judeo-Christian god from the problem of evil...
Leibniz thought that this world had the best possible ratio of good to evil of all the logically possible worlds. Thus god created this one...
Another defence is to say that some evil / suffering is necessary for us to learn and grow.
But then my issue is why did god make it necessary to suffer in order to grow?
Why did he do that for?
All loving my *ss...
poster:alexandra_k
thread:471916
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050316/msgs/472505.html