Evil, how did it happen and why is it still here on this earth? There is this belief that the Christian God is good and all-powerful. He has the power to create worlds and beings, yet there is still evil in the world. Both Pierre Bayle and Voltaire address these questions in their works “Paulicians” and Candide (respectively). They both believe the Manichean philosophy as a more rational thought process than the contemporaneous Christian view. This belief is that there is not one, but two gods in the world; a god of good and a god of evil. I myself believe in a world of balance and like the two authors listed above, accept this as more rational thought than a single omnipotent god. My reasoning is that without evil, there is no concept of good,…
3) How does Augustine attempt to reconcile the fact that an all-powerful, all loving God could allow these things to happen? Be sure to provide an account for both human generated evils and natural evils. Given Hume’s account of ideas, how would he likely respond to Augustine’s account? Who do you think provides the more compelling response? Augustine is a well-known philosopher who is known for describing what a “free will” is and that it is something that every single one of us has.…
Evil comes in as the obstacle coarse in the way of the ultimate prize. After all, with such a great goal, it shouldn't be easy. Though this doesn't really answer the question of where evil came from, or why God allows it. Irenaeus believes that we chose it when humanity fell in Creation. That justifies moral evil. But what of natural evil? Why did God want this journey to take place in such a hazardous environment, with earthquakes and pestilence, and in such frail form, which is susceptible to such dangers? Hick's response is that moral and spiritual development does not take place in a static environment but comes as the result of challenge and struggle and…
Autobiography is a method which allows the reader and the writer to reflect on a personal, and factual journey through the past. The creation of the autobiography opens up new doors which enlighten the reader into the development of history, which is a uniquely western idea. Augustine’s Confessions uses this story as an autobiography to describe his distinctions between his ideas of Inner and Outer Man, which he reflects through his various books. He also uses the distinction between his books to describe his life as a pilgrimage from the City of Man to the City of God.…
Saint Augustine’s Confessions autobiographically chronicles his spiritual journey into developing his beliefs and accepting Christianity. He only recounts the events from his childhood and adolescence that lead to his conversion. Instead of anecdotally laying out his life story, Augustine chooses to write about his personal struggles to become a devout Christian. Throughout the story, he entangles himself into different philosophical schools of teaching to better understand his take…
Augustine believed God didn’t create evil but it came about when the angels and humans tuned their back on the higher good and settled for the lower good because of their free choices used with free will. Augustine believed the sin of Adam was passed on though all humans and was called the original sin, moreover Augustine believed God sent Jesus down to die for our sins instead of sending everyone to hell.…
This paper will outline specific points in Saint Augustine’s Confessions that highlight religious views following the fall of Rome. Though Augustines views on religion may not reflect that of most people in his time period, it still gives valuable insight into how many, namely Neoplatonists,, viewed God and his teachings.…
AuSaint Augustine was a bishop of Hippo Regius, a Latin philosopher and theologian. He was born in 354 in the town of Thagaste in Roman Africa. Growing up with a Pagan father and a Christian mother, Saint Augustine endured many experiences from which he produced a book of confessions. In this book he writes about his life and struggles with evil desires. He struggled with greed, gluttony and lust, which are three among seven of the deadliest sins. His main struggle was within faith and religion concerning sexual restrictions and church regulations. He overcomes these struggles when he finds his faith.…
To answer the question if God is good and omnipotent and if it was God who created the world why is there evil? Augustine concluded that God is the author of everything created in the universe, therefore evil is not a thing otherwise this gives the implication that God is evil and Augustine disagrees with this. He argues instead that evil is the ‘privation’ of good; it only exits if people abandon the goodness that God created us with. By this he means that by using the word ‘evil’ we are saying that something does not meet our expectations of what it should be like by nature. Augustine stated “God made a good world but humans chose not to obey God so the goodness of the world went wrong.” Evil is therefore not an entity but only exists if someone from the kingdom of God bestows it upon the Earth and goes against the divine scheme of…
Moved by the quest to know the truth and to implement this truth to Divine Revelation, the early Fathers of the Church delved into philosophy, which offered new ways of proclaiming and understanding the word of God. These early Church Fathers, which include: Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, St. Augustine and others came in contact with Greek philosophy understood that dialogue is possible between reason and faith, that is, religion and philosophy. These they were able to do by the adoption of Platonism. Following the above preamble, this paper hopes to discuss the view of the early Church Fathers as regards Faith and Reason but with particular reference to the views of St. Augustine of Hippo.…
Even the agnostic philosopher Bertrand Russell was impressed by this. He wrote, "a very admirable relativistic theory of time. ... It contains a better and clearer statement than Kant's of the subjective theory of time - a theory which, since Kant, has been widely accepted among philosophers."[45] Catholic theologians generally subscribe to Augustine's belief that God exists outside of time in the "eternal present"; that time only exists within the created universe because only in space is time discernible through motion and change. His meditations on the nature of time are closely linked to his consideration of the human ability of memory. Frances Yates in her 1966 study…
Augustine viewed human nature in only one way: good and evil. Augustine lived in an era when the pillar of strength and stability, the Roman Empire, was being shattered, and his own life, too was filled with turmoil and loss. To believe in God, he had to find an answer to why, if God is all-powerful and purely good, he still allowed suffering to exist. Augustine believed that evil existed because all men on earth was granted, at birth, the power of free will. He states that God enables humans to freely choose their actions and deeds, and through our own action and choices evil is established. Even natural evils, such as disease, are indirectly related to…
The St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum — the lighthouse, circa 1874, still operates. The grounds and the 1876 keeper’s house also have been restored as museums.…
Augustine, Saint (ôˈgəstēn, –tĭn; ôgŭsˈtĭn) [key], Lat. Aurelius Augustinus, 354–430, one of the four Latin Fathers, bishop of Hippo (near present-day Annaba, Algeria), b. Tagaste (c.40 mi/60 km S of Hippo).…
St. Augustine is a fourth century philosopher whose groundbreaking philosophy infused Christian doctrine with Neoplatonism. He is famous for being an inimitable Catholic theologian and for his agnostic contributions to Western philosophy. He argues that skeptics have no basis for claiming to know that there is no knowledge. In a proof for existence similar to one later made famous by René Descartes, Augustine says, “[Even] If I am mistaken, I am.” He is the first Western philosopher to promote what has come to be called “the argument by analogy” against solipsism: there are bodies external to mine that behave as I behave and that appear to be nourished as mine is nourished; so, by analogy, I am justified in believing that these bodies have a similar mental life to mine. Augustine believes reason to be a uniquely human cognitive capacity that comprehends deductive truths and logical necessity. Additionally, Augustine adopts a subjective view of time and says that time is nothing in reality but exists only in the human mind’s apprehension of reality. He believes that time is not infinite because God “created” it.…