The explanation for why someone or something is evil can not be easily defined, as the answer may vary based on a person’s psychological thought process or intellectual reasoning. The justification of this paper is to discuss Peter Van Inwagen and his philosophical response to the argument from evil, as well as his free will defense theory for the answer to this complication. I will carefully evaluate the two standard objections to his solution and offer my personal opinion of rather or not he offers a successful resolution for this universal problem.…
M. Night Shyamalan uses the impact of Colleen’s sacrificial death on the Hess family, Graham’s struggle with faith, and every character’s quirk to prove that everything happens for reason.…
May, R. (1982). “The Problem of Evil: An Open Letter to Carl Rogers.” Journal of Humanistic Psychology. Vol. 22 (3). Pg. 10-21.…
Since the creation of the world, humans have been falling into darkness and evil, as displayed in stories like Adam and Eve. All humans-beings have the potential to become evil, which usually comes from self-centered wants. When people go down the path of doing whatever it takes to get what they want, they end up hurting others along the way. Evil tempts everyone on a daily basis, but it is the choice whether to reject temptation or give in that exemplifies who someone is. When humans repel evil, the good shows through and their actions have a positive impact. Surrendering to evil is the easy way out, but will lead to darkness and destruction, and make it almost impossible to find a way back to the light.…
Ben Parker once said, "With great power, comes great responsibility". Mankind has tremendous power, and this power is called free will. Free will has been defined by many philosophers as the choices made with no ulterior motif, however, philosophers Frelor Dostoevsky and Richard Swinburne can both agree it involves the malicious or benign choices of mankind impacting one another. This great power of free will, has the potential to equally harm an individual as well as help them. Both philosophers published literary works to convey their own individual perspective of evil, and how free will plays a part in the presence of evil. Despite the misconceptions of God's omnipotence, the presence of evil within the world is a product of humans using…
Summary: James Rachels addresses the conflicts of evil in his book “Problems from Philosophy” by providing various forms of logical problems. The author points out the different possible explanations to why evil would exist. The first major idea Rachels makes is that perhaps pain is essential to caution people of danger. He goes on to suggest that this would not account for why some people are born with deadly diseases. Another idea he makes is that evil helps people appreciate the good in life. One would not be able to distinguish the good in life if evil did not exist. However, this does not explain why the world needs so much evil to exist, instead of letting a few bad things happen occasionally. The third idea the author makes questions why bad things happen to good people. Rachels suggests maybe those bad things that occur in life are…
We have all had those things that appear in our lives and for awhile bring us joy. Just for a little bit. Or maybe it’s the things we wish for, wait the longest for, and once we get it it’s not what we thought it’d be. The most popular of these things would be money. We all think that getting money would make our lives a lot easier, less stressful, and the biggest misconception, happier. But, in the short story “Why, You Reckon?” Langston Hughes uses irony, dialogue and character development to show the audience that money can’t buy you happiness.…
In the novel Schooled by Gordan Korman, Capricorn Anderson’s life has changed for the better. Have you ever heard of a thirteen year old who got arrested two times in less than two months for doing a silly thing like driving, and being underage while doing it? Cap Anderson is a flower child, who lives in Garland Farms with his sixty-seven year old grandmother, Rain, who educates him until she has an accident. Cap is different from other characters because Cap comes from Garland which is a whole different world. In Garland, there is no money, no television and different hobbies from the “real” world. Cap would have never thought he would interact with the world outside of Garland and enjoy it!…
The problem of evil refers to the question of how to reconcile the existence of evil with an omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent God.…
The city of Chicago was one of the worst places to be at during the 1960’s. No one had good paying jobs. The town alone was run down on the Southside.…
As I mentioned before religiously I was told the free will defense although I didn’t know it was a philosophy idea as well. There are many different ideas trying to show that both statements are true: There is an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God. And there is evil (Jensen 312). One explanation is that God is limited (Jensen 312). Another is his ways cannot be scrutinized (Jensen 313). Leibniz proposed that a perfect world is not logically possible (Jensen 314). Tennant said that evils are a necessary by-product of nature (Jensen 314). Another idea is that evil is a way to grow as a person a sort of therapy (Jensen 323). Some like John Stuart Mill proposed “radical surgery” by saying that God is not omnipotent (Jensen 311). Alvin Plantinga defended God from being responsible for evil by saying that for moral good to be present humans must be capable of moral evil as well (Jensen 321). My favorite thought in this chapter is from John Hick and his writings on Irenaeus a Christian theologian. Hick suggests that man was created imperfect and immature creature who needed to go through a moral development and growth before his final stage of perfection that was intended for him by the creator. I love this idea because the Bible makes man a sinner who destroyed his perfection and then plunged into sin and misery for the remainder of his existence (Jensen…
In Phillip Lopate’s novel To Show and to Tell, he describes the process of characterization in memoir by saying, “I would further maintain than this process of turning oneself into a character is not about self absorbed navel gazing, but rather a potential release from narcissism” (25). In Lopate’s chapter “On the Necessity of Turning Oneself into a Character” he describes different ways that memoirists characterize themselves and how to improve your skills in that art. Chang-rae Lee is skilled in the concepts that Lopate stresses and certainly strays from narcissism. In his essay “Magical Dinners” by providing an honest depiction of his childhood memories as a Korean immigrant telling us who he is through the dramatization of his childhood quirks, vivid description of his environment growing up, and his attitudes towards his childhood behaviors.…
The topic of evil is discussed in multiple ways within the stories of Beowulf, Paradise Lost, Lord of the Flies, and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. These writers’ opinions on evil vary. Evil is portrayed in many different ways. Is evil a choice that is made by an individual? Or is it merely a concept that humans have no control over? Although these writers may disagree on who will be defeated in the battle between good and evil and whether evil lives within every man, they agree on the concept that evil always brings negative consequences.…
“Writers provide glimpses of other worlds giving readers opportunities to reflect on their own world”. To what extended do you agree.…
The topic of suffering probably is the hardest for me to bear as a Christian, because it is the result of evil in the world, and since God’s allowance of evil is hard to explain, it is an atheist’ best argument against Christian faith. My views on why God allows suffering are based on C.S. Lewis’ book “The Problem of Pain”. Lewis’ thoughts basically show that there is sufficient evidence that God is real and that pain exists because the all-powerful God created creatures that aren’t happy. Since the fall of man, we are never content with what we have and are always in on the pursuit of happiness that even our forefathers recognized. This explains evil in the world; that we feel like we deserve more than we have been given, so we fight for and take what we can get, often wickedly. Our general discontent leads to evil, which leads to…