The Problem of Evil (XXVII)

[wiploc]

SteveII wrote:

Regarding evil, I posted this a while back in another thread:

Tell me what is wrong with what Augustine thought on the subject:

"Where is evil then, and whence, and how crept it in hither? What is its root, and what its seed? Or hath it no being?"[1] To this Augustine answered: "Evil has no positive nature; but the loss of good has received the name 'evil.'"[2]

Augustine observed that evil always injures, and such injury is a deprivation of good. If there were no deprivation, there would be no injury. Since all things were made with goodness, evil must be the privation of goodness: "All which is corrupted is deprived of good."[3]

An omnipotent god would be able to prevent all injury.  
An omnibenevolent god would choose to prevent all injury.  
An omniscient god would know how to prevent all injury.  
A tri-omni god would prevent all injury.  
If there is any injury, no tri-omni god exists.

The diminution of the property of goodness is what's called evil. Good has substantial being; evil does not. It is like a moral hole, a nothingness that results when goodness is removed. Just as a shadow is no more than a "hole" in light, evil is a hole in goodness.

An omnipotent god would be able to prevent all moral holes/shadows/evil/removed goodness.  
An omnibenevolent god would choose to prevent all moral holes/shadows/evil/removed goodness.  
An omniscient god would know how to prevent all moral holes/shadows/evil/removed goodness.  
A tri-omni god would prevent all moral holes/shadows/evil/removed goodness.  
If there is any moral holes/shadows/evil/removed goodness, no tri-omni god exists.

To say that something is evil, then, is a shorthand way of saying it either lacks goodness, or is a lower order of goodness than what ought to have been. But the question remains: "Whence and how crept it in hither?"

An omniscient creator would have known which possible worlds would contain lack of goodness or lower orders of goodness.  

An omnipotent creator would have been able to choose to create one of the possible worlds without lack of goodness or lower orders of goodness.  

An omnibenevolent creator would have chosen to create one of the possible worlds without lack of goodness or lower orders of goodness.  

A tri-omni god would have created a world without lack of goodness or lower orders of goodness.

Therefore, if there is any lack of goodness, any lower order of goodness, this world was not created by a tri-omni god.  

Augustine observed that evil could not be chosen because there is no evil thing to choose.

Yeah, you punch the person next to you in the face, and then explain that that was good, just a lower order of good.  I don't see the point of the locution.  

One can only turn away from the good, that is from a greater good to a lesser good (in Augustine's hierarchy) since all things are good. "For when the will abandons what is above itself, and turns to what is lower, it becomes evil--not because that is evil to which it turns, but because the turning itself is wicked."[4]

An omnipotent god would be able to prevent all such turning.  
An omnibenevolent god would choose to prevent all such turning.  
An omniscient god would know how to prevent all such turning.  
A tri-omni god would prevent all such turning.  
If there is any such turning, no tri-omni god exists.

Evil, then, is the act itself of choosing the lesser good.

An omnipotent god would be able to prevent all choosing the lesser good. 
An omnibenevolent god would choose to prevent all choosing the lesser good. 
An omniscient god would know how to prevent all choosing the lesser good. 
A tri-omni god would prevent all choosing the lesser good. 
If there is any choosing the lesser good, no tri-omni god exists.

To Augustine the source of evil is in the free will of persons: "And I strained to perceive what I now heard, that free-will was the cause of our doing ill."[5] Evil was a "perversion of the will, turned aside from...God" to lesser things.[6]

from article by Greg Koukl http://www.str.org/articles/-on...waWYfkrJhE

 
An omnipotent god would be able to prevent all perversion of the will and turning aside from God.  
An omnibenevolent god would choose to prevent all perversion of the will and turning aside from God.  
An omniscient god would know how to prevent all perversion of the will and turning aside from God.  
A tri-omni god would prevent all perversion of the will and turning aside from God.  
If there is any perversion of the will and turning aside from God, no tri-omni god exists.