(November 15, 2013 at 10:13 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:(November 13, 2013 at 2:36 pm)MindForgedManacle Wrote: If the only good is God - which the Platonistic answer to the Euthyphro Dilemma and the privation view of evil necessitate and entail - then God could never have done anything in the service of producing a greater good. He is the ONLY good. Producing anything entails decreasing the amount pf good in reality necessarily. So theodicies like Plantinga's Free-will Defense can't even get off the ground, since their whole point is to explain evil existing as the necessary result for God to bring about a greater good.You present a very insightful and, at least to me, original critique of theodicy. Bravo! I wasn't expecting that one.
Hah, thanks. The last time I had thought of this was a couple of months ago I think. But I hadn't written it down anywhere, so I forgot (I wonder how many times that has happened?).
Quote:At the same time, I'm not certain that this critique applies to Swedenborg's theology, which I do not expect you to know. As a student of him I myself am still working out my understanding the metaphysics of Swedenborg, which I see as Panentheistic in nature.
Sounds interesting. I'd be interested in hearing more about it.
Quote:I cannot speak as to its effectiveness as a rebuttal to Plantinga since I have never seriously looked into his work.
It wasn't exactly intended as a rebuttal to Plantinga per se. It was more that I came to the realization that this seems to prevent Abrahamic theists from holding these 2 popular position simultaneously, at least not without a very nuanced unpacking of the concepts involved. And by that point, I think it will have become too altered to really allow one to still hold on to them.
