Augustine's free will defence
- Created by: Juliet06
- Created on: 16-11-16 20:30
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- Augustine's free will defence
- St Augustine (AD 345-430)
- Based his arguments on the Bible, especially the accounts of Creation and the Fall in Genesis
- His theodicy rests upon two major assumptions
- 2)Evil having come elsewhere, God is justified in allowing it to stay
- 1)Evil did not come from God, since God's creation was faultless and perfect
- The argument
- Everyone is guilty because we were all seminally present in Adam, meaning everyone deserves to be punished for this orginial sin
- Natural evil is a fitting punishment and came about because the human action destroyed the natural order. Therefore God is right not to intervene and put an end to suffering
- The possibility of evil in a created world is necessary. Only the uncreated God himself can be perfect; created things are susceptible to change
- That God saves some through Christ shows that He is merciful as well as just
- God cannot be blamed for creating evil since evil is not a substance but a deprivation, and it makes no sense to say that God created a derpivation
- Evil comes from angels and human beings who choose deliberately to turn away from God
- God is perfect. He made a world free from flaws
- Key points
- 'All God had made pleased Him' Genesis 1
- Evils not a substance- rather when something lacks something else
- Angels and humans choose to do bad things- cause suffering
- Adam and Eve gave into temptation- caused evil
- Suffering is a fully deserved consequence of Adam's sin (human sin)
- Natural evil originated from the loss of order within nature- followed first sin
- Augustine says "All evil is sin or punishment for sin"
- Everyone has original sin
- St Augustine (AD 345-430)
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