Question

1. Which type of evil springs from the human will? Provide one example.

2. Which philosopher rejected Christianity and made the following statement concerning the impossibility of reconciling God and evil? "Not even on the most distorted and contracted theory of good which ever was framed by religious or philosophical fanaticism, can the government of Nature be made to resemble the work of a being at once good and omnipotent."
3. What, according to Augustine and many other religious thinkers, is a necessary condition of morality?
4. What was Sisyphus' punishment?

Answer 1

4. According to the Greek myth, Sisyphus is condemned to roll a rock up to the top of a mountain, only to have the rock roll back down to the bottom every time he reaches the top. The gods were wise, Camus suggests, in perceiving that an eternity of futile labor is a hideous punishment.

2. Aquinas

Aquinas, in discussing the problem of evil, asserted, "Not even on the most distorted and contracted theory of good which ever was framed by religious or philosophical fanaticism, can the government of Nature be made to resemble the work of a being at once good and omnipotent."