Question

The epistemic question posed by evil is whether the world contains undesirable states of affairs that provide the basis for an argument that makes it unreasonable to believe in the existence of God.

This discussion is divided into eight sections. The first is concerned with some preliminary distinctions; the second, with the choice between deductive versions of the argument from evil, and evidential versions; the third, with alternative evidential formulations of the argument from evil; the fourth, with the distinction between three very different types of responses to the argument from evil: attempted total refutations, defenses, and theodicies. The fifth section then focuses upon attempted total refutations, while the sixth is concerned with defenses, and the seventh with some traditional theodicies. The possibility of more modest variants on defenses and theodicies, based on the idea of global properties, is then considered in section eight.

Answer 1

The epistemic question posed by evil addresses the philosophical challenge that the presence of suffering and evil poses to the existence of an all-good, all-powerful, and all-knowing deity. Philosophers have debated the logical and evidential problems of evil, with some proposing defenses or theodicies, such as Saint Augustine's idea that evil is a lack of good. Non-Western perspectives may offer alternate views of the deity and evil.

Step-by-step explanation:

The epistemic question posed by the existence of evil in the world challenges the traditional belief in a perfectly good, all-powerful, and all-knowing deity. The problem of evil is often divided into the logical problem of evil and the evidential problem of evil.

The logical problem, famously articulated by philosophers like David Hume, suggests a contradiction between the attributes of a deity and the existence of evil, leading one to question whether such a God could exist. The evidential problem, on the other hand, focuses on the presence of evil and suffering as empirical evidence that appears to contradict claims about a deity's characteristics.

Throughout history, various defenses and theodicies have been proposed to reconcile the existence of evil with the idea of a benevolent deity. Saint Augustine's theodicy, for example, posits evil as a privation of good rather than a substance, thereby attempting to maintain the goodness of God despite the presence of evil. Other approaches, such as process theology or open theism, redefine God's attributes to address the philosophical quandaries posed by evil.

Meanwhile, some schools of thought outside of Western theism, for instance, African philosophies, may not face the same issue due to differing views on cosmology and the nature of deities.

The discussion on evil's impact on the belief in God is not merely an intellectual exercise but impacts how religious beliefs are understood and lived out in various cultural contexts.