PHIL 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Omnipotence, Great Machine, Omnibenevolence
27 Feb 2014
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How to reconcile the testimony of religious texts with what our senses reveal. Belief in god is ultimately a matter of faith. Philo asks, is the world considered in general, and as it appears to us in this life, different from what a man would, beforehand, expect from a very powerful, wise and benevolent deity? (p. 77rc) Since the answer is no, it is not possible to assert the moral attributes of the deity, his justice, benevolence, mercy, and rectitude, to be of the same nature with these virtues in human creatures . That"s the conclusion of philo"s reasoning: god cannot be good in the way that humans are good. Philo offers an analysis of the nature of evil. He says, there seem to be four circumstances, on which depend all, or the greatest part of the ills, that molest sensible creatures (p. 78lc)
