PHL 230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Natural Evil, Childbirth, Omnibenevolence
Document Summary
Conception of god being challenged by the problem of evil: Voltaire (along with some others) argues that the overwhelming existence of evil in this world proves that god can not be all three of these things. Must demonstrate a conception that is not contrary to reason. Evil can be defined as the absence of god. There has to be varying degrees of goodness because nothing can be as good as god. Should we consider good and evil relative comparisons along one dimension or as a heterogeneous comparison. Argues that this earth is the best of all possible world because god is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, but he doesn"t question why we should believe this conception. He states that if you were to compare earth to other existing worlds, all of them would be equally good. God has to allow a certain level of evil to have greater good.
