Deck 9: The Problem of Evil

Question 1

An atheologian is one who attempts to make belief in God plausible.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The problem of evil is used by the atheist to provide positive evidence for disbelief in God.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Most theists agree that God's power is limited to doing only what is logically possible.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Some Eastern religions claim that evil is an illusion.

Question 5

According to the text, natural evil is the only kind of evil there really is.

Question 6

A theodicy is a justification for God's permitting evil in the world.

Question 7

Concerning the proposition that God is perfectly good, the text said that

A) all the major religions--Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity--agree on this point.
B) Only Christianity makes this claim.
C) Only Christianity and Judaism make this claim.
D) Only Hinduism disagrees with this claim.

Question 8

According to your text, natural evil consists of

A) all those evils, such as sexual sins, that result from the wickedness of human nature.
B) human moral evil that is natural and, so, forgivable.
C) terrible events such as tornados that are produced by nature.
D) evils done to nature, such as pollution.

Question 9

If you are committed to _______, the free-will defense will not be effective against the argument from evil.

A) theism
B) determinism
C) the belief in moral evil
D) the belief that God is all-knowing

Question 10

The text criticizes the free-will defense by suggesting that

A) there is no such thing as free will.
B) the free-will defense does not address the problem of natural evil.
C) God could have allowed some character-building suffering, but did not need to allow the excessive amounts we face.
D) we would be better off lacking free will than suffering.

Question 11

Which of the following claims is assumed by the free-will defense?

A) Humans have the freedom to choose between good and evil.
B) God considers a world with free will and suffering better than one that lacked free will.
C) There are some things that it is logically impossible for an all-powerful God to do.
D) all of the above

Question 12

Set out the problem of evil in a series of numbered steps. What are the reasons in support of each premise?

Question 13

What is the free-will defense? What are some ways its defenders attempt to accommodate the existence of natural evils?

Question 14

According to John Hick, why did God create a world in which there is suffering? What are some criticisms that could be made against Hick's position? How might he respond?

Question 15

What does the problem of evil assume concerning the attributes of God? How would the problem be resolved by modifying our view of one or more of these attributes? What would be some objections to doing so?