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    God creates beings that are essentially evil. — Carmelics
    Home/Problem of Evil
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    God creates beings that are essentially evil.

    Against an attribute of GodProblem of Evil
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.On Neoplatonic emanation (Plotinus, Enneads I.8), matter as the final emanation from the One is privation itself, constituting evil by nature.
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    • 2.God, as ultimate source of emanation, is the necessary causal origin of material beings whose essence includes this privative evil.
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    • 3.A being whose essential constitution necessarily includes privation of the Good is essentially evil, not merely accidentally deficient.
      ?

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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Augustine's Manichean critics argued that if God foreknew creatures would be constitutively oriented toward evil, creation entails authorship of essential evil.
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    • 2.Leibniz's concept of 'original imperfection' (Theodicy §20) holds that finite essences contain necessary limitations that are intrinsic to their intelligible structure, not merely contingent features.
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    • 3.If intrinsic structural limitation in a creature's essence constitutes a degree of evil per the Absence Theory, then God selecting which essences to instantiate makes God the author of essentially evil beings.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Absence Theory entails that finite things have a degree of evil in virtue of not being at the top of the chain of being.
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    • 2.God creates finite things.
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    • 3.A being that has a degree of evil in its essence is essentially evil.
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    Topics

    Problem of EvilAgainst an attribute of God

    Connections

    2 topics

    Natural Theology1 linkedDivine Attributes1 linked

    Related

    A being that has a degree of evil in its essence is essentially evil.A being whose essential constitution necessarily includes privation of the Good ...Absence Theory entails that finite things have a degree of evil in virtue of not...Augustine's Manichean critics argued that if God foreknew creatures would be con...
    +5 moreShow less
    God creates finite things.God, as ultimate source of emanation, is the necessary causal origin of material...If intrinsic structural limitation in a creature's essence constitutes a degree ...Leibniz's concept of 'original imperfection' (Theodicy §20) holds that finite es...

    Similar

    A being that has a degree of evil in its essence is essentially evil.84%What seems to be evil in the world of Appearance is, for all practical...82%God lacks the possibility of doing evil.82%If evil does not follow from the essential natures of created things, ...81%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: evil-kinds-origins
    View source passageHide passage
    A lingering problem in the theistic context, however, is that Absence Theory entails that finite things have a degree of evil just in virtue of not being at the top of the chain. So even if God does not create evil (because absence is uncreated), God creates beings that are essentially evil.
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    On Neoplatonic emanation (Plotinus, Enneads I.8), matter as the final emanation ...
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit