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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that God creates beings that are essentially evil.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 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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      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.God creates finite things.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.A being that has a degree of evil in its essence is essentially evil.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 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.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.God, as ultimate source of emanation, is the necessary causal origin of material beings whose essence includes this privative evil.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.A being whose essential constitution necessarily includes privation of the Good is essentially evil, not merely accidentally deficient.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason against 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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      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 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.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 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.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

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