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    If God exists, any moral evil and any natural evil must b... — Carmelics
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    If God exists, any moral evil and any natural evil must be necessary for some greater good.

    Divine Attributes
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.If God exists, then this is a best possible world.
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    • 2.If this is a best possible world, there could not be an evil unless it were necessary for some greater good.
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    • 3.Any state of affairs containing evil incompatible with there being a maximally good world is impossible.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.A perfectly good God would have no motivation to create a world containing evil when a world without evil is logically possible.
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    • 2.Leibniz's 'best possible world' thesis fails if evil-free worlds are conceivable, since a world without gratuitous suffering ranks higher on any coherent value scale.
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    • 3.The existence of genuinely gratuitous evils—suffering producing no discernible greater good—is empirically evident, as Rowe's 1979 fawn-in-forest-fire argument demonstrates.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The claim illicitly converts a theodical strategy into a metaphysical necessity, conflating 'God may permit evil for good' with 'all evil must serve greater goods.'
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    • 2.Alvin Plantinga's own free will defense shows only that some evil is possibly permitted, not that every instance of evil is necessarily tied to a greater good.
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    • 3.If every evil is necessary for a greater good, moral improvement becomes incoherent, since eliminating any evil would destroy a good, contradicting ordinary moral reasoning.
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    Related

    A perfectly good God would have no motivation to create a world containing evil ...Alvin Plantinga's own free will defense shows only that some evil is possibly pe...Any state of affairs containing evil incompatible with there being a maximally g...If God exists, then this is a best possible world.
    +6 moreShow less
    If every evil is necessary for a greater good, moral improvement becomes incoher...If this is a best possible world, there could not be an evil unless it were nece...It is not possible for any agent to bring about an impossible state of affairs.Leibniz's 'best possible world' thesis fails if evil-free worlds are conceivable...The claim illicitly converts a theodical strategy into a metaphysical necessity,...The existence of genuinely gratuitous evils—suffering producing no discernible g...

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    Freedom is crucial to moral evil.84%If God exists, God has significant reason to bring about conscious bei...83%The existence of genuine moral obligations would therefore entail or s...81%If this is a best possible world, there could not be an evil unless it...80%

    Source

    AI-extracted
    SEP: omnipotence
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    One can respond to arguments of this kind as follows. Assume that if God exists, then this is a best possible world.[8] In that case, if God exists, there could not be an evil unless it were necessary for some greater good, in which case any state of affairs containing evil incompatible with there being a maximally good world is impossible. But it be may be assumed that it is not possible for any agent to bring about an impossible state of affairs. Thus, if God exists, any moral evil, that is, any evil brought about by anyone, and any natural evil, or any evil which has an impersonal, natura...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit