St Augustine's Theodicy

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Transcript:

Good evening St Augustine, we’re here to discuss your theodicy. It is an interesting subject
Yes it is, evil is all around us and it’s dangerous. It hurts people physically, but worse it causes people to doubt the existence of God. Because I know they are completely wrong I had to work out reasons why evil exists alongside God.
Is it possible that God doesn’t exist?
No! That’s impossible! God is the only certainty we have. I started my search in the Bible, which, as the word of God can’t be wrong. I think we all already know that the answer to our question lies in the Book of Genesis. There it says that God created the universe and everything in it..
So he created evil then?
Certainly not! A perfect being like God couldn’t create evil. It’s logically impossible! Think about it another way. If a perfect God created everything in existence then it is impossible for evil to exist.
But we know evil exists as sure as ……………
No, you think evil is present but you have got it wrong. Evil is not a substance, it is an absence. It is the absence of goodness. If you think about the inconsistent triad we know God is good, we know God is omniscient, yet we see evil in the world. So it must follow that our consistency lies in our concept of evil. Evil is not a substance, it is a privation.
Where does it come from then? That is supposing you can say ‘it’ about something that doesn’t exist.
Well! God created a perfect world. Adam and Eve were made in God’s likeness and lived in harmony with God and nature in the Garden of Eden.
So what went wrong?
The Fall of Man. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and that created sin, or call it evil. Because God is omniscient he knew this would happen. Just as he had foreseen that dispute between the angels which led Satan to being kicked out of heaven for his arrogance.
Couldn’t God stop it? I thought he was omnipotent.
Of course he could, but a perfect creation is not one of robots! God knew this would happen and made plans for it.
Hang on. If God didn’t cause evil, who did?
They did, the first humans. God gave the angels and humans he created the free will to choose whether to love and obey him or not.
That’s risky.
But without free will God’s creation would be merely mechanical. No, for creation to be truly good, God’s creatures must be free to choose. You value a relationship more when someone freely chooses to love you, rather than be forced to by someone or something else.
Yes, but what if people choose the wrong thing?
They punish themselves just as Adam and Eve did when they chose to turn away from good with the consequence that they had to leave the Garden of Eden. They had destroyed God’s natural order and that created natural evil.
Yes, but this was all in the past. What has it got to do with us today?
We all descended from Adam and Eve so we all inherit their guilt. Some humans today turn away from God and evil flourishes. But this is a loving God, who sent his Son Jesus Christ to save us. Jesus’ sacrifice paid the price of Adam and Eve’s original sin so humans who want to, can get close to God once more.
Thank you.