Hick

Leibniz versus Voltaire.

Some solutions Hick rejects (for Judao-Christianity):
•	Christian science – evil an illusion of the human mind.
o	Hick:  the scriptures say otherwise.
•	Personalism – finite deity; evil coeternal with him.
o	Hick:  the basic premise of monotheism is the infinity and sovereignty of God.
•	Augustine – great chain of being.  Creation in itself good; evil “parasitic” upon this, a “going wrong” of goodness.
o	Hick:  doesn’t actually reject this – just says that it forces us to recondisder the origin of evil – how the good can go wrong in this way.

Theodicy – positive vs. negative

Positive theodicy:  Augustine or Leibniz, e.g. – trying to build all evil into the perfect system of the world.

Negative theodicy:  aims to raise considerations to keep evil from being an insuperable bar to belief.

Moral vs. nonmoral evil.

Moral evil → freewill.
Possible for God to make free beings who always do the good?
Genuine independence vs. mere puppets.
Logical impossibility and omnipotence (a person who is not a person).

Big problem – the move from the possibility of moral evil to its actuality… forever a mystery?

Nonmoral evil
•	The world as moral gymnasium.
•	We’re not just God’s pets, but children of God.
•	A world without nonmoral evil – would this be the “worst of all possible worlds”?

If things till seem bad, then the answer lies in faith in an afterlife.  (Mention Kant on this point.)

Next class:  No reading.  Discussion.  Assignment of essay topic.