When people learn to distinguish the difference between good and evil they learn it in a long slow process. Throughout history there have been laws and traditions that different generations have created because they have been winners in different principles. For example in different systems the winners that are on top create laws that only have meaning for those who created them, and may not have any meaning or any good to the rest of the people. Continue reading
Assuming there is some sort of life after this one, what is there to say about that life? When will it come? Is there a definite end to all life? Continue reading
If people have souls, do they have something innate built within them, or are souls moulded by our life experiences? My answer is that the soul doesn’t have anything that determines how we will live or how we will mentally perceive things. Continue reading
Most people are familiar with near-death experiences (NDEs), in which people in cardiac arrest who are resuscitated claim to see a white light, fly through a tunnel, and meet dead relatives. Some people claim to meet Jesus, God, or some other deity. Raymond Moody popularized NDEs in his 1975 book, Life after Life. What are we to make of such experiences? Do they provide evidence that we survive beyond the grave? Continue reading
“BLACKSBURG, Va. – A gunman massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history Monday, cutting down his victims in two attacks two hours apart before the university could grasp what was happening and warn students. The bloodbath ended with the gunman committing suicide, bringing the death toll to 33 and stamping the campus in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains with unspeakable tragedy, perhaps forever. Investigators gave no motive for the attack. (Sue Lindsay, Associated Press)”
Now, perhaps we can talk about evil, and the attributes of God. I have begun writing my paper in which I am trying to discount God’s omni-benevolence, yet still account for goodness. God’s four primary attributes, which we have all so vehemently argued in class need to be brought back up for debate yet again, in light of this recent tragedy. I have trouble grasping in a truly omni-benevolent God given the above article clip, and any one of us should. My question, and I will expand upon it, is simply this: given the situation, is it fair to think that God is good at all, let alone all good? Continue reading
According to Hick’s soul making theodicy, the evil in this world is the main ingredient that human agents need in order to build upon their character with such things as patience, courage, and compassion (Hasker, 88). Without evil, there would be a smaller chance of expanding upon one’s moral virtues. Continue reading
The NOUS Philosophy Club will host an event on Friday April 20, 2007 at 430pm in SS Room 235. Marc Nelson will present “On Perceiving God: Why Religious Experience Fails as Justification for God-beliefs”.
I encourage all of you to attend, and I offer anyone who attends the meeting participation points to be added to their grade.
Marc Nelson is the winner of the 2007 Philosophy Essay prize!
The greater good theodicy, and any similar theodicy, may have a tragic problem that we did not discuss in class. I wanted to present it here in case anyone wanted to defend the theodicies against it. Continue reading
This is a follow-up to my post on Aquinas’s Fourth Way, and it will concern Aquinas’s conception of perfection that appears in that argument. To my mind, Aquinas’s conception of perfection plays a pivotal role in Aquinas’s Fourth Way. (I would like to thank Brandon for his assistance in pointing me toward relevant passages in the works of Aquinas on perfection and for A Thomist for his comments on my previous post.) Given the relative brevity of Aquinas’s discussion of perfection in the Fourth Way, we should investigate Aquinas’s conception of “perfection” further. I found that Aquinas has a relatively narrow understanding of perfection. Continue reading
