Theodicy for Dummies
Nov. 3rd, 2019 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
causticusIt's quite simple, yet many seem to struggle with this question.
"Evil" is simply a byproduct of free will coupled with ignorance. If a deity were to intervene every time evil was about to happen then that would violate the free will of the parties involved. And this is all assuming that the deity in question even has the same ideas on what constitutes good and evil that the average human imagines, which is eminently unlikely, in my view. We could simplify the whole thing as this: Good and Evil only exists in the context of a self-aware consciousness who has free will. And for that consciousness there are two direction it can orient itself, (a) toward Divinity and, (b) away from Divinity. The former choice is a result of Wisdom, whereas the latter is chosen out of ignorance.
"Evil" is simply a byproduct of free will coupled with ignorance. If a deity were to intervene every time evil was about to happen then that would violate the free will of the parties involved. And this is all assuming that the deity in question even has the same ideas on what constitutes good and evil that the average human imagines, which is eminently unlikely, in my view. We could simplify the whole thing as this: Good and Evil only exists in the context of a self-aware consciousness who has free will. And for that consciousness there are two direction it can orient itself, (a) toward Divinity and, (b) away from Divinity. The former choice is a result of Wisdom, whereas the latter is chosen out of ignorance.
