Exploring the Philosophy of Religion by David Stewart

Author:David Stewart [Stewart, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017-09-29T04:00:00+00:00

Evil and the Power of God

The problem of evil arises in all its intensity because of the affirmation of divine omnipotence. Eliminate that belief, and the evil in the world no longer poses a problem, since its presence can be explained as the result of conditions over which God has no control. Some thinkers argue for a limited God, presumably because they cannot reconcile the notion of divine omnipotence with the existence of a world—

at least with the existence of this world. It is this presumption that C. S. Lewis calls into question.

Throughout our discussion of the problem of evil, the question has recurred of God’s ability to create a world of free creatures that is also a world free from the possibility of evil. If we accept Mill’s view that God is not omnipotent, it explains God’s inability to create such a world. Lewis suggests, in contrast, that we can affirm both divine omnipotence and the claim that it is impossible for God to create a world containing free beings that would also not allow for the possibility of evil.

The obvious retort to Lewis is the biblical claim that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26), which would seem to be a direct contradiction of the view that an omnipotent God would be unable to create a world free from evil and also inhabited by free beings.

CONDITIONAL AND INTRINSIC IMPOSSIBILITIES

The apparent conflict between divine omnipotence and the presence of evil in the world arises because of an equivocal use of the terms impossible and almighty.

A term is used equivocally when it is used in two different senses, and this is the case with the terms possible and impossible. Lewis underscores this by analyzing the two senses in which we say that something is possible or impossible. Something can be relatively (or conditionally) impossible, which means that X is impossible unless . . . , the ellipsis here indicating the conditions that make something an impossibility. Lewis gives the example of its being impossible to see the street from where we are now sitting unless we get up and move to the window. The clause following the term unless gives the condition that makes the intended action impossible. We can multiply such examples almost endlessly: It is impossible to make good grades unless you study. It is impossible to win the race unless you apply 168

Evil and the Power of God

169

yourself to physical training. It is impossible to start the automobile unless the battery has enough power. In all cases of the conditionally impossible, the impossibility arises from the set of conditions that make it impossible. Change the conditions and the impossibility vanishes.

The absolutely (or intrinsically) impossible is “impossible under all conditions and in all worlds and for all agents,” as Lewis puts it. It is intrinsically impossible to make a square circle or a four-sided triangle. It is intrinsically impossible to create a free being who has no power of choice. Scripture says that “with God all things are possible”; Lewis responds that “intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.