God, Freedom, and Evil

PHIL 4830-001

Wes Morriston
Department of Philosophy
Hellems 280
303-492-8297
Wes.Morriston@Colorado.EDU

Office hours: TR 3:30-5:00 and by appt.

Description

This course will deal with several interconnected problems and questions.

GOD

How strong are the traditional arguments for and against the existence of God? We'll use David Hume's classic Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion as a vehicle for our discussion of this question, but we won't limit ourselves to arguments and information that were available to Hume.

GOD AND MORALITY

Is God needed to provide a “foundation” for morality? Or is God subject to an independent standard of morality? What about some of the more questionable divine commands in the Bible? Is it at all plausible to think that a perfect being would tell anyone to do such things?

EVIL

If God exists and is as powerful and good and wise as people say, why is there so much evil in the world? Why, for example, do bad things happen to good people? A challenging argument against the existence of God is suggested by these questions. According to this argument, an omnipotent, omniscient, and wholly good God would not allow the amount and variety of evil that actually exists.

FREEDOM

One of the most popular theistic responses to the argument from evil is the “free will defense.” Focusing specifically on the evil that human beings do to one another, the free will defense asserts that God places great value on the freedom to choose between good and evil. This commonly held view raises a number of new issues. What is free will? Are human beings free in the required sense? If so, to what degree does that get God off the hook?

FREEDOM AND FOREKNOWLEDGE

If God exists and has complete and infallible foreknowledge, can anyone be free in the sense required for a free will defense? We'll take a close look at the classical argument for saying that the answer is NO, and at the various “moves” that are available to those who disagree.

A “NON-DUAL” PERSPECTIVE

We'll take a brief look at an alternative stance that provides a striking contrast to Western style theism. Stephen Mitchell's Zen-inspired interpretation of the biblical book of Job, along with his personal “answer” to the problem of evil in the “Zen Judaism,” a partly autobiographical story, will be the subject of extended discussion. The central issue here will be whether the right kind of “enlightenment” undercuts the questions and problems inspired by Western theism – putting us in a position where we can see the world, and even love it, without judging it, viewing it from a point of view that lies beyond the “dualities” of good and evil, right and wrong.

Assigned texts

David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Marilyn and Robert Adams, eds., The Problem of Evil

The Book of Job (tr. & ed. by Raymond Scheindlin)

A number of other required readings will be available online.

Course requirements

Regular attendance and participation (twenty five percent of your course grade)

Being there, making an occasional comment, asking helpful questions, listening carefully to what others have to say and responding appropriately are all valuable contributions to the class. This includes the final examination period, which will be devoted to the viewing of a movie, followed by a short discussion.

Weekly short reaction papers (twenty five percent)

Each Tuesday, you will hand in a short paper reacting to some issue or argument discussed in class the previous week. Papers should take a position on the issue you have chosen to address and should give a reason for taking that position. Papers should be double-spaced and no more than one page in length.

First paper (twenty five percent) due in class on Thursday, October 17, 2008.

A four to six page paper on a choice of assigned topics. Topics will be drawn from the subjects we have discussed in the first half of the course. Papers should have a clear thesis, give an argument for that thesis, and show an awareness of possible objections and an ability to deal with those objections.

These are not research papers. Additional background reading for the paper is not required.

Second paper (twenty five percent) due at the beginning of the final exam period.

A four to six page paper. You will develop your own topic in consultation with me. You should have settled on a definite topic by the beginning of the last week of classes. Otherwise, the instructions are the same as those for the midterm paper.

Final exam period (Sat., Dec. 13, 10:30am – 1:00pm)

During the exam period, we'll view Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and have a short discussion of it. Then we'll say goodbye.

Outline of topics/readings

The concept of God

A general discussion of the Western concept of God – ranging from “First Cause” to “Perfect Being” – and contrasting it with alternative conceptions.

God and the foundations of morality

Craig vs. Sinnott-Armstrong, A debate on whether the existence of God is needed for objective moral truth
(http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/craig-sinnott-armstrong.pdf: username and password required)

Genesis, chapter 22 (the “binding of Isaac”)

Kierkegaard, “Can there be a teleological suspension of the ethical?” (From Fear and Trembling, http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/fear-trembling.pdf: username and password required)

C. Stephen Evans, selections from Kierkegaard’s Ethic of Love (http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/CStephenEvans.pdf: username and password required)

Adams, “Abraham's Dilemma” (http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/abraham.html: username and password required)

Genocide and doctrine of biblical inerrancy

Deuteronomy 7 and 20, 25:17-19, Numbers 25 & 31, 1 Samuel 15
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/genocide-passages.pdf

William Lane Craig, “Slaughter of the Canaanites”
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5767

Wes Morriston, “Did God Command Genocide? A Problem for the Biblical Inerrantist”
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/god-genocide.pdf

What about Hell?

Marilyn McCord Adams, “The Problem of Hell: A Problem of Evil for Christians” (to be posted online)

Michael J. Murray, “Heaven and Hell” (http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/Murray-hell.pdf: username and password required)

Why do the righteous suffer?

The book of Job (Scheindlin translation)

Eleonore Stump on Job

Stump, “Aquinas on the Sufferings of Job” (http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/Stump-Aquinas.pdf: username and password required)

Stump, “Second-person Accounts of the Problem of Evil” (http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/Stump-whirlwind.pdf: username and password required)

Beyond Good and Evil? A non-Western, non-dual dissolution of the problem of evil

Mitchell, Introduction to his translation of book of Job (http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/job-stuff/job-mitchell.html: username and password required)

Mitchell, “Zen Judaism” (from Meetings with the Archangel – I’ll make copies available.)

Intelligent design?

Hume, Dialogues, II - VIII

An article on the “fine-tuning” argument by Robin Collins (http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/Collins-fine-tuning-paper-revised-for-web.pdf: username and password required)

Why is there anything at all?

Hume, Dialogues, IX

Hume on the problem of evil

Hume, Dialogues, X – XII

More readings on the problem of evil

Mackie, "Evil and Omnipotence" (Adams, p. 23)

Plantinga, "God, Evil and the Metaphysics of Freedom" (Adams, p. 83-91 only, supplemented by some notes that I’ll give you)

Divine foreknowledge and human freedom

David Hunt (http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/5600/foreknow-5600.pdf:  username and password required)

More on the problem of evil

William Rowe, "The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism" (Adams, p. 126)

Stephen Wykstra, "The Humean Obstacle to Evidential Arguments from Suffering: On Avoiding the Evils of 'Appearance'" (Adams, p. 138)

Hick, "Soul-Making and Suffering" (Adams, p. 168)

Diogenes Allen, "Natural Evil and the Love of God" (Adams, p. 189)

Evil and God’s love for individual persons

Robert Adams, “Must God Create the Best?” (A PDF file will be circulated.)

Marilyn Adams, "Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God" (Adams, p. 209)