God, Freedom, and Evil
HUEN 3200 803
Wes Morriston
Department of Philosophy
Hellems 280
303-492-8297
Wes.Morriston@Colorado.EDU
Office hours: Tu 12:00pm - 1:30pm, Fri 1:30pm – 3:00pm, and by appt.
I'm also generally available after class.
Description
Short
version:
This course will deal with several
interconnected questions. Does God exist? If so, why is there so
much evil in the world? Is human freedom the main source of evil? If so,
does that get God off the hook? Or are all these questions based on a
mistake? Should we simply abandon traditional theism with its
"duality" of "moral good and evil"?
Long
version:
GOD
We'll
be primarily concerned with issues connected with the traditional belief in a
personal creator. How likely is it that there is a being? What
sorts of evidence might help us decide? Is there anything about the way
the universe is put together that suggests intelligent design? Does the
mere existence of the universe provide evidence of a creator?
Why
think the creator/designer (if there is one) is anything like the “perfect
being” of western theism? What difference would it make if a God like
that existed? Is God needed, for example, to provide a foundation for
morality? Or to give meaning and purpose to life?
EVIL
We'll
spend much of our time wrestling with the problem of 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 God exists and has complete and infallible
foreknowledge, can anyone be free in that sense?
A
“NON-DUAL” PERSPECTIVE
Along
the way, we'll take a 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 key chapter of his entertaining book, Meetings with the
Archangel: A Comedy of Spirit, 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)
Stephen
Mitchell, Meetings with the Archangel: A Comedy of the Spirit (We'll
devote most of our attention to the “standalone” chapter titled, “Zen
Judaism”.)
A
number of other required readings will be available online.
Course
format
Most
class periods will begin with a short lecture, explaining some of the more
difficult concepts and arguments and setting the stage for the day's
discussion. I'll generally kick off the discussion by posing some
question for the class to consider. Students will do their best to listen
to each other and respond to what's been said. I'll do my best to make
sure the discussions stay on track. Occasionally, I'll raise a new topic
for discussion and debate. But students should feel free to raise issues
that they would like to explore.
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, March 13, 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 (Saturday, May 3, at
4:30pm).
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. We’ll also spend
a bit of time just getting to know one another.
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)
Adams, “Abraham's Dilemma” (http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/abraham.html:
username and password required)
God and the meaning of life
Craig, “The Absurdity of Life Without
God” (http://www.bethinking.org/pdf.php?ID=129)
Nagel, “The Absurd” (http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/TheAbsurd.pdf:
username and password required)
Why do the righteous suffer?
The book of Job
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, Meetings with the Archangel,
chapter II (“Zen Judaism”), and chapter V (“Biography of an Awakened Master”)
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’s take on the problem of evil
Hume, Dialogues, X – XII
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)
Back to 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)