1 / 10

The Problem of Evil: Analyzing B.C. Johnson's Arguments Against the Existence of God

B.C. Johnson, under the pseudonym The Burning Baby, presents a compelling examination of the Problem of Evil, arguing that the existence of real evil contradicts the notion of a good, omnipotent, and omniscient God. He critiques standard defenses, including the heavenly reward and free-will defenses, demonstrating that these cannot satisfactorily reconcile the existence of evil with the traditional attributes of God. Ultimately, Johnson concludes that the problem remains unresolved, suggesting that the conventional concept of God cannot coexist with the reality of evil in the world.

yaphet
Télécharger la présentation

The Problem of Evil: Analyzing B.C. Johnson's Arguments Against the Existence of God

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. B. C. JOHNSON THE PROBLEM OF EVIL: REAL EVIL SHOWS THAT A GOOD GOD IS NOT REAL

  2. B. C. Johnson - pseudonym

  3. The Burning Baby Is this consistent with God’s existence?

  4. The LOGIC of the problem of evil These 4 claims are inconsistent: i) God is omniscient. ii) God is omnipotent. iii) God is omni-good. iv) Evil exists. Every “solution” must give up one (or more) of the above. NOTE: the above is not provided by Johnson, but Foss.

  5. Standard Solutions (aka “defenses”) i) Heavenly reward (97-8). [Denies iv.] BCJ: evil is not erased by reward. ii) Evil leads to good (98L). [Denies iv.] BCJ: destroys morality.

  6. Standard Solutions (aka “defenses”) iii) Free-will defense (98L). [Denies ii or iii. A perennial favorite] BCJ: makes God evil bystander. [Moral vs. Natural evil; postulation of evil powers, Satan, etc.]

  7. Standard Solutions (aka “defenses”) iv) Virtue-building defense (98-9). [Denies ii] BCJ: destroys morality. v) Natural law defense (99R). [Denies i, ii or iii.] BCJ: Hitler’s heart-attack example.

  8. Standard Solutions (aka “defenses”) vi) Logical complement defense (99R). [Denies iii.] BCJ: But just a tiny bit of evil is required. vii) Higher morality defense (99-100) [Denies iv.] BCJ: destroys morality (makes Hitler a good man).

  9. CONCLUSION Since none of the standard defenses stands up to logical scrutiny, the problem of evil is not solved, and we must conclude that God, as normally conceived, does not exist.

More Related