Monicks: Unleashed

Tag: theology

  • Stephen Hawking: Physics Leaves No Room For God

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQvnQD9_l1c]
    Channel 4 News 02 September 2010
    From The Times:
    Modern physics leaves no place for God in the creation of the Universe, Stephen Hawking has concluded.
    Just as Darwinism removed the need for a creator in the sphere of biology, Britain’s most eminent scientist argues that a new series of theories have rendered redundant the role of a creator for the Universe.
    In his forthcoming book, an extract from which is published exclusively in Eureka, published today with The Times, Professor Hawking sets out to answer the question: “Did the Universe need a creator?” The answer he gives is a resounding “no”.
    Far from being a once-in-a-million event that could only be accounted for by extraordinary serendipity or a divine hand, the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics, Hawking says.
    “Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist,” he writes.
    “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going,” he finds.

  • The Problem of Evil: The Theodicies

    Epicurus’ formulation:

    P1. If a perfectly good god exists, then there is no evil in the world.

    1: Omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent

    P2. There is evil in the world.

    P3. Therefore, a perfectly good god does not exist.

    Theodicies can all be refuted with the premise that God is:

    A. Omnipotent (all-powerful)

    B. (all-knowing)

    C. Omnibenevolent (all-loving/good)

    The Theodicies

    I. Big-plan theodicy

    a. What it is:

    i. All suffering of innocent beings is part of a big plan and had to happen.  The whole plan, however, is completely good.

    b. Defeated:

    i. If God is all powerful, he can devise a “big plan” which does not encompass evil.

    II. Punishment theodicy

    a. What it is:

    i. When we see people suffer terribly, the reason for this is that they have sinned.  Their suffering is a punishment for their sins.

    b. Defeated:

    i. This is explains why God would punish evil-doers.  However, much of the suffering is undeserved.  Take children, and those born into poverty, slavery, or otherwise: they still suffer tremendously.  Also, this can be defeated with the argument of omnibenevolence: an all-loving god would not create suffering in the first place.

    III. Suffering-builds-character theodicy

    a. What it is:

    i. The basic idea is that suffering of innocents will help them to become stronger.  All evil offers us the possibility to learn from it and grow into a better human being.  This theodicy is sometimes called the “soul-making theodicy”.

    b. Defeated:

    i. If God is all powerful he could have eliminated the need for evil by making us characterized to begin with.

    IV. Contrast theodicy

    a. What it is:

    i. We need evil in the universe to know that there is good.  If there were no evil and everything were good, we could not tell that it is good.

    b. Defeated:

    i. If God were omnibenevolent he would not have neglected to make the good that we are lacking in place of evil.

    V. Devil theodicy

    a. What it is:

    i. Innocent suffer because the devil likes to let innocents suffer.

    b. Defeated:

    i. If God were omnipotent he could override the power of Satan.  This also suggests that Satan exists outside of God, a whole new problem unto itself.

    VI. Test theodicy

    a. What it is:

    i. Earthly life is just a test.  God has thrown us into this world full of evil and pointless suffering in order to find out what kind of beings we are.  Without the pointless suffering, his test is not complete.  If we pass, we go to heaven.  If we fail, we go to hell.

    b. Defeated:

    i. God cannot be omniscient under this premise, because then he would already know whether or not I’m going to fail and the test would be pointless in the first place.

    Free will cap:  If God is all knowing, you can’t have free will.