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MAJOR PHILOSOPHICAL THEORIES FOR AND AGAINST RELIGION

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PHILOSOPHY OF THE RELIGION

IF A CONCEPT OF GOD COMBINES THE PERFECT KINDNESS, UNLIMITED POWER, INFINITE KNOWLEDGE, THEN OUR EXPERIENCE OF TERRORISM, ARMED FORCES CONFLICT, GENOCIDE, EARTHQUAKE AND, HUNGER CONTITUTE A GOOD REASON NOT TO BELIEVE IN GOD.

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Solution Summary

This post addresses the contradiction between God's omnipotent, omniscient, and infinite goodness and the pervasive presence of natural disasters and man made evil in the world. Is it really a contradiction or not? How do philosophers respond?

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The theories are: perfect kindness, unlimited power(omnipotence), infinite knowledge(omniscience).

The argument could be set up this way:

1. An omnipotent being can do anything
2. God is an omnipotent being
3. Therefore God can do anything

1. The kindness of a perfect being must also be perfect
2. God is a perfect being
3. Therefore God's kindness must be perfect

1. An omniscient being knows everything
2. God is an omniscient being
3. Therefore God knows every thing

But the fact that we experience terrorism, armed conflicts, genocide, earthquake, hunger, etc, shows that the above concepts of God must be faulty.

An omnipotent God would prevent natural disasters like earthquake. Indeed, since he is also omniscient, he could have known that the earth, which is his creation, could, in the state he made it, lead to earthquakes. Earthquake is a disaster that brings nothing but death and destruction to everything. So, since God is also perfectly kind, he could not stand by and watch such melancholy going on without stopping it or indeed preventing it from happening in the first place. The same thing goes for hunger, genocide, terrorism and the likes. It could therefore mean that God is not:

1. Omniscient as alleged. If he were, he would have known of the possibility of these things and prevented them before they could ever ...

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