the assignment of a moral and retributive cause for suffering in the, the unhesitating assertion of the beneficence of, that suffering is the penal consequence of wilful disobedience to the. Sharpe, A. "Nothing is done without thee in earth or sea or sky, save what evil men commit by their own folly; so thou hast fitted together all evil and good in one, that there might be one reasonable and everlasting scheme of all things." On thisview we can more accurately, and less perniciously, understand anddescribe morally despicable actions, characters, and events using morepedestrian moral concepts such as badness and wrongdoing. The same general lines have been followed by most of the modern attempts to account in terms of Theism for the existence of evil. Vat., can. Dei, xiv). With him, mankind in its present state, is “the animal not yet properly adapted to his environment”. If He is all-Powerful, He can be under no necessity of creating or permitting it; and on the other hand, if He is under any such necessity, He cannot be all-powerful. Its existence subserves the perfection of the whole; the universe would be less perfect if it contained no evil. In mainstream Christianity, the Devil (or Satan) is a fallen angel who rebelled against God in an attempt to become equal to God himelf. There is practically a general agreement of authorities as the nature of evil, some allowance being made for varying modes of expression depending on a corresponding variety of philosophical presuppositions. Evil, in a large sense, may be described as the sum of the opposition, which experience shows to exist in the universe, to the desires and needs of individuals; whence arises, among human beings at least, the suffering in which life abounds. This mythological dualism passed to the sect of the Manichees, whose founder, Manes, added a third, but subordinate principle, emanating from the source of good (and perhaps corresponding, in some degree, to the Mithras of Zoroastrianism), in the "living spirit", by whom was formed the present material world of mingled good and evil. MLA citation. The origin of evil is, like the origin of all things, inexplicable; it cannot be fitted into any theory of the design of the universe, simply because no such theory is possible. This doctrine, however, found its first complete expression in the philosophy of Epicurus, which explicitly rejected the notion of any external influence upon nature, whether of “fate”, or of Divine power. Evil. Leibniz has been more or less closely followed by many who have since treated the subject from the Christian point of view. Admitting that evil consists in a certain relation of man to his environment, or that it arises in the relation of the component parts of the totality of existence to one another, how comes it that though all are alike the results of a universal cosmic process, this universal agency is perpetually at war with itself, contradicting and thwarting its own efforts in the mutual hostility of its progeny? 3; Contra Gentiles, III, ix, x). Again, if God is absolutely good, and also omnipotent, how can He permit the existence of moral evil? That the choice of evil is an act of ignorance. All realities (entia) are in themselves good; they produce bad results only incidentally; and consequently the ultimate cause of evil is fundamentally good, as well as the objects in which evil is found (I, Q. xlix; cf. 1:v; Const. Moral evil, in particular, arises from error, and is to be gradually eliminated, or at least minimized, by improved knowledge of the conditions of human welfare (Meliorism). 6; II-II, Q. x, a. hom.) Man has himself brought about the evil from which he suffers by transgressing the law of God, on obedience to which his happiness depended. "Nothing is done without thee in earth or sea or sky, save what evil men commit by their own folly; so thou hast fitted together all evil and good in one, that there might be one reasonable and everlasting scheme of all things." Man has himself brought about the evil from which he suffers by transgressing the law of God, on obedience to which his happiness depended. ix). Leibniz grants sensation to animals, but considers that mere sense-perception, unaccompanied by reflexion, cannot cause either pain or pleasure; in any case he holds the pain and pleasure of animals to be parable in degree to those resulting from reflex action in man (see also Maher, Psychology, Supp't. It may be urged, moreover, that there can be no degree of finite goodness which is not susceptible of increase by omnipotence, without ceasing to fall short of infinite perfection. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05649a.htm Saunders' work, his new book entitled Straight Answers (400 pages) is available at the Pauline Book and Media Center of Arlington, Virginia (703/549-3806). The problem is strictly a metaphysical one; i.e. I. These have, for the most part, emphasized the evidence in creation of the wisdom and goodness of its Author, after the manner of the Book of Job, and have been content to leave undiscovered the reason for the creation, by Him, of a universe in which evil is unavoidable. Cf. According to it, the inverse is the best possible; but metaphysical evil, or perfection, is necessarily involved in the constitution, since it must be finite, and could not have been endowed with the infinite perfection which belongs to God alone. xliv). The first example of such religion was that of Auguste Comte, who upon the materialistic basis of Positivism, founded the "religion of humanity", and professed to substitute an enthusiasm for humanity as the motive for right action, for the motives of supernatural religion. Should abandon the concept of intrinsic evil and political Responsibility: is concept! 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