Bros:
As indicated in your textbook in its discussion on the Book of Job, "the dilemma of why the good suffer and the wicked prosper in this life is known as the problem of evil" (Newland 249). However, the problem is not so simple as to say that only one side perishes while the other thrives. Ultimately, we all experience suffering in some way, often in what seem unjust or undeserved circumstances. It is this kind of suffering--the stuff that seems unfair--that defines the "problem of evil" and which the author, Jay Sklar, of the article, "Why Does God Permit Evil?", I gave you addresses in his essay.
In a well-developed essay of at least three, full paragraphs, give a summary of the article, including the author's name and the title of the article in quotations in the introduction of your essay.
Then give a well-argued and reasoned response to the article, including any agreements and/or disagreements you have. If you recognize any seeming inconsistencies in the author's argument, please state them.
Your concluding paragraph should be a reflection on your own sense of what purpose suffering gives us in our lives.
This is due, Wednesday, May 20, 2009 on the blog or typed hard copy under the following heading:
Your Name
Bro. Rob Peach, FSC
Rel 011.05
May 20, 2009
Problems of Evil
"In this you are not just, let me tell you; for God is greater than man. Why, then, do you make complaint against him that he gives no account of his doing? For God does speak, perhaps once, or even twice , though one perceive it not" (Job 33: 12-13).
10 comments:
Your Name
Bro. Rob Peach, FSC
Rel 011.05
May 20, 2009
"The Problem of Evil"
Jay Sklar breaks down the problem of evil into 5 questions that try to answer why god lets evil happen.
The first question is What do we mean by evil? This talks about how the evil that is brought upon ourselves is the kind of evil that is being talked about. It is more of a clarifying statement than a question, but that is how the pamphlet begins.
The second question is Does the problem of evil prove that there is no good and all powerful god? This is the question that I think is the most powerful of all. How could a god that is good and all powerful allow evil to remain? Sklar answers this in a very interesting way. He talks about if physicists discovered a new theory on quantum physics, and the physics showed it to him (not a physicist), and he did not understand the theory or equations in the theory, it wouldn't exist according to the peoples logic that a good and all powerful god can't exist. What he is saying is that just because we can't understand gods reasoning behind allowing evil doesnt mean he is nonexistent.
The third question is How is evil a problem for atheists? This is where Sklar proves that because humans have a self worth and dignity for them and for others, we are different than the animals in the jungle or forests. We have a value for life that other animals do not have.
The 4th question is How might the fact that god experienced evil help us? In this question states that it is comforting that Jesus died on the cross and experienced the most ultimate evil, but if he saw how bad it was, why didn't he stop it? That leads to the last question, Where does the story end?
This question is a continuation of the fourth question to me. It is saying that not only did Jesus experience the worst evil, he overcame it. He rose from the dead and defeated evil. He is said to return to stop all evil according to the second to last chapter of the bible, but why hasn't he come sooner?
I think this packet raised more questions than it answered. If Jesus said he would return way back in biblical times, where is he? Why hasn't he returned sooner? If I asked Dr. Sklar this he would probably respond like he did in question two, that I don't understand gods reasoning. This could be true, but it is still an unsatisfying and not comforting answer. Will he ever return? is he even there at all? the original question is still there.
Brett Cerussi
Brother Robert Peach, FSC
Religion 011.05
May 20, 2009
"Why does God Permit Evil?" That is the name of an article written by Dr. Jay Skylar. The article asks questions about evil and god.
I generally agree with the entire article. He makes very good articles. The authors points are very strong and well backed up. Also all of his questions are very well formulated.
I think suffering is in some ways good. When suffering occurs it some times brings sense of family and friends. It also brings someone closer to god.
Tom Foley
Bro Rob Peach
Rel 011.05
May 20, 2009
"The Problem Of Evil"
Jay Sklar views Christian's Evil in the world by 5 questions. The article asks "Why does God permit evil?"
The first question asks what we mean by "evil"? It talks about what ways you can use the word evil. The first is in the same list as name calling. The second means a type of harm of a sort such as an injury. The third is more involved with death and suffering.
The second question asks Does the problem of evil prove that there is no good and all-powerful God. It says if we say evil exists then there isnt an all powerful God. But it also says that there could be an all powerful God but permits evil only for a justifiable reason.
The third question asks How is evil a problem for Atheism. This one states that Christian or not is it a good idea to kill someone even though animals kill each other. Saying that its wrong to kill is sort of like an offence to Atheists because in their beliefs there is no after life.
The fourth question is How might the fact that God himself experienced evil to help us. It says how Jesus suffered and died for US to save US from eternal evil. "For God so loved the world that he sent his only so to save us."(John 3:16)
The fifth and final question is Where does the story end. Here it talks about Revelations and how the end of the world could be. The only person that can and could only save us is Jesus.
This article was kind of confusing for me because this writer (christian) was pretty much questioning God. I understand what he was saying about sometimes when life is going hard and you have relate to friends or family to find God again but then again the writer might have confused some partial believers of God.
Robby Mazeski
Brother Rob Peach, FSC
Rel 011.05
May 19th, 2009
In the article "the problem of evil" Jay Sklar writer how evil is used in contents for example in the article sklar writes that evil is used to say something is bad (I am not sure if thats actually what he said).
The second question asks Does the problem of evil prove that there is no good and all-powerful God. Which explpains how if therre wasevil in the world why would go allow bad things to happen so therefore as the article said in qutations that there is no good if there is evil.
The first quetion asks What do we mean by evil? Sklar exclaims thruogh out the passage how evil can be used, as I said above. It pretty much just talked of what it meant and how it was used.
I believe that evil is only in our world to balance out the good things. Its not that god wants bad things to happen he gives us the choice to chose to b good or to be evil so I do not think that you can infer that there is no god just because there is evil. People seem to think that evil is all around us but really some people just need to lighten up life is not that bad on this earth for most of us, and just because people think there is just evil does not mean there isn't any good waiting around the corner.
P.s. this is really bad because I forgot my packet.
Mitchell House
Bro. Rob Peach, FSC
Rel 011.05
May 20, 2009
In the article, "Why Does God Permit Evil?", Dr. Jay Sklar talks about God and evil. He asks five questions to ponder the question of the article.
First, he asks the question What do we mean by evil, which he answers as the evil that is unpreventable and is unplanned. His second question is Does the problem of evil prove that there is no good and all powerful God? This is skeptical among many but some people say it means it does and others say it doesn't. Sklar's third question is how is evil a problem for atheism? Sklar replies that it is bad for atheism because evil proves morals, which in turn proves that people believe in something.
His fourth question is How might the fact that God himself experienced evil help us? Slkar answers this by telling us that God knows what pain is, through Jesus and his people. Sklar's last question asks where does the story end? He simply answers this by saying that the triumphant Lord will defeat all evil. He says he does not know why the end does not come sooner but he believes that it is coming.
In response, I think that this was a really good article. Sklar's points are clear and the topic is worth asking these questions. I think that he explains his questions and answers clearly, so hi audience can understand. He tells us his views and the views of others so we can see both sides of the argument. I think that is very good. It shows that he is open to other people's thoughts and opinions. Sklar also shows us the many mysteries that is our faith.
In my opinion, suffering is the impassible hardships that everyone faces. No matter what we do to avoid them, they find us. We look for comfort in these hard times and the comfort seems to help. But even if we are good Christians, suffering happens. However, through this suffering, we must realize that this is God's plan. He has a reason. We must notice this and push through these times so we can make the good times all worth while.
Steven Passarello
Brother Rob Peach, FSC
Rel 011.05
May 19th, 2009
Dr. Jay Sklar the author of the article "Why does God permit evil?", puts forth five questions that attempt to answer the questions of why is there evil in the world today if there is an all powerful God that could prevent it. This article puts for good and thorough arguments to attempt to answer this main question, however, i think it ends up leaving Catholics and Christians in the same place we began in. Sklar ends up at the conclusion that God permits evil for reasons of his own and when Jesus comes back to save us at the world's end evil will cease.
Sklar's most interesting argument, to me, is when he argues that if we cannot understand something that doesn't mean that it is not correct or doesn't exist. Says this in response to the question if there is an all-powerful God why does evil persist? He gives this argument to show that God has his own resons for permitting evil and us as finite beings shouldn't try to comprenhend them. Sklar's second most interesting argument to show there is a God is that he says we have been instilled with a sense of what is right and what is wrong if we didnt have this sense then we would be nothing more than an animal kiling one of it's own species ,but we know that there would be a punishment so as finite beings we realiz right and wrong and try to prevent evil which wouldn't happen if there was no God or a God that didn't care about us.
Tome, these arguments by Sklar are interesting and shed a new light on the question of "The Problem of Evil". These arguemnts also offer several ways of looking at the situation, I liked this article because it didn't just offer one side of the argument, it offered the whole arguemnt. Another reason I enjoyed this article is because I agreed with almost all of it.
Patrick Vento
Bro. Rob Peach, FSC
Rel 011.05
May 20, 2009
"The Problem of Evil"
Jay Sklar, a man who talks down and tries to answers people thoughts or disbeliefs on God and Evil.
For one thing i think this article is great. I think that he gets right the point about his article. The thing i like is how he talks about different beliefs like atheism and using different examples. He agures that even though we have evil in the world doesn't mean God doesn't exist. Yes we have evil only because we sometimes chose to. there is a choice for everything. Our free will lets us choose between good and evil, and God can't mess with free will so yes thats one of the reasons we have evil in our world.
I think his article was really well though out. he didn't just say one thing one example and say "ok yeah we have evil, but God does exist" he really goes into detail on how there may be times when yeah we have evil but God is always there. And he knows if we just get him to do everything the world wouldn't be full of such independent ppl.
Damion Jones-Moore
Bro. Rob Peach, FSC
Rel 011.05
May 20, 2009
Dr. Jay Sklar brings forth a question that cuases contraversy eveywhere of why does God let evil happen.
The first paragraph is tittled with the question "What do we mean by “evil”? his response to that is that there are three different types of evil such as we sometimes use the term loosely to refer to things we don’t like, we sometimes use the word to refer to some sort of harm, misfortune, or negative circumstance we choose to bring upon ourselves. Or simply the ones we choose to bring upon ourselves. and i agree with that completely that covers every type of evil we all witness or experince.
anthoer paragraph i agree with is "How might the fact that God himself experienced evil help us?" his response to that is "The foundation of the Christian story is this: In the person of Jesus of Nazareth, God has entered into human history and voluntarily experienced ultimate suffering and evil, all as an act of love for us." i agree with that completly it was Jesus himself that went through the worst evil possible just for us so you sort of get the vibe of balance for the most love to be paid he had to pay by the worst evil.
This article is a very intelligent article these question are in a way unsolvable but Dr.Sklar breaks it down so well to the point of any one could understand and he really does a great job bringing across his point.
Paul Costello
Bro. Peach, FSC
Rel 011.05
May 20, 2009
In Dr. Jay Sklar's article, "Why Does God Permit Evil?", the problem of evil is addressed and attemptred to be answered. The main idea of the article is that we all experience evil on a regular basis, which doesn't seem to be something that a good and omnipotent God would permit. The evil that the article is talking about is the eil that is out of our control. Some of this suffering is due to a moral choice of another your parents divorce, a drunk driver kills a friend of yours). Other times the suffering comes from natural events (a tsunami kills thousands, a child is struck with leukemia). This suffering leads many to think that an all powerful and good God cannot exist.
I think that the way Skylar approached writing about the problem of evil was very interesting and certainly unique. He wrote out five questions and then answered them thoroughly in a few paragraphs for each. The questions give the writing a good flow, but also keep the writer focused on sticking to a point on a topic that makes it easy to go on and fade from what you are trying to argue about.
The only problem I had with the article is that I feel no differently about the problem of evil from before I read the article. The author didn't really answer the question, but instead just gave a couple different point of views. I suppose, this may be because he doesn't know the answer. Now that i think a bit more about it, no one does. It is defianately one of the great mysteries of religion, and one of the most difficult tests of faith religious people face everyday.
Claude Scott
Bro. Rob Peach, FSC
Religion 011.05
May 20, 2009
In the artical "The Problem of Evil", Jay Sklar the writer. Writes this great artical by askig five questions about evil.
But the question that stands out most to me is quesstion number 2. Does The Problem Of Evil Prove That There IS No Good And All Powerful God? Jay Sklar is asking how is God suppose to be good but is letting evil happen around the world.
I think he lets evil happen in this world because all of us people should know that we shouldn't evil to do anything. And that we have a choice to do evil or good. And if you choose to be good then you will be rewarded. but if you choose to be evil then ypu will be punished.
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