I was unaware that the problem of evil dated back as far as
Augustine. Through studying moral problems in philosophy I became familiar with
arguments for and against the existence of God, the problem of evil being a
major element in disproving the existence of an O3 God. What makes the problem
of evil so damaging to those who claim God exists is its logical validity. The problem
of evil is a logically sound argument that is valid when looked at carefully. However,
the problem of evil does end up producing a notion that is extremely prominent
in medieval philosophy-Free will. Free will offers a solution to the problem of
evil to some extent, by shifting the blame from God to humans. Now instead of
there being this necessity to understand why God allows us to suffer from evil,
we have a slightly more reasonable task to solve. We shift from the
question-why is there evil in the world we exist in? To questions such as- How
do we justify punishment and reward? The questions now on the table seem a
little less daunting to answer because they now deal with moral issues in
humanity. It may not seem like an outstanding triumph, but to me this moment in
medieval philosophy is where we bridged the gap between hypothetical’s that are
entirely based on the O3 God and its existence-To hypothetical questions
involving moral choices. There now needed to be more of a focus on our
individual responsibility we have due to our freedom of will. We are held
accountable for our own decisions we make and can no longer shift the blame to
God every time we are stricken by misfortune. The idea of Justice is also a significant
notion that is brought about by this era. From this philosophical time period
we see development in our morals and reasoning. It is now clearer to me why
there seems to be a vast number of similarities that correlate between ancient
philosophy and medieval philosophy. Before this class there was a major gap in
my understanding of philosophical history and its timeline.
You make a couple of good points here. I like how you connected the problem of evil and the attempt to solve it with free will and justice. This connection is not intuitive, but it is essential for understanding how evil and the O3 god can exist simultaneously, thus refuting the problem of evil. I think that Augustine's discussion of free will and of justice are just two reasons why "Dark Ages" is certainly a misnomer.
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