[Music] hi I'm Mr McMillan and welcome to another revision tutorial by Mr McMillan revise making revision easier this is the second part of my series on the problem of evil in this video we're going to look at one of the most famous attempts to solve the problem the augustinian theodicy the word theodicy is a combination of two Greek terms and it simply means to justify God in other words it's an attempt to explain how the existence of evil and suffering is compatible with the classical theist view of God as all good and all powerful the augustinian theology is named after the 4th century Christian Theologian and philosopher St Augustine of Hippo in case you are wondering the reason he's called Augustine of Hippo is because this was the name of the place in Aleria he was from rather than him being named after the animal Augustine's starting point was with the understanding of God as the creator of the world for Augustine since god is perfect and God created the world then he concludes that God must have therefore created a perfect world Augustine appeals to the Book of Genesis which in the form of the Garden of Eden appears to claim that God originally created a world without moral or natural evil Genesis says God saw all that he had made and it was very good therefore for Augustine since God could not create evil evil is not a thing in itself but instead is the absence or lack of some good this is what Augustin called a privation of good or in Latin a privatio bon apologies if my Latin pronunciation is not very good but I was never taught it at school so if evil was not created by God then how did it come to be part of the human experience again drawing inspiration from The Book of Genesis Augustine appeals to the story of Adam and Eve God gave humans and other beings such as Angels free will when beings with free will choose to disobey God just as Adam and Eve did they create an absence of good within themselves Augustine said for when the will abandons what is above itself and turns to what is lower it becomes evil not because that is evil to which it turns but because the turning itself is wicked just a little note when Augustine uses the word Wicked he's using it in the fourth Century meaning where Wicked meant really really bad not in the 21st century meaning where Wicked means really really good as a consequence of the Disobedience of Adam and Eve the state of perfection created by God was destroyed and the delicate balance of the world deteriorated as a consequence both moral evil and natural evil entered the world in Christian theology this idea is called the doctrine of the fall of Man Augustine also introduces the idea of the doctrine of original sin this means that all human beings share responsibility for evil and suffering since all are guilty of sin at this point Augustine's The Odyssey places all the blame on the actions of human beings and paints a pretty bleak picture but what then of God's goodness Augustine views God as a loving father who is both truly loving but also truly fair or just at the same time God shows his is Justice by not intervening to prevent evil and suffering rather all evil is either sin or the punishment for sin by allowing his children to suffer the consequences of their Disobedience God is being fair however God is also loving since through the sacrificial death of Jesus Redemption is available to those who repent and eternal life in heaven is offered as a gift Augustine says since there is happiness for those who do not sin the universe is perfect and it is no less perfect because there is misery for Sinners the penalty of sin corrects the dishonor of sin what are the weaknesses of the augustinian theodicy well I'm going to focus on four main criticisms although more could be mentioned firstly How could a perfect world go wrong Augustine maintains that God created a perfect world but schl MAA argued that it's a logical contradiction to say that a perfectly created world had gone wrong either the world was not perfect to begin with OR God enabled the world to go wrong secondly how could perfect beings choose to do wrong if it is a contradiction for a perfect world to go wrong then it also seems to be a contradiction to claim that perfectly created beings would choose to do wrong if goodness is hardwired into our nature why would we choose evil thirdly was the world truly made perfect Augustine relies heavily on the creation narratives in Genesis and while he was not a literalist his argument is weakened by the seemingly contrary evidence of Science and History biology tells us that far from being perfect nature is red in tooth and Claw to quote from the poet Tennyson similarly Evolution suggests that humans have risen away from their violent animal instincts rather than fallen from some State of Grace the doctrine of the fall of Man and original sin are seriously brought into question fourthly is it reasonable to say suffering isn't real some accuse Augustine of playing word games by calling evil a privation of good Augustine appears to be trying to get God Off The Hook by denying the reality of the problem from both a philosophical and a psychological perspective this seems inadequate we would hardly seek to comfort a grieving parent by telling them that what they were experiencing wasn't a real thing but just a privation of good so we finish with a summary of the Augustin in theodicy Augustine argues evil is not something created by God but it is a lack or privation of goodness caused by the Disobedience of human beings God does not therefore cause evil but he allows it to continue in order that humans may suffer the consequences of sin but also to have the chance for Redemption through Jesus thanks for watching that's the end of the second part of this series on the problem of evil make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel follow me on Twitter and download the podcast from iTunes [Music]