This semester I am happy to say that I am taking a class called Philosophy of God and Religion by Dr. Janine Idziak. I feel this class relates very much to a class I took last semester called Introduction to Religious Studies/Theology. These two classes relate because they both discussed how we justify the presence of evil in the world: theodicies. They both just approach this subject in a different way. In the Introduction to Religious Studies and Theology course we discussed different religions and their view on God and Sacred Scripture; these religions were not necessarily Christian, but a very broad spectrum of different religions. This class we also discussed theodicies and the problem of evil and biblically how we see these theodicies. In the philosophy class we studied how to justify God’s existence philosophically, God’s attributes, and how to justify God’s existence with the problem of evil.
I would have to say the most relatable subject we discussed in both classes was the problem of evil in the world and how to justify that problem with God’s existence. The question that was posed in both classes was that if God is all knowing, all powerful, and all good how can evil exist in our world? To answer this question both of my classes studied some of the same and some of the different theodicies that try and answer this question.
Both classes studied John Hick’s soul making theodicy and the theodicy of suffering as a punishment from God. In the soul making theodicy, we learned that suffering could be a way for humans to perfect ourselves and that is why God created a world with evil within it. But the question that this theodicy leaves us with is that people do not always come out better because of suffering so why would God make evil present in the world to perfect us, when in fact many people despair or become worse people because of an evil they experienced? The other theodicy both classes studied was that suffering is a punishment for sin. In Intro to Religious Studies/Theology we studied the Old Testament, specifically Isaiah and Job, to understand this theodicy more. In Isaiah we saw how many cities were sinning against the Lord in various ways: murder, idolatry, etc. and so the Lord sent many types of suffering upon them as punishment for their sins. Then, in Job, we see how his peers are accusing him of doing some sort of wrong against the Lord because of the suffering he is going through, but he denies this claim. This theodicy is very prevalent in the Old Testament. Then in my philosophy class this semester, we also studied this theodicy by using the movie: God on Trial. This movie was about men, mostly Jews, in a concentration camp during WWII and they put God on trial on the accusation of breaking the covenant with His people. In this movie one of the possible reasons they come up with to why the Holocaust was happening is God punishing them for their sins. We found many problems with this theodicy in class, just like the Jews had a problem with this explanation. This theodicy is problematic because if one of God’s attributes is all good, then this theodicy is not possible. Also, the extent of the punishment in comparison to the possible crimes would not be equal, the punishment would be entirely way too harsh. And thirdly, what about the innocent children in the Holocaust and in the world who had to go through that suffering? They could not have done anything to gain any type of punishment.
Both Philosophy of God and Religion and Intro to Religious Studies/Theology classes I enjoyed immensely. Both classes, while different in many aspects, were similar in the way we studied the problem of evil in the world and how to justify that with God’s existence.
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