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To Be Or Not To Be

 

            There has forever remained a heated debate reaching at the fundamentals of monotheistic religions, the presence of evil. How can the existence of God be reconciled with the existence of evil in this world? It's regarded as a logical problem, because it is based on the apparent contradiction in holding onto three incompatible beliefs; this being that God is omnipotent, wholly good, and that evil forever exists in the world. The fact that evil exists in the world constitutes the most common objection to the belief that there exists a morally perfect being. After all, if this God is truly the creator of everything and wholly good, how can He create evil? Why would He want to create evil? St. Augustine of Hippo attempts to answer this question in his book, Confessions. .
             As Augustine received a classical education, much of his insight into religion is from an intellectual standpoint. This does not mean he was not devoutly religious and deeply pious, in fact quite the opposite. However, his arguments take on a logical air and make his presumptions about evil and its nature a more applicable source in a scholarly discussion. Many elements of Platonism can be seen in Augustine's teaching due to his early education. His view of the world is Platonic; there is the outer and the inner world, the lower and the higher, the sensible and the intelligible, and the carnal and the spiritual. To become wise requires a movement of the mind inwards and upwards to God, an opening of the mind to truth which provided the mental vision that has been purified by faith. His theme of the divine in the world and in man is more biblical than Platonic, which allowed him to regard the material world with a reverence that would be impossible for a Platonist. His doctrine of evil as no-thing, a privation, is different from both Platonic thought and Manichaeism. .
             A philosophical question faces Christians, and in fact all theists, that challenges the belief in God.


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