Theodicy: The Oldest Form Of Religion

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The oldest forms of religion and worship date back to at least 300,000 BCE. Some of them are still practiced today such as; Hinduism, Judaism, and Buddhism. These religions have stood the test of time, and are still widely accepted, and practiced today. Christianity is another religion with great relevance in our society today, although it is very young in comparison to the others with an origin date of 30 AD. With religion there will always be those who oppose or do not believe this group cannot be left out, these are the Atheist their viewpoint can often be eye opening. Philosophy and religion go hand in hand. Philosophy attempts to know all and define all, it’s the oldest of all disciplines and helped create modern science as we know it.…show more content…
Theodicy is one of the age old deep philosophical questions philosophers have been trying to answer for ages. The problem of theodicy has been stated many times, by many different people in many different ways and can be summed up as such. How can evil exist if God is good? To elaborate, how can evil and suffering exist in a world created by a good, loving God? This unresolved paradox is centuries old that is inherent in all religions that include a belief in a personal all loving, all knowing, and all powerful God. When looking at the problem of evil it can easily lead to other questions such as “why do bad things happen to good people?” This is a more detailed, granular question. Logically to try and answer this question one should first identify what is “good” and what is “bad”. To define these things one must look at their own morality. Religion is a useful tool in helping one find their moral compass, and also define what is “good” or “bad”. For example those who follow the Christian faith have the Ten Commandments to guide them on what is right or wrong. In the Islamic faith God has revealed good and evil to them, good is a “well-known thing” and evil is “an unknown thing”. Using a logical approach and various world religion I will attempt to shed some light on this…show more content…
The notion that this life we have on earth is but a taste of what is to come. The bad that may happen to us or good people is negated by the fact that there is eternal life with God after this world. That we are to use our time here wisely and enjoy it when we can, but that our main focus should be on preparing for a greater life to come. Another viewpoint offered by the Christian faith is that pain actually brings us closer to God. The Bible makes it clear that just because you are a believer doesn’t mean life will always be perfect. There is actually more evidence in the scripture that predicts trials and tribulations on earth than there is of gain and success. The strongest point the Christian faith offers to answer the question of “why do bad things happen to good people” is the free will argument. The free will argument states that the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good God allows all sorts of things to happen, this includes evil, suffering, and bad things. These things that happen are not Gods doing, but humanities doing. He allows them to happen because he gave us free will. We in turn with that free will essentially created evil and sin as we know it

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