(Omni)benevolence (Edexcel A-Level Religious Studies): Revision Notes

(Omni)benevolence

Key term:

(Omni)benevolence: All loving

God's (Omni)benevolence:

✔️ All-loving is a crucial characteristic of God as for God to be worthy of worship he must be an all-loving being.

The importance of love within Christianity is demonstrated by Jesus who is seen as the embodiment of love. We are told to follow in his footsteps, emphasising the importance of love in the Christian life.

Christians argue that we need to accept god's love willingly, this means he has to provide us with free will in order for us to choose to follow him.

The problem of evil

• Evil and suffering within the universe seems to contradict God's all-loving qualities.
• If God really was loving, why would he tolerate the evil and suffering that humans have to live through?
• If God loves his creation, why would he create a world where people are cabals of such evil crimes and natural evil?

Counter argument: God needs us to have free will

• If God intervened in the world, we would have no free will and then we could never choose to love God out of our own freedom

• God needs us to be able to willingly choose to follow him.

• Intervening in human society is destructive and prevents people from making their own mistakes. However:

• The notion of free will does not defend the mass amount of evil.

• Natural evil is difficult to be justified, that is no fault of humans and is the result of God's creation.

• If God was all-knowing, he would have known this was going to happen. Why did he not prevent such mass destruction?

• For example: Californian wildfires. Despite this:

Some would argue that natural evil is the result of human evil which stems from the original sin.

Ultimately:

Yet this does not justify evil as why would a loving God punish us for the actions of others from so long ago?

The existence of Hell

• The existence of hell seems to entirely contradict the idea of an all-loving God.
• God clearly created Hell with a purpose, knowing there would be evil and suffering in the world.
• If God knew that he would need to punish humans for sin, why would he not intervene and stop the need for such a thing to exist.
• The depiction of Hell in the bible is violent, why would a loving creator want to punish his creation endlessly?

Biblical perception of God

• There are many instances in the bible that represent God as being an all-loving being who loves his creation.

• Jesus is seen as the ultimate act of love, God sacrificed Jesus for humanity.

• Jesus is seen as the ultimate representation of love.

• Jesus said that love was the most important commandment.

• The creation of the universe itself was an act of love However:

• There remain many examples of God being the contrary of all loving in the bible.

• For example, in the story of the flood: God saw that the earth was corrupt and filled with violence and decided to destroy what he created.

The Inconsistent triad

• The argument is that the qualities of God (benevolence, omniscience, and omnipotence) are incompatible.
• If God was all-loving and all-powerful then he would have been able to create a society where people had free will and wouldn't commit such evil sins.
• If God was all-knowing, he would have known this destruction of humanity would occur and if he was powerful he would have done something about it.
• Maybe God does know and could have changed the future however he is not loving and therefore didn't change it.
• Fyodor Dostoevsky:

"I most respectfully return him the ticket." Here Dostoevsky is referring to returning his ticket to paradise as it is the price to pay for the suffering of innocent people, suggesting our God is not worthy of worship.