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Soul-Making In The Best Possible World
Two of the subset theodicies of the Greater-Good Theodicy are the Soul-Making Theodicy and the Best-Of-All-Possible-Worlds Defense. In these, soul-making in the best possible world gives a purpose to evil existing as a means to an end.
From the soul-making side, we see this as a desire in our own stories we share and treasure. Without evil, life is a boring non-story. However, there are some major issues with this theory that involves every non-Christian who ever lived. And from the best possible world, we have a logical idea dependent on the character and nature and God. We see a couple of glaring issues including examples of two worlds that are actually better without evil in it. But we still help Leibniz out with making his work more biblical.
Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
02:21 – The Soul-Making Theodicy
03:53 – Stories Without Evil Overcome Are Borning
05:30 – Evil Builds Character
07:52 – Objection 1 – Doesn’t Seem To Build Non-Christians
09:14 – Objection 2 – Some Seem To Getaway With Evil
11:17 – Objection 3 – Can’t Know If Evil Built Character Specifically
13:02 – The Best-Of-All-Possible-Worlds Defense
15:16 – The Purpose Of Evil Is A Product Of The Best Possible World
19:02 – Objection 1 – No Explanation Of How Evil Makes It The Best Possible World
19:49 – We Are Not In A Position To Know By Definition
23:09 – Objection 2 – We Have An Example Of A Better World Without Evil
24:54 – Objection 3 – Evil Isn’t Built Into The World But Entered Into It
30:14 – Objection 4 – It Underminds God’s Freedom In Creation
31:36 – A More Faithful Restatement Of The Defense
33:57 – Conclusion
The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep153/
Links:
35:28 – Ep.150 – Hermeneutics & Apologetics
35:40 – Ep.151 – Hermeneutics & Practical Bible Study
Books mentioned in this episode:
What about Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory by Scott Christensen
Kindle – https://amzn.to/2UeV3tt
Hardcover – https://amzn.to/3xGsxP6
Logos Link
ChristianBook Link
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Kindle – https://amzn.to/3padbjz
Paperback – https://amzn.to/3padbjz
Hardcover – https://amzn.to/3d4XLHy
Audible – https://amzn.to/32Mf26E
Try Audible For Free – https://amzn.to/3cN0giE
The Postmortal by Drew Magary
Kindle – https://amzn.to/3EeO2L2
Paperback – https://amzn.to/3o4FK2l
Audible – https://amzn.to/3d4fBus
Try Audible For Free – https://amzn.to/3cN0giE
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