1. "Hindu" means _______________; its central trinity of Gods consists of ______, ______, and ______ (the god of destruction); practitioners seek a state of blissful experience called _____, known to Buddhists as Nirvana.
2. "Brahman" means the ___________ beneath all appearances, supposedly knowable through mysticism, meditation, and ____.
3. It is mainly from Zoroastrianism that we inherit the problem of evil, the question of how needless suffering, pain, and death can exist if ____________________________.
4. (T/F) For the ancient Greeks, the idea of a world created ex nihilo-- from nothing-- was easy to grasp.
5. The Biblical book of Genesis attributes evil in the world to ____________.
6. (T/F) God's response to Job, in the Biblical account, resolves the problem of evil and accounts adequately for suffering in the world.
7. (T/F) The existence of a powerful, malevolent, satanic demon or "Devil" would be rationally compatible with the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, morally perfect God.
8. What's the worst, saddest, most painful or tragic thing you've ever experienced, or heard about? Do you believe it may have been "for the best"? Why (not)?
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At the end of class today the point was raised that natural disasters could be a tool used by god(s) to control population. I think it's a little obvious that god would be doing a much better job at controlling our population considering how overpopulated Earth already is and the rate at which our fossil fuels and ozone layer are diminishing. It seems there were be A LOT more natural disasters if this was their purpose.
Regarding the comic of Jesus and Mo and many people's belief that suffering and evil is what makes us humans appreciate everything else more.. not only does this seem like a weak response to justify the evil done in the world; it seems like an example of our selfish human nature. When a child is born with a genetic disease and lives a life of tests and experimental treatments, in and out of hospitals, only to die before he or she reaches the age of 13, how can such innocent suffering be justified? How can one tell the parents it was part of a 'master plan' and for the best, how can one be selfish enough to say that we are benefiting from this child's suffering by being more grateful for what we have? Considering the amount of starving children in the world, human trafficking, and past and present genocide, we should all be much more grateful beings than we are. When we watch the news at night, how many of us really think twice of the deaths we hear about and think "Wow, that really makes me appreciate more things." And if we do, it's often for mere seconds, minutes for the best of us. A eye-opening movie in a theater might last us the entire car-ride home.
Thoughts, professor?
"...many people's belief that suffering and evil is what makes us humans appreciate everything else more.. not only does this seem like a weak response to justify the evil done in the world; it seems like an example of our selfish human nature."
I couldn't agree more. I sat in class listening to that person and I thought to myself, "What a silly, illogical line of thinking." Naturally I bit my tongue...people don't usually like to be called illogical.
And while I'm at it, I would just like to say that the notion (and this was brought up more than once) of God creating the world and then stepping back and watching what happens...really bothered me. People have reduced God to nothing more than someone who sat down to play "The Sims," left the Free Will box checked, and just watched his hapless Sims fend for themselves. While I remain unsure if this creator God even exists, I think it's better to err on the side of caution and feel some reverence about whatever or whomever is responsible for our existence.
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