Ultimate Questions: Christianity

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Ryan Linnane:
Year 12 SOR Term 4 - Ultimate Questions – Good and Evil (Christianity)
Hypothesis: It is not only impossible to reconcile evil through the existence of monotheism; it is the power and dominion over the marginalised that has seen to have been the catalyst for existence institutional evil itself.

Throughout time perceptions of good and evil have developed, however, little has been learnt from the occurrences of institutional evil. Monotheistic and dualistic concepts of evil in relation to the Christian faith are of extreme importance to understand the historically cyclical evolution of the perception institutional evil.
Philosophies of good and evil develop the understanding of the existence institutional evil in both the Christian …show more content…
German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who is often considered to have played an integral role in the development of modern philosophy establishes in ‘Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone’, a secular theory without any reference to the supernatural. This theory is not developed in response to the problem of evil but instead Kant, who often struggled with institutional religion, theorises to make sense of three apparently opposing verities about human nature: “Firstly, we are radically free, secondly we are by nature inclined toward goodness and thirdly we are by nature inclined toward evil” (Calder, 2013). The notion of natural inclination to goodness and evil is distinctly similar to dualistic philosophies. St. Augustine theorised there were two forms of evil in existence; moral evil in which human beings decide to act evil and, natural evil where natural disasters or diseases are the cause of suffering. This approach to evil was in reaction to the semi-Christian traditions; Manichaeism (a dualist faith that believe in two universal opposing forces; good and evil). The evil force was said to be held accountable for all evil in the world; supported by biblical quotes such as in the Book of Revelation where St Michael goes to battle with the devil and his angels. St Augustine debated that Manichaeism was not a Christian Tradition at all …show more content…
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). In this passage it is suggested that God contains all knowledge of good and evil, as a creator as he created all but this knowledge was never meant for humans. The connotation of death is not physical but instead metaphorical of the awareness of good and evil in the world. Jahwist sources hypothesis that the first major draft of the Pentateuch took place in the late 7th or the 6th century BCE, and that this was subsequently extended by the addition of various narratives and laws including Genesis 1 at a later date. Genesis 1 is said to have been written during 596-587 BCE when the people of Israel were the captives of the Babylonians. The most recognisable differences in the texts are that in Genesis 1 it is the direct command of god that the world come into existence. In the Ex Nihlio story of Genesis 2; God is the source of all that exists in a world that contains no evil. “However in this story man was created first then plants an animals, it is Adam who names the animals in an act of stewardship and dominion” (Vardy & Arliss, 2003). This is act could be seen as metaphorical for the treatment of the marginalised, depicted as animals inferior to
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