God
‹ 7 · Outline · 9 ›
8.The problem of evil and the justification of God
8a.Vindications of God's ways and of the best system
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 124–125Elihu insists God cannot do wickedness; he rules the world and all creatures are his work.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 151Denies God is unjust: He gave endurance and put happiness within reach, opening a door.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 263God has not willed that our unhappiness depend on another's wickedness.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 88Poet would assert Eternal Providence and justify the ways of God to men; Almighty hurls rebels down.read · scan
- p. 90Conqueror believed almighty; his providence may draw good from evil.read · scan
- p. 304The Almighty says he drew Sin and Death to lick up Man's pollution, foretells their defeat by the Son, and is praised as just.read · scan
John Milton, Samson AgonistesVol. 4
- p. 415Chorus asserts God's ways are just; atheists walk obscure and doubters perplex themselves without solution.read · scan
- p. 415God's unsearchable, highest wisdom brings about all for the best; he seems to hide his face yet vindicates his faithful champion.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 407Vindicating God's ways to man; infinite wisdom forms the best system, so man's rank is not misplaced.read · scan
- p. 407God acts by general laws, not partial; man should not re-judge divine justice.read · scan
- p. 413–415Man should not presume to scan God; all partial evil is universal good under a disposing power.read · scan
- p. 415The God within the mind divides light from darkness; eternal art educes good from ill.read · scan
- p. 415–422Though man is a fool, God is wise; the universal cause acts to one end by various laws.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 260–261Does not reproach the Deity for giving a soul in his image, free, good and happy.read · scan
- p. 262–263Omnipotent goodness cannot will evil; God owes creatures what he promised in giving them being.read · scan
Thomas Gray, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 453–454Poet justifies the laws of Jove despite human ills, since he gave the Muse.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 30–32Great Being knows all his works, cannot act from cruelty or wrath, and his will makes woes best.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of PoetryVol. 27
- p. 348–349Milton alleges no moral superiority of God over Devil, violating the popular creed.read · scan
John Greenleaf Whittier, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1338–1340Trusts that God is good and can do no wrong; his mercy underlies life and death.read · scan
Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28
- p. 192–194Paradise Lost aims to assert eternal Providence and justify God's ways.read · scan
8b.Complaints and doubts against divine justice
See also: Justice 10b
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 80–81Job complains of God as watcher of men who scares him with dreams and will not let him alone.read · scan
- p. 84–85Job addresses God as an oppressor with eyes and days unlike man's, from whose hand none can deliver.read · scan
- p. 86–87Job appeals to God as maker who fashioned him as clay yet destroys him and hunts him like a lion.read · scan
- p. 90–91Job asks God to withdraw terror and reveal his transgression, though he expects to be slain.read · scan
- p. 92–93God appoints man's bounds and watches his sin, destroying his hope.read · scan
- p. 93Not even the heavens are clean in God's sight; Job turns his spirit against God.read · scan
- p. 95–97Job accuses God of tearing, breaking and targeting him as an adversary, yet appeals to a witness in heaven.read · scan
- p. 99–100Job feels God's hand and wrath against him, yet trusts his Redeemer lives and he shall see God.read · scan
- p. 108God preserves the mighty and seems not to judge the oppressors.read · scan
- p. 112Job swears by the living God who has taken away his right and vexed his soul.read · scan
- p. 117–119Job accuses God of cruelty, silence and persecution, yet God sees all his ways and numbers his steps.read · scan
- p. 120–121Job demands that the Almighty answer him and hear his case.read · scan
The Book of PsalmsVol. 44
- p. 166The sufferer feels forsaken yet recalls God as deliverer of fathers and his own since birth.read · scan
- p. 194–195God is addressed as rock, help and exceeding joy, yet seems to have forgotten the sufferer.read · scan
- p. 232–234The people ask why God has cast them off in anger and beg him to remember his congregation and act.read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33
- p. 64–66Mykerinos complains that the god lets impious kings live long while the pious die early; the god answers with destiny.read · scan
Euripides, HippolytusVol. 8
- p. 351–353Thought of the Gods and a great Understanding brings the chorus balm, though faith falters at injustice.read · scan
- p. 353–355The chorus accuses the gods of snaring the stainless youth, and Theseus exults that Poseidon granted his prayer.read · scan
Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12
- p. 386She appeals to the gods below since those above have betrayed them.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 171–172Placing good outside the will leads one to feel injured by God.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 239Wrongly judging externals leads us to blame the gods.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46
- p. 281Gloucester says 'As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport', a bleak view of divine rule.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 261–278Satan questions God's motives, suggesting envy and gods' claim to be the source of all.read · scan
John Milton, Samson AgonistesVol. 4
- p. 415Samson feels cast off by God who once led him to mighty deeds.read · scan
- p. 415Chorus questions God's varied, contrarious providence toward chosen champions, unlike his rule of angels and brutes.read · scan
William Blake, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 583–585Asks what immortal maker could frame the fearful tiger, and whether he who made the lamb made it.read · scan
Thomas De Quincey, Levana and Our Ladies of SorrowVol. 27
- p. 322–324The youngest sister is the defier of God.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18
- p. 306Beatrice says many might doubt a God who sees and permits evil, but her faith will not be obscured.read · scan
- p. 347–350Beatrice accuses God of permitting her wrong yet believes he made their act his angel of wrath.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 92'There is a crack in every thing God has made.'read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 29Father could not believe a world so full of evil was made by a Maker of infinite power and perfect goodness; origin of things unknowable.read · scan
- p. 33–34An omnipotent, perfectly good Author is doubted in a world crowded with suffering and injustice.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 996–998The gods lie careless beside their nectar, smiling at the world's suffering while men pray.read · scan
Robert Browning, A Blot in the 'ScutcheonVol. 18
- p. 378–380He prays to God to spare him this woe while yielding up reason as inadequate to reconcile God's goodness with what he sees.read · scan
- p. 386–388Mildred says God forgot her; Tresham calls on Heaven to judge.read · scan
8c.God and the authorship of sin
See also: Revenge 8b · Will 2a
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 10Gods warn mortals through Hermes and are blamed unjustly by men.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 10God made man but not sin; none is pure in His sight.read · scan
- p. 102Pictures God as infinite sea surrounding finite creation; God almighty and good, why did He make anything from evil matter.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 879–880God leads astray or guides whom He pleases and alone knows the hosts of his Lord.read · scan
- p. 920–921God guides and leads astray, is witness between prophet and doubters, and controls the treasuries of mercy.read · scan
- p. 932–933God guides or leads astray, desires no injustice, and would defend against violence.read · scan
- p. 939–940God gives bounty, guides or leads astray, is faithful to His promise and knows all; no other partners exist.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 130–131Verses say God blinds a man's reason to fulfil His purpose, then restores it so he may be admonished.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 26Envy is the proper attribute of the devil, who sows tares among the wheat.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 90God's high permission leaves Satan free so his malice serves only to bring forth infinite goodness, grace and mercy.read · scan
- p. 136God, beholding past, present and future, speaks to the Son and declares himself the just creator, not the author of the fall.read · scan
- p. 155God deserved no such return; his service was not hard and his love was dealt equally.read · scan
- p. 261Satan resents God's creation and elevation of man.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise RegainedVol. 4
- p. 359Satan's power is limited by divine permission.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 116–117God has subjected creatures to vanity as punishment for men.read · scan
- p. 284–285God tempts by affording opportunities but does not lead into error, which would impose necessity.read · scan
- p. 292God tests men's love and sends error to those who refuse the love of truth.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, LettersVol. 48
- p. 342–343Providence gives light to some, refuses others; God permits evil and produces goodread · scan
- p. 355God is regarded as author of all good and evil except sin, once matters are entrusted to him in prayer.read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 366–367If necessity holds, the Creator who set the world in motion is author of all volitions and answerable for human crimes.read · scan
- p. 368Objection that human actions traced to the perfect Deity cannot be criminal, or else God authors guilt; optimistic view of the whole system.read · scan
- p. 369How the Deity can be mediate cause of all human actions without being author of sin is a mystery exceeding reason.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18
- p. 297–298Cenci claims God sentenced him and cut off his sons, twisting providence to his own use.read · scan
- p. 320Cenci sees his soul as a scourge wielded by God, to be returned once its hate is inflicted.read · scan
8d.Divine mercy against the wrath of a vindictive God
Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor FaustusVol. 19
- p. 221Faustus fears that if he flies to God, God will cast him down to hell.read · scan
- p. 224Faustus wonders whether God will pity even a devil if he repents, and asks who made the world.read · scan
- p. 244–247God's mercy is said to be infinite and Heaven's grace is excluded by Faustus.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 141God wills redemption but justly refuses mercy to the obdurate; could reveal Himself overwhelmingly at the last day.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 288–289A vindictive, partial, wrathful God is rejected; God is the common, good, merciful father of mankind.read · scan
- p. 296–297The imagined hearer questions how a just God can damn those who never heard of him, or punish an innocent father.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 200–202She appeals to the judgment of God and gives her soul to Him rather than follow Mephistopheles; voices proclaim her saved.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 29Gods depicted as progressively more wicked; the Christian God who makes Hell judged the perfection of wickedness, though believers equate Him with perfect goodness.read · scan
Edward FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám of NaishápúrVol. 41
- p. 955–957The clay vessels debate whether the Potter would break what he made; some fear a surly master, another says he's a good fellow.read · scan
Robert Browning, A Blot in the 'ScutcheonVol. 18
- p. 402Mildred appeals to a Heaven that forgives and needs no code, to which none should despair.read · scan
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