St Augustine

St Augustine

1. It's not possible that God just doesn't exist because the Bible is the world of God and so can't be wrong.

2. God created the universe and everything in it.

3. But God didn't create evil. He just allowed evil to come into being when Adam and Eve disobeyed him.

   • The privation originated from their disobedience as they created sin. By destroying god's natural order, they created natural evil.
     • The fall of man: they 'fell' as they became immoral and were no longer valued by God. Had to leave Garden of Eden. When evil occurs, people punish themselves to replicate the 'fall'.
       • As descendents of Adam, we inherit his guilt which maintains the privation. But Jesus's sacrifice paid for the sin so we have the choice to follow God again.

4. He would say evil doesn't actually exist. It's actually a privation, it's the absence of goodness.

   • Example: If you were hit it would hurt and the hurt if real but it doesn't originate from evil but from the absence of kind feelings.

5. Why didn't God stop the fall? He's omniscient so he knew it would happen and he's omnipotent so he had the power to stop it.

   • He chose to give Adam, Eve and future humans free will so they could choose to be good people and whether to follow him. This makes goodness more valuable.