Flesh Muppeteer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
duinemerwen) wrote2019-11-02 12:58 am
duinemerwen) wrote2019-11-02 12:58 am
Entry tags:
The Problem of Evil
While trying to establish and maintain internal consistency in my Good Omens fic I eventually ran into the problem of evil.
Referencing this book (https://www.amazon.com/God-Problem-Evil-Spectrum-Multiview/dp/0830840249), canon (and possibly Kirinin's Question Box) is of the skeptical theism view, and the Edenverse uses a classic/molinist view.
From a plot perspective I don't find either the classic perspective (possibly too neat? but the Edenverse is very good) or the skeptical theist view (maddening). I don't like the open theist view either (I think omniscience is canonical).
So, I like the essential kenosis view best. Free will is a gift, I think, and to revoke it would be worse than permitting evil. It's like how everybody needs to stay in character in a story, and there are things that the characters can't do without going OOC, and if you use too many dei ex machina it becomes a bad story. The cards are dealt, the rules are set, and then the game unfolds. Ultimate redemption remains possible but characters aren't sure if that's the final objective.
Also I think I'll frame the Fall like edgy kids reading Nietzschein high school, except that some people just can't handle existentialism and go full Kurtz.
Referencing this book (https://www.amazon.com/God-Problem-Evil-Spectrum-Multiview/dp/0830840249), canon (and possibly Kirinin's Question Box) is of the skeptical theism view, and the Edenverse uses a classic/molinist view.
From a plot perspective I don't find either the classic perspective (possibly too neat? but the Edenverse is very good) or the skeptical theist view (maddening). I don't like the open theist view either (I think omniscience is canonical).
So, I like the essential kenosis view best. Free will is a gift, I think, and to revoke it would be worse than permitting evil. It's like how everybody needs to stay in character in a story, and there are things that the characters can't do without going OOC, and if you use too many dei ex machina it becomes a bad story. The cards are dealt, the rules are set, and then the game unfolds. Ultimate redemption remains possible but characters aren't sure if that's the final objective.
Also I think I'll frame the Fall like edgy kids reading Nietzschein high school, except that some people just can't handle existentialism and go full Kurtz.