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Augustine Problem Of Evil

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JohnBaptiste 1 Name: Kearem JohnBaptiste
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Augustine’s Confessions
Augustine draws on Christian revelation and ancient philosophical inquiry to present ethics and moral theory that recognizes that people's pursuit of true happiness is frustrated by sin. The ethics of Augustine derives from his desire to serve and know God. Augustine’s ethics suggests that true happiness can only be found in God but not in human conduct or things of the physical world. Augustine proposes an ethics of love. People reach God and love him by free will. His ethics is based on treating people with dignity just as we would want to be treated and the command by Christ to love others and love God with our strength, mind, soul and heart. Augustine is a virtuous, moral and philosophical human being.
The Problem of Evil
According to Augustine, the free will in human beings is the cause of evil. God gives people the power to choose their actions and evil often results from these deeds. Augustine believed that people cannot comprehend the judgment of God, and they are unable to understand His mind. Augustine’s ideas were shaped by Neoplatonism and Manicheanism (Linsenmayer). …show more content…

Human beings can only escape from evil by practicing meditation and asceticism to free their soul from the evil body. According to Manicheanism, human beings are not responsible for misery and evil because only Satan is responsible for the evil in the world. Augustine later stopped believing in Manicheanism because of the question of who is responsible for evil. He believed that people had free will and, therefore, they caused suffering in the world. This belief led Augustine to believe in Neoplatonism

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