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Faith And Philosophy In The Book Vii Of Confessions

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The book VII of Confessions debates the fundamental topics of faith and philosophy like the presence of God, the root of evil, and the connection between the two. Prior to being influenced by Neoplatonism, Augustine believed that things needed to occupy space in order to exist, implying that God might not be as superior and omnipotent as thought by the Catholics. Similarly, he could not understand the problem of the evil, concluding that evil is just a deliberate choice which our free will allows us to make. Eventually, Neoplatonic ideas, which state that God is the only source of goodness from which all other things descend and evil is just the lack (privation) of this goodness, shaped his mindset and contributed to the rise of the famous Augustine theodicy. However, …show more content…

Just like Augustine in the beginning, a person could attempt to abolish Neoplatonism by suggesting that such conception of God and His omnipotence is unreasonable since it cannot be physically touched or felt. Similarly, this person would reject the idea that evil is not an entity, but rather the lack of goodness. If God is good and the evil does not exist as an entity, why do the people have the capacity to do the evil? Also, why does our society suffer evil on a daily basis without an apparent Supreme Being attempting to stop it? In my opinion, Neoplatonism is great philosophy as it regards God as a single being responsible for everything we had, have, and will have. The superiority and omnipotence of God can be seen through three examples. First, it is captivating how our whole world, including objects

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