Abolish All Evil Greek Philosophy Analysis

The problem of evil is one of the most serious difficulties confronting traditional Christianity, and it has been a focus of heated philosophical and theological discussions for centuries. Epicurus was the first to formulate the problem of evil as a philosophical dilemma (341–270 B.C.E.):

If God is perfectly good, He must want to abolish all evil, if He is ultimately powerful, He must be able to abolish all evil. But evil exists; therefore, either God is not perfectly Good or He is not ultimately powerful. John Hick, Evil and the God of Love (Macmillan, 1966, p. 5).

While philosopher Socrates accepted death calmly, in general the Greeks feared death. The journey after death was to a land known as Hades, ruled by a god named Hades. The first

The doctrine of transmigration is first associated with the Pythagoreans and Orphics and was later taught by Plato (Phaedo, Republic) and Pindar (Olympian). For the former groups, the soul retained its identity throughout its reincarnations; Plato indicated that souls do not remember their previous experiences. Although Herodotus claims that the Greeks learned this idea from Egypt, most scholars do not believe it came either from Egypt or from India, but developed independently. (Oxford University Press,

The deceased was then prepared for burial according to the time-honoured rituals. Ancient literary sources emphasize the necessity of a proper burial and refer to the omission of burial rites as an insult to human dignity (Iliad, 23.71). Relatives of the deceased, primarily women, conducted the elaborate burial rituals that were customarily of three parts: the prothesis (laying out of the body (54.11.5)), the ekphora (funeral procession), and the interment of the body or cremated remains of the deceased. After being washed and anointed with oil, the body was dressed (75.2.11) and placed on a high bed within the house. During the prothesis, relatives and friends came to mourn and pay their respects. Lamentation of the dead is featured in early Greek art at least as early as the Geometric period, when vases were decorated with scenes portraying the deceased surrounded by mourners. Following the prothesis, the deceased was brought to the cemetery in a procession, the ekphora, which usually took place just before dawn. Very few objects were placed in the grave, but monumental earth mounds, rectangular built tombs, and elaborate marble stelai and statues were often erected to mark the grave and to ensure that the deceased would not be forgotten. Immortality lay in the continued remembrance of the dead by the living. From depictions on white-ground