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St. Augustine Research Paper

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For St. Augustine, can humans harm God?
Considering all the evil in the world, does God really care about us? Augustine states that humans themselves can set a bad reputation for God. God in a sense can be punished for the sins in which other individuals have committed against themselves. Moral evil is explained by the fact that human beings commit evil against one another. As stated, “…Although they sin against you, they do wrong to their own souls and their malice is self-betrayed…” (R. S. Pg.66). Although God’s moral law exists so we recognize the reality of evil and suffering, humans have corrupted and perverted their own nature (R.S. Pg. 66). However, God made their nature and shaped the rules, either by making wrong use of the things …show more content…

It isn’t uncommon for most of society to partake in these engagements. Humans have a tendency to feel compelled to make sinful choices when they are influenced by the “…lust of power, from gratification of the eye, and from gratification of corrupt nature…” (R. S. Pg. 66). Augustine also makes a good point which is, that the Bible does not teach that God created man imperfect or sinful. He realizes this after he introduced to the book of Hortensius. After reading through the book, Augustine developed a new outlook on life, new aspirations and more philosophical knowledge. As he searched for the eternal truth he did examine various Holy Scriptures (R. S. Pg. 60). However, he was left unsatisfied when the scriptures deemed unworthy in comparisons to other philosophical novels. Augustine discovered that the Bible simply teaches than man was originally created to be good, righteous, and nothing more. The ‘good’ image was defaced by the creation of sins. Sins are damaging because they are connected to ties of aggression and steer to further violent behavior. For instance humans have been prompted to conduct actions of violence or sins for the sake of revenge, protection, security, envy, and rivalry (R. S. Pg. 65). Humans have voluntarily chosen to go against God, even though he had been cautioned about the dreadful consequences that would develop

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