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Summary Of The Causes Of Natural Evil Philo

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Part XI begins with Philo’s breakdown of what are, in his perspective, the four causes of natural evil. These causes, in Philo’s opinion, disprove the existence of an omnipotent and infinitely good god, for if god was all-good and all-powerful, then these grounds would not exist in our universe. INSERT CITATION Once he gives his reasoning for how these causes disprove an omnipotent and infinitely good god, Philo then states what he believes these four causes to be. The first cause, according to Philo, is the existence of physical pain. INSERT CITATION Philo says that the purpose of pain is to guide us away from certain actions, which motivates us to keep ourselves safe. This game goal, though, could be satisfied by only using various levels of pleasure; if being lit on fire felt less pleasurable than not being on fire, we would be motivated to avoid it without ever experiencing the excruciating sensation of burning. INSERT CITATION In our world, however, burning leads to pain so severe that sometimes it …show more content…

Philo concludes that for those who already believe in an omnipotent and all-good god, these four causes are not enough to invalidate their beliefs. INSERT CITATION He says this because all four of his causes can be dispelled under the assumption that there is some divine explanation that reconciles god’s goodness with the evil in the world. However, coming from an unbiased perspective, Philo says that we certainly cannot infer the existence of a benevolent god when these causes of natural evil are taken into account. In fact, if we do attempt to divulge god’s moral attributes from the state of the universe, then Philo concludes that the only proper deduction we can draw is that god is neither good nor is he evil, but rather he is entirely indifferent to the principles of morality altogether – in essence, god is morally neutral. INSERT

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