theodicy

philosophy

theology

light bulb joke

is (as the idea that a social problem, a problem of meaning such that those who are successful are not satisfied unless they can justify why they deserve to be successful.

Weber interpreted theodicy as a social problem,[12] and viewed theodicy as a 'problem of meaning'. Weber argued that, as human society became increasingly rational, the need to explain why good people suffered and evil people prospered became more important because religion casts the world as a 'meaningful cosmos'. Weber framed the problem of evil as the dilemma that the good can suffer and the evil can prosper, which became more important as religion became more sophisticated.[13] He identified two purposes of theodicy: to explain why good people suffer (a theodicy of suffering), and why people prosper (a theodicy of good fortune). A theodicy of good fortune seeks to justify the good fortune of people in society... Weber believed that those who are successful are not satisfied unless they can justify why they deserve to be successful.[14] For theodicies of suffering, Weber argued that three different kinds of theodicy emerged predestination, dualism, and karma all of which attempt to satisfy the human need for meaning, and he believed that the quest for meaning, when considered in light of suffering, becomes the problem of suffering.[15]' (wikipedia

is wrongheaded in that, to explain away evil by saying that God cannot be judged by human standards of morality overlooks the fact that human standards of morality are precisely what one uses to establish God's goodness in the first place.

Of course, people of all faiths regularly assure one another that God is not responsible for human suffering. But how else can we understand the claim that God is both omniscient and omnipotent' This is the age-old problem of theodicy, of course, and we should consider it solved. If God exist, either He can do nothing to stop the most egregious calamities, or He does not care to. God, therefore, is either impotent or evil. You may now be tempted to execute the following pirouette: God cannot be judged by human standards of morality. But we have seen that human standards of morality are precisely what you use to establish God's goodness in the first place. And any God who could concern Himself with something as trivial as gay marriage, or the name by which He is addressed in prayer, is not as inscrutable as all that.

theodicy, n.Definitions

theodicy