Philosophy of Religion Essay

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meiwaku
Woah, this is so utterly sweet that there is a philosophy forum on here.
I'm a philosophy major in University and I think this will come in handy. Anyways I need some people's opinions here.

I am doing an essay for Philosophy of Religion and I am not sure what topic to choose I was wondering if anyone here could make up my mind for me.. roll eyes (sarcastic)

1- Omniscience: Does God's Omniscience conflict with free will?
2- Omnipotence: Can God Be Omnipotent?
3- Immutability: Does God's immutability conflict with His forming personal relations with us?

4- Problems of Evil: Does the existence of suffering conflict with belief in God?

5-Pluralism: Does religious pluralism undermine belief in God?

Yeah... I am thinking about either 5 or 4... but ughh so many broad subjects. My professor is evil.

Turbo-Cajun
umm... dostievsky wrote some interesting stuff that would help if writing about #1. Other than that, they all look kind of hard essay questions if you ask me. But, yeah 4 or 5 look not too bad...

meiwaku
I took Dostoevsky last year.... what writing of his talks about free will?
It would be most helpful to know.

Imperial_Samura
Good to hear you have chosen such a great subject, I was going to do something like it, but chose my true passion, history. However, I have heard some debates about this, and will begin with 4 - evil. Evil is a big problem it seems, as atheists point out that if God was truly good, and truly Omnipotant then by rights evil shouldn't exist. To which a religious person might say, but evil is needed for good, and is in fact due to human free will. However, that means that in essence God is not limitless and all powerful, as he can not create good without evil, nor can he impart free will without saying "yes, I know many will be evil, but nothing can be done about that....." Thus God is bounded by rules of nature and cause and effect, ergo not omnipotent. However, if one would concede that perhaps God is not infinitely good, evil would be much more acceptable, and understandable.....

Imperial_Samura
And I believe Dostoevsky in "Crime and Punishment" looks at the concept of free will in relation to religion and society, in terms of Raskolnikov's belief that some people, great people, should by rights be able to do as they wish as they weren't constrained by normal human flaws (like Caesar, or Napoleon) in essence free will should permit great men to transcend normal boundaries, that evil is not evil if used for good, by such a person.....

HiddenPotential
#5 thats it

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