this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2024
478 points (95.1% liked)

Cool Guides

4736 readers
1 users here now

Rules for Posting Guides on Our Community

1. Defining a Guide Guides are comprehensive reference materials, how-tos, or comparison tables. A guide must be well-organized both in content and layout. Information should be easily accessible without unnecessary navigation. Guides can include flowcharts, step-by-step instructions, or visual references that compare different elements side by side.

2. Infographic Guidelines Infographics are permitted if they are educational and informative. They should aim to convey complex information visually and clearly. However, infographics that primarily serve as visual essays without structured guidance will be subject to removal.

3. Grey Area Moderators may use discretion when deciding to remove posts. If in doubt, message us or use downvotes for content you find inappropriate.

4. Source Attribution If you know the original source of a guide, share it in the comments to credit the creators.

5. Diverse Content To keep our community engaging, avoid saturating the feed with similar topics. Excessive posts on a single topic may be moderated to maintain diversity.

6. Verify in Comments Always check the comments for additional insights or corrections. Moderators rely on community expertise for accuracy.

Community Guidelines

By following these rules, we can maintain a diverse and informative community. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to the moderators. Thank you for contributing responsibly!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] match@pawb.social 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] Mrs_deWinter@feddit.org 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] match@pawb.social 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

"bad stuff happens" is a subjective evaluation based off humans perceiving some outcomes as good and others as bad; "if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around, does it make a sound?" is a common english-language expression about whether subjective experiences exist in the absence of consciousness to perceive it.

does "bad stuff happen" if nobody experiences it?

[–] Mrs_deWinter@feddit.org 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Are you questioning that people experience bad things?

[–] match@pawb.social 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] Mrs_deWinter@feddit.org 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So what are you saying? I really don't get it.

Bad stuff is happening to people. People suffer. Suffering exists. This is not the question.

Is this fact of our reality compatible with the existence of an all knowing, all loving, omnipotent god? Epicurus says no.

So assuming an all knowing, all loving, omnipotent god and our reality we've got ourselves a paradox. How do we solve it? Either one of the premises is wrong (so god could be two or less of those things, but not all three) or there's an entirely different explanation (haven't heard a good one so far tbh).

As a bonus we could now ask ourselves if an entity that is merely two of those original three things would be worthy of worship or would in another way justify the existence of organized religion.

It's a simple task in logical thinking. No idea where you were going with the tree metaphor.

[–] match@pawb.social 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I personally think people suffer and suffering exists, but Epicurus's paradox is founded on a premise that suffering and evil must exist. Is that a safe premise? There's a few ways that that might be untrue:

  1. Would evil exist if humans stop existing? We probably don't expect evil to exist on Pluto or Alpha Centauri or any other place devoid of life.

  2. Are humans correct when they perceive evil? Every evil thing ever perceived could have actually not been an instance of evil.

  3. Given that we assume that humans should exist and are accurate when they think they're suffering: do humans have to suffer? Buddhism as a philosophy and religion is all about practices and beliefs that promise an end to suffering (the "four noble truths").

[–] Mrs_deWinter@feddit.org 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I think you're misunderstanding Epicurus. The problem of evil directly refers to human suffering. Whether evil exists outside of our experience has nothing to do with the paradox.

[–] match@pawb.social 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's alright, but then what about point #3, that perhaps suffering can be ended and, in particular, there are religions about humans living without suffering?

[–] Mrs_deWinter@feddit.org 2 points 4 months ago

You're describing part of the paradox: religion promises relief from suffering based on certain characteristics of god (in this case: all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving), while suffering continues. The nature of the promise and the nature of our reality don't seem compatible. That's what the Epicurean paradox is about. Obviously something can't be right about the promise that god loves you, has exact knowledge of what must be done and is literally omnipotent. Because evidently he doesn't follow through with it.

I don't know how exactly other religions promise to alleviate suffering. Maybe those create their own paradoxes, who knows. We'd have to look at the actual claims of those religions. The Epicurean paradox very specifically criticises the idea of god as proposed by the abrahamic religions and in my opinion does so very convincingly.

[–] flerp@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They're also misunderstanding Buddhism. Fair to assume they're probably misunderstanding quite a lot.

[–] match@pawb.social 1 points 4 months ago

Happy to hear your interpretation!