An Omnipotent, Omniscient, And Benevolent God - 1663 Words

We serve an omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent God. He created us all in his likeness giving us dominion of the earth and knows our every move before we even make it. Yet in the in the midst of the Garden of Eden, evil entered into our world. Christians have come to ask how is it that the God who has created everything allow evil to enter into his creations. The answer is not to blame God for letting sin in, for it is through us as humans who were given free will to make our decisions, evil entered creation. We have come to terms that our free will has a brought evil into the world but we still have questions about this evil and our will that need to be answered. For instance why would a God who is all knowing give his creations free will, if He knew with that free will His creations would bring evil into this world, and have to provides grace and mercy for His creations who are doomed without Him. A fourth century theologian and philosopher St. Augustine of Hippo is able to expl ore and articulate such questions of how evil and the free will are intertwined that have perplexed Christians. In his treatise â€Å"On Free Choice of the Will,† Augustine tackles the question overarching question, â€Å"Why is there evil in the world since God is its creator and is supposed to be perfectly good?† It starts from the very first line of the treatise with Evodius, a student of Augustine asking him â€Å"isn’t God the cause of evil?†(Augustine 1) for in Evodius’ mind if God created everything andShow MoreRelatedThe Existence Of God : Evil1293 Words   |  6 Pages The Existence of God Throughout the years as the human species keeps learning about the world we live in, we are finding out that we are surrounded everywhere by evil. This seems to conflict with the belief of theism, one who believes in a God or Gods, especially a personal God who’s in control of the world. If there was an all-omnipotent, all-omniscient, and all-benevolent God, then he should have consummate knowledge that there’s evil in the worldRead MoreThe Existence Of God : Evil1297 Words   |  6 PagesThe Existence of God Throughout the years as the human species keeps learning about the world we live in, we are finding out that we are surrounded everywhere by evil. This seems to conflict with the belief of theism, one who believes in a God or Gods, especially a personal God who’s in control of the world. If there was an all-omnipotent, all-omniscient, and all-benevolent God, then he should have consummate knowledge that there’s evil in the world. Given that, if he knows there’s corruptionRead MoreDoes God Or Evil Really Exist?1174 Words   |  5 PagesDoes God/ evil really exist? All of the living things have to be set by all of evils thing in the world: sickness, agony, happiness, suffering the live and death. God creates incredible things and leaves all of them for human to freely use as they want. However, the more they have the more temptation they get. That’s why there are a lot of questionable about a creator, God based on all of these kinds of events happened. Is this belief in a benevolent God not at least paradoxical in the face of suchRead MoreThe Problem Of Evil Questions God s Existence995 Words   |  4 PagesExistence An argument against the existence of God is based on the presence of evil in the world. This deductively valid argument is divided into two categories; human action and natural evil (Sober, 2005, p. 120). Human action discusses how experiences makes us better people, while natural evil are tragic events that are not under the control of humans. Each category is used as evidence to refute God as an all-powerful omniscient, omnibenevolent, or omnipotent being. In order to understand the strengthsRead MoreEssay on Aquinas? Fifth Way Of Proving1134 Words   |  5 Pages Aquinas Fifth Way of proving the existence of God Question:nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Briefly summarize Aquinas’ Fifth Way of proving the existence of God. What counter-argument does Hume cite in answer to this argument from Design? What is John Hick’s answer to Hume’s argument from Evil? Is he right? Thomas Aquinas theorized five different logical arguments to prove the existence of God utilizing scientific hypotheses and basic assumptions of nature. In the fifth of his famous â€Å"Five Ways†Read More THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPT OF GOD Essay2245 Words   |  9 PagesCONCEPT OF GOD Christians claim that their concept of God is found in the Bible. Known as classical theism, this view of God has long been considered the orthodox theistic position of the Western world. Though there are numerous divine attributes that we could examine, for our present purposes it is sufficient to say that the God of classical theism is at least (1) personal and incorporeal (without physical parts), (2) the Creator and Sustainer of everything else that exists, (3) omnipotent (all-powerful)Read MoreThe Two Kinds of Evil According to Augustine Essay1277 Words   |  6 PagesGod is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, which makes us wonder what kind of morally sufficient reason justifies God to allow evil. We know that evil exists in our world, but so does God, so would God be the source of evil as well as good? We have established that God is the omnipotent and benevolent free creator of the world, but suffering and evil exist. Is God unable to prevent evil? If so, he would no t be omnipotent. Is He able to prevent the evil in our world but unwilling? If thisRead MoreEssay on The World Is so Orderly That God Must Have Created It662 Words   |  3 Pages‘The world is so orderly that God must have created it.’ Discuss. The world can be a magnificent place and many would say that it is the most intricate and complex creation to ever exist. There are many examples of ‘order’ and design in the world. Some people believe that these designs are so complex; that they must have been designed for the world to be this way, and that this designer is God. Others oppose this view and believe that the world was not created by God but due to other reasons. Read MoreThe Evil God Challenge : Stephen Law1561 Words   |  7 PagesEvil God Challenge Introduction Stephen Law conducted a thought experiment with a purpose of establishing the existence of an evil God, whereby he challenged those who believed in the presence of a kind and good God, doing nothing evil, and argued that the existent God is wicked indeed. The hypothesis developed into the challenge based on the argument that, if an omnibenevolent God is said to exist, yet there is so much evil in the world, then there is as well a possibility that an evil God existsRead MoreThe Belief Of Religion And Religion1256 Words   |  6 Pageshumanity believing in a one-god system, the traits of a higher power had been established. The first premise of which is God having unlimited power, or omnipotence. God holds no bounds, and all things are possible under his will. Second, God must be omniscient, or all knowing, as all his actions are with full consideration of every variable. Lastly, it is determined that God must be benevolent, acting only for the good of all of his subjects. An individ ual can only be called God if he holds every trait

Becoming A Licensed Clinical Social Worker And Provide...

My current career objective is to work in the field of addictions and I hope to work directly with individuals seeking substance abuse treatment. Although it has recently been announced that addiction is a brain disorder rather than a behavioral issue, there is still argument that drug use is a choice and not a disease. I want to contribute to the substance abuse population because I feel the stigma that surrounds recovering addicts does not accurately portray the strength and positivity that comes from the recovery process. I want to be a part of empowering these individuals to put the pieces of their life back together. My future career objective is to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and provide therapeutic services in the emerging market of FARR certified recovery residences. I advocate the importance of recovery residences and want to bring clinical services to all levels to promote the health and well-being of individuals every step of the way on their journey through recovery. My ultimate career objective is to open a non-profit organization that will promote awareness of health and healthy eating in residential substance abuse treatment centers. A big part of what my non-profit will do will be helping people improve their lives by teaching them how to take care of themselves from the inside out. I think that more focus needs to be put on the individual as a whole during the recovery process and this can be done through educational materials, classes, and

The British Prime Minister Now Has Presidential Powers Free Essays

Thâ€Å"The British Prime Minister now has Presidential Powers† Discuss the Validity of this Statement It would be correct to say that over the years the British Prime Minister has become more of a Presidential figure in Parliament. Recent prime ministers that have been referred to as presidential include Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Harold Wilson. Prime Ministers are supposed to be ‘First Among Equals’ (Primus Inter Pares), however recent Prime Ministerial actions have got people questioning whether or not the Prime Minister has more power and is becoming a Presidential figure. We will write a custom essay sample on The British Prime Minister Now Has Presidential Powers or any similar topic only for you Order Now The idea that the prime minister is now more presidential is drawn from the knowledge of the United States president and how the British Prime Minister compares to him. Firstly, the media turns the Prime Minister into a political celebrity. The actions the Prime Minister takes inside parliament and also much of the PM’s personal life is publicised in newspapers and television. The Prime minister is the spokesperson for the government. Although their access to the media can be used for personal benefit, the media has been more critical of politicians in recent years. There is evidence of this as the BBC made allegations that the Iraq dossier was ‘sexed up’ during Tony Blair’s time as Prime Minister (class notes). The U. S President tends to have media coverage also. The wider use of special advisors increases how presidential the Prime Minister appears. The ‘Spatial leadership’ that the Prime Minister now adopts also gives us this impression. Prime Ministers now distance themselves from parties and government and develop their own ideologies. Examples of this include Blairism and Thatcherism (class notes). In times of distress in the country the people often turn to the Prime Minister in search of a solution. They PM tends to reach out to the people in times of crisis, for example, David Cameron returned home from his holiday early last year to address the issue of the London Riots (class notes). The power of the PM has increased in recent years as the prime minister has now increased control over Cabinet Office, which has turned it into a small scale Prime Minister’s department. The Prime Minister has the capability to dominate his cabinet. This makes him more like a president as Collective Responsibility is an effective way of ‘gagging’ his ministers. All ministers are expected to support publicly all decisions made in cabinet, or else resign. For example, in 2010 David Cameron was discussing with cabinet about building a Millennium Dome. Before a decision was made, he went outside and told the awaiting media that a dome was being built. Therefore the Prime Minister made the decision alone and cabinet couldn’t disagree (class notes). Another example of this is that Gordon Brown announced his decision to give independence to the Bank of England. Blair and Brown took this decision alone and Mo Mowlam, one of the most popular ministers in Blair’s cabinet stated, â€Å"I read about the bank of England decision in the newspapers† (Politics Review). This clearly shows that the Prime Minister can dominate his cabinet and make decisions despite him being â€Å"Primus Inter Pares† (first among equals). As the years go on, Prime Ministers are also having shorter and less frequent cabinet meetings and are holding more bilateral meetings. The amount of cabinet meetings has declined from 100 a year to approximately 40. Under Margret Thatcher’s parliament, her Cabinet was used less than previous Prime Ministers and annual meetings took place about 35 times. Under Blair, meetings rarely lasted an hour. This is evidence of the Prime Minister becoming more presidential and tackling decisions alone rather than with Cabinet. Thatcher and Blair also tended to have more committees and sub-committees. Blair’s ‘Sofa government’, Thatcher’s ‘Wise men’ and Wilsons ‘Kitchen Cabinet’ are all operating through bi-lateral meetings between the Prime Minister and advisors, so policy was ratified before it reached cabinet. These are all examples of Prime Ministers taking matters into their own hands and becoming more dominant and presidential. The dominance of the Prime Minister over Parliament is also shown in the ways that he/she chairs important cabinet committees and sets the cabinet agenda. Setting the cabinet agenda allows the Prime Minister to leave anything that may be difficult to come to an agreement on in Cabinet, to the end so that there will eventually be no time to cover it and the Prime Minister has to come to a decision on his/her own. Margaret Thatcher was said to have done this quite frequently. This shows that the Prime Minister can therefore decide on important affairs without having to consult cabinet. Tony Blair was noted to have used cabinet Committees a lot. The Prime Minister is also considered presidential because of what is seen as a growing ‘West Wing’ in Downing Street. This is due to the increase in Political Advisors in the PM’s office. The advisors help the Prime Minister make decisions even though they are unelected themselves. This means that they effectively influence his decisions and help him bypass cabinet, for example Blair gave his advisors power of Civil Servants. On the other hand, the Prime Minister can give considerable control to his cabinet members, which isn’t evident in American politics. For example, during Blair’s reign as PM, the Labour party was said to have a ‘Duel Monarchy’ due to how much power was given to Gordon Brown. Other ministers can constrain the Prime Ministers power and effect his decisions, which doesn’t happen with the U. S president. The Prime Ministers personality is an issue in how much power they have over Cabinet. They have powers over office but some may be more proficient than others in the exercise of those powers. Some Prime Ministers have been good in government management and other haven’t. Some adopted an autorical approach and some others focus on policy reflections. The amount of authority a PM had depends on how assertive a personality he/sh has. For example, John Major was often ridiculed for his inability to make decisions and was seen as a pushover (class notes). The PM’s popularity with the public also dictates how much power they have. At the moment, David Cameron is restricted from acting presidentially as a result of the constraints of a coalition government. The coalition government may weaken the powers of Cameron as many compromises need to be made to keep the government stable. For example, Cameron had agreed to a referendum on the electoral system. He had agreed to introduce fixed term elections. Liberal democrats hold key cabinet positions. Unlike the president, the PM may face resistance in cabinet as particular cabinet members may not go along with a particular proposal. For example, Thatcher’s parliament lost a bill as the majority of cabinet voted against it. The PM cannot completely ignore his cabinet. Unlike the U. S. A, the cabinet is Britain is elected. The cabinet can overthrow the Prime Minister is he is disliked. This cannot happen in U. S government. In conclusion, the Prime Minister, in many ways over the years has increased his/her power to such an extent as to appear presidential. However, there are many constraints on PM power to conflict with this view. Whether or not the Prime Minister remains in high powers depends on power, personality and circumstance. How to cite The British Prime Minister Now Has Presidential Powers, Essay examples

A Day in the Life of My Mother free essay sample

Name: Zoey Tan Wei Lin (32) Class: 2 Endurance Date: 7 March 2011 A Day in the Life of My Mother A day in the life of my mother when she was my age was not easy. So a day in her teenager life starts like this. Early in the morning, about five thirty a. m. , I wake up and found a warm blanket on top of me. ‘Father had waked up and had covered me, again, in his warm blanket. ’ I thought. Anyway, I had to get up and help father in his humble little moveable cart that sell rojak, a mixtures of tropical fruits, such as pineapple and so on. So I got up, get dress and was ready. I got out of my room which I shared with four other siblings, my second sister, my younger sister, my second brother and my youngest brother. My mother had seven children, three sons and four daughters, however, my eldest sister had pass away when she was a baby. And my eldest brother slept in the living room while my mother and father slept in the other smaller room. My mother rent two rooms in this place near the Singapore River. When I got out I crept pass my grandmother’s bedroom. She is a scary woman, most of us do not like her as she only knows how to take money from father but she did not see how much effort mother and father put in order to support the family. However, when she does not get the money she wanted as the selling of rojak is not good, she will throw the freshly removed skin pineapple on the floor and make a scene. Does she not understand that by doing so, lesser people will want to buy the rojak and thus father could not earn enough to give her? And, of course, I gotten my revenge, I will throw the pineapple skin from other stall at her hair, which is neatly tie up as a bun. Then, I will hide behind one of the big, tall pillar without her noticing and she will start cursing about who naughty children that throw things at her. Little did she know that it was her granddaughter who throws it at her. I walked past my mother’s room, look in and found that she had already when to work. My mother is a pleasant lady that never raises her voice but she does punish us. As I had said, our family is not very wealthy so we could not just get anything we want and my only doll which is made of fragile plastic was being thrown onto the floor and thus, it was broken. It is also one of the reasons why I quit school, I simply cannot bear my mother going around borrowing money to pay for my school fees and to buy the materials needed for schooling. Furthermore, I had to helped my father sell rojak since my other siblings are either too young or does not even care. Thus, when I get home I was so tired! And it is already very late and I did not have time for studies. The lights have been switched off and I had to use an oil lamp but I still cannot see properly under the dim light. Anyway, it had been about four years now since I dropped out of school and my day since then had much like today expect that I had to walk down to Clarke Quark to buy opera tickets for my mother as this evening at the outdoor theatres hall will be showing her favorite show. However, sometimes I get to go home earlier but I will still have to helped my mother cooked rice. We used firewood or charcoal to cook and it will end up very watery than I had to scope the rice up and dry it to become like rice. Now I got out of the house and help father pushed the cart. Fortunately, today is a good day where there is no rain and the sun is not too hot. Thus, we managed to sell all the rojak early but it is still a tiring day as there are a lot of bridges that are very steep and, always, there are those few customer that are very difficult to please. We mainly sell along the Singapore River, it is dirty and smelly as ever. There are many many interesting things that happened daily. Today there was a shark corpse that was found by one of the fisherman and when they cut open the shark, they found a body inside. Today we get to earn a little extra more so dinner was also an extra special. We reach home and while father work inside the kitchen, I went out to play. We can play with many things and we could anything possible to something that amuses us. We also play with fire crackers. But nowadays I did not play so much, instead, I go to people’s park complex to look for either my aunt or my second sister. My second sister was working there as a tailor which I think I might soon join her as I could choose to be either a tailor or a hairdresser but I think i will choose to be a tailor instead of a hairdresser. Because I think it might suit me more. My aunt has a shop there, at the people’s park complex, selling beads, laces and other decorative materials used in sewing. So every night I will drop by there to help out and maybe my aunt will give one to five cents for me to buy sweets but I always save it up in a biscuit tin. Then, I will go home with my sister. And on the way home we will cross one bridge that is very dark and we will always run across it sometimes there noises on it we will scream saying there is a ghost. And when we finally reach home, I will be so tired and will go off to bed. So those were the fond memories my mother had when she was a young adult but her life was not that easy after all. However, she was strong enough and had braved through all difficulties. When I first asked her about her life her first was not good, very bad but her optimist kept her going on. My mother will always be my top number one idol!