Welcome to Ithaca

It's where theodicy happens

The Epicurean trilemma

• If a God knows everything and has unlimited power, then it has knowledge of all evil and has the power to put an end to it. But if it does not end it, it is not completely benevolent.
• If a God has unlimited power and is completely good, then it has the power to extinguish evil and wants to extinguish it. But if it does not do it, its knowledge of evil is limited, so it is not all-knowing.
• If a God is all-knowing and totally good, then it knows of all the evil that exists and wants to change it. But if it does not, it must be because it is not capable of changing it, so it is not omnipotent.

Constraints

1. God is all-knowing

• Knows everything about everything and everyone
• Knows past, present, and future
• Knows all possible futures (if free will exists)

2. God is all-powerful

• Created the world with full knowledge of what it would become
• Could have crafted the world such that anything happens (the Plan)
• In some interpretations, he can directly intervene to correct affairs

3. God is all-good

• Good = maximally kind
• Good = maximally just
• Good = good at his job

4. God is one

• One trinity, one deity, one God
• Anything else is heresy

5. Free will?

• Nobody ever actually calls this a constraint but they will negate or weaken any of the other ones before they touch free will

The Problem

Evil exists!

• Natural evil: hurricanes, floods, supernovas, toothaches
• Moral evil: murder, lying, cheating, inkjet printers
• Structural evil: poverty, depression, lead poisoning, the 40-hour work week
• Animal evil: 500 million years of carnivores, suffering as natural existence

Injustice exists!

• Why do people who lie and cheat succeed?
• Why are good people punished?
• Why do the good die young?
• Why don't people get to live their best lives?

Nobody even knows what God's job is!

• Is it to save souls? Why not make them already saved?
• Is it to make beauty? Why even make humans?
• Is it to make humanity flourish? Why make it so difficult?
• Is it to be known? Why hide himself?

Solution A: Fuck you, wise guy

• You think you know better than me?
• You wanna try running this show?
• Are you powerful enough to stop me?
• Leviathan Time

Note: This is the canonical answer to most Christians.

Solution B: Neuter God

The easiest solution is to just remove one of the constraints! (← heresy)

God isn't all-knowing

The simplest explanation but the one that makes him look the stupidest.