Does God Cause Evil?

In our fifth episode on divine providence, we tackle the question of why the omni-instrumental model of divine providence doesn’t make God the cause of evil despite saying that he causes all things through nature. Ultimately, the answer relies on an understanding of evil in terms of privation (which we explore at length) together with an understanding of the different ways instruments can limit the causal influence of agents.

00:00 - Introduction and recap

07:56 - Clarifying the present question

12:44 - Evil (or Badness) as the privation of the good

25:04 - Evil actions and privation

30:30 - Inherent vs privative limitations of instruments in general

36:19 - Limitations applied to divine concurrence

39:08 - Does this imply that we’re overpowering God?

42:06 - God wills the good and permits evil

49:16 - Conclusion

Works mentioned in this episode (or on topics discussed):

- David Oderberg, “The Metaphysics of Privation”, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SKlRTfkUiebE9RM1pOTkZ6dFU

- Brian Davies, The Reality of God and the Problem of Evil, https://www.amazon.com/dp/082649241X

- Roland’s blog post, “God causes evil actions without causing the evil in actions”, https://thinkingthoughtout.com/2021/12/08/god-causes-evil-actions-without-causing-the-evil-in-actions/

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