Honors 361

Honors 361 (The Problem of Evil)

Background:

I took this course fall semester of my sophomore year! It was my first philosophy class. It was fun but it was a lot of reading! I will admit that sometimes I didn’t feel like I was able to comprehend the reading material as well as my other classmates, so most of the time I listened instead of participating myself. The good thing about this class was that it fell on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I could always do Tuesday’s reading over the weekend. I consider myself a religious person, so hearing both sides of the argument on the problem of evil was interesting.

Fun Fact:

I had also participated in an extra credit reading group to go along with this class and we read the first two books in a C.S. Lewis trilogy: Out of The Silent Planet and Perelandra. These were pretty interesting reads. The way C.S. Lewis makes hidden references to the problem of evil within the text is brilliant! The series was a great additional reading material to the class since it tied well with the material we were already learning.

Agreeing to Disagree:

I learned the basics of an argument and read many philosophers’ take on why evil exists. The question in question– Why does evil exist– remains unanswered. I read arguments for both sides and most brought God into the equation. As a religious person, I was curious to see what reasons other people had for not believing in God. Throughout the class, I found myself reflecting back on my own religion and questioning some of the things that I found conflicting within my own beliefs. I think it is healthy to be curious and to want to find answers to certain things. However, I found that sometimes things don’t have answers and that certain things need to be left up to interpretation. I had to agree to disagree with some arguments and even with myself to be at peace.

Below is my argument paper on why God exists, feel free to read it!

This paper includes references from several of the books I read in class. I did include a short background section in my essay, but you may want to read the books I mentioned in the paper to get a better grasp of the point I am trying to get across.