Epicurus

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

- Epicurus

Update: Ron left a comment casting doubt on this quote (conventionally) attributed to Epicurus. Here's what I found from Wikipedia:

" This argument was a type favoured by the ancient Greek skeptics, and may have been wrongly attributed to Epicurus by Lactantius, who, from his Christian perspective, regarded Epicurus as an atheist.[14] It has been suggested that it may actually be the work of an early skeptic writer, possibly Carneades.[15] According to Reinhold F. Glei, it is settled that the argument of theodicy is from an academic source which is not only not epicurean, but even anti-epicurean.[16] The earliest extant version of this trilemma appears in the writings of the skeptic Sextus Empiricus.[17]
Epicurus didn’t deny the existence of gods. Instead, he stated that what gods there may be, do not concern themselves with us, and thus would not seek to punish us either in this or any other life.[18] "

Comments

Ron said…
Acribing this to Epicurus is doubtful, since his conception of gods was one of beings that were unwilling to get involved in human affairs.
Jaded Jeremy said…
Ron,
Thanks for the information. I'll update the post shortly.

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