Exam Essay 1

Here are the questions. You may answer as few as one or no more than three questions in your pursuit of a minimum of 1000 words:

1. Pierre Bayle’s essay “Paulicians” has several arguments demonstrating how illogical and irrational it is for a believer to try and explain the problem of evil using reason. Which of the arguments against attempts to solve the problem of evil seemed most powerful to you? (Please note: you don’t need to be convinced by his arguments at allthe question is asking you which of Bayle’s attacks on reason’s attempts to deal with this problem seems most convincing, most irrefutableeven if you aren’t personally convinced by his argument.)

2. After reading Bayle’s explanations in “Paulicians,” do you think he is a fideist (believer) or a skeptic (non-believer)? (Please note: his argument seems to imply he IS a believer. Arguing that he is NOT would be based on the persuasiveness of some of his arguments against belief rather than what he seems to suggest about having belief.)

3. Is the Joker in The Dark Knight a kind of Manichee? Is Batman? (Remember from lecture: Manichees are ancient believers who thought the presence of evil in the world could be best explained by the idea that there were two gods: a good one and a bad one. In other words, God is not omnipotent.)

4. After reading the first three books of Paradise Lost, is Milton, as the Romantics suggested, on the side of the devils? That is, does his writing on Satan and the fallen angels seem especially energetic and persuasive by comparison with his writing on everything else in the poem?

5. Imagine that you have to explain the problem of evil to your 5 year-old sister or brother. How would you talk about this issue in terms that they could understand? Be sure in your answer to refer to two of the following three works: Lamentations, “Paulicians” and The Dark Knight. Also be sure to explain what your own current thinking is on the problem of evil. (Please note: you can have a solution to the problem of evil, or be a fideist, or confused, or any combination that actually expresses where your current thinking on the issue is.)