I recently had an opportunity to re-read an essay I published in my collection of essays Adventures in Freedom. The opportunity arose when a discussion on sonar21.com centered on the meaning of the Winter Solstice.
There were the usual Christian praises of “God” and Russia for returning to “Christian roots.” (Of course, the roots of Russian culture are not “Christian,” a fact pointed out by a commentator called “Epicurus.”) This is when I remembered my essay, “A Dead Class and the Riddle of Epicurus,” I published 13 years ago in my book Adventures in Freedom. Here’s an excerpt from my book, followed by a post by rhanrott in 2018.
At that remote time, sometime around 2006, I taught Freshman English at CNM in Albuquerque. My essay is an address to my students:
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“So you don’t know what a syllogism is, right? OK, you are in for some rude awakening. Have you ever heard of the Riddle of Epicurus? (A rhetorical question, of course: they have no idea who Epicurus was.) Ok, let me show you something that will blow your mind. Ready?
At least they are not falling asleep now. In fact they are now looking at me, and I suspect I have managed at last to get their full attention, if only for a short time. So I go to my COW (computer on wheels) and connect to a YouTube video of the “Riddle of 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 god both able and willing? — Then whence comes evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? — Then why call him “god”?
The video is breath-taking; Epicurus’ logic, impeccable; its argumentative power, devastating. I can sense that the class is stunned. I can sense something has happened. I may have penetrated to their souls and have shaken them up pretty badly….”
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The “Epicurean paradox” or “Riddle of Epicurus” is a version of the problem of evil. Lactantius attributes this trilemma to Epicurus in De Ira Dei:
Posted by rhanrott, 2018
“God,” he says, “either wishes to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able.”
Through the centuries there is no evidence of the intervention of God in human affairs. One might reasonably have expected Him to have intervened during the massive slaughters of two world wars, but no. Again, one might expect evidence of intervention at the present moment, with the planet in peril, with so-called “strong men” taking control over countries throughout the world, with inequality, mass migration, hunger, the breakdown of liberal democracy and the end of American hegemony, which did at least guarantee a measure of order. But no. We have to presume that God is neither willing nor able to help us live together in respect and harmony. Millions have been calling upon Him for centuries, to no avail.
We are left with the hope that more and more people will espouse the decent, humanistic ideas of Epicurus that stand for moderation, consideration for others, toleration, the search for peace of mind, friendship and caring for those less fortunate than ourselves. Epicureanism and similar humanistic philosophies are what we have left to us. Common sense, really, but then the “leadership” of the human race seems to has remarkably little of that. It prefers self-interest, dubious dealings, lies, bullying and filling its own pockets at our expense. Plus ca change.