Rebellion

An excerpt from Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" (translated by Ignat Avsey). In it, Ivan Karamazov explains to his brother Alyosha why Ivan finds the problem of evil insoluble. The suffering of innocent children is impossible to justify to Ivan, but if it were justifiable, he would rather reject any such system of justification than accept the suffering of children.

If there is only one book you read before you die, I would highly recommend that you make it this one.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Dostoevsky
• Karamazov
• problem of evil
• existentialism
• theism
• atheism
• agnosticism
• theodicy
• God
• innocence
• rebellion

[havvyweponsman]

Isn't this the exact same book that William Lane Craig quotes to make the claim that Dostoevsky believed atheism could not account for morality, or something along those lines?

This same fucking book?

[SisyphusRedeemed]

@havvyweponsman Surprised that WLC took a passage out of context and distorted the real complexity of the source? The famous line (If there were no God then everything is permissible) comes from one of the characters, and it is challenged by other characters, not a direct statement of Dostoevsky's beliefs. He believed in God, but he was much more conflicted that WLC would have you believe. His novel is an amazing analysis of the complexities of religious psychology, not a work of apologetics.

[havvyweponsman]

@SisyphusRedeemed I never quite realized exactly how much Craig's quoting made this book seem like a work of apologetics and thereby led me to dismiss it out of hand as not worth reading. What's actually surprising is that a 'professional philosopher' like Craig was citing a character from a novel in a formal debate instead of, for instance, a relevant philosopher.

[SisyphusRedeemed]

@havvyweponsman There's nothing wrong with a philosopher citing literature, especially when it's as philosophical as Dostoevsky. He's usually considered to be one of the greatest existentialist authors out there. And there's nothing wrong with using him to make a Christian point, provided the broader context of the point is acknowledged.

[sovietsnowman]

Excellent read, thank you.

One note on your pronunciation of Alyosha:

your Al is correct, soft l and everything,

but the y es not prouounced yee, its pronounced yo

Al-yo-sha

[tommylehman]

Absolutely brilliant. I've shared this with a number of my friends. Thank you.

[Sinuev1]

@Sinuev1

And how is that just to judge your eternal inheritance based on an infinitely small window of decision? And just because it's infinitely small by comparison, that does not make it non-existent... so the suffering is still unexpiated.

I've heard the following chapters on Father Zossima's life were to be Dostoyevsky's answer to Ivan's Inquisitor... but I found no satisfactory answers in them, and it seems to me that Dostoyevsky didn't either.

[Sinuev1]

@321lawc

I don't understand how reincarnation could be an answer, since the wages of sin are wiped clean in the second life, but compounded by inheritance over multiple rebirths... and with each renewal, the price of suffering must still be paid. Would that not be an even crueler scenario?

And if paradise/damnation be eternal, then what is a finite lifespan by contrast? Your time in the moral world would be infinitely small compared to infinity... (cont)

[bodine1975man]

 agreed.