The Platonic idea of reality degenerating from the perfect form also implies a duality between the ideal and reality. Christianity transforms this into the sacred and profane. The Christian problem of theodicy arises from the Christian concept of God. With an all-powerful and benevolent God how can there be evil? Platonism creates a duality in Christianity with a benevolent Creator and Evil as a force opposed to the benevolent Creator.
Theodicy is not a Jewish problem since the Jewish Bible assumes all comes from God.
Isaiah 45:7: I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
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Augustine got the church to adopt Original Sin as a doctrine and apparently got the idea from his knowledge of Platonic philosophy.
Saint Augustine, (354 - 430), a Manichee, apparently had a huge sex drive, and proportionate guilt about it. He wrote about it in his Confessions. In Chapter VIII of the book, he wrote, "Give me chastity and continency but not yet". After Augustine became converted to Catholic Christianity he established a religious community dedicated to the intellectual quest for God.
Augustine later became a priest and bishop and was active in fighting heresy. He argued that because of Original Sin no one can entirely govern his own motivation and that only through God's grace can people will to do good. He was greatly responsible for Christianity's emphasis on Original Sin.
Elaine Pagels, in Adam, Eve and the Serpent, used recently unearthed documents to tell how the doctrine of Original Sin was adopted. Augustine promoted the idea, and Pelagius, an English monk, argued against it. Pelagius thought everyone is born with a clean slate and that death was part of nature.
Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire and the emperor had a voice in the final decisionon the argument between Augustine and Pelagius. The emperor was a great lover of horses: a supporter of Augustine gave the emperor 80 Numidian horses. Consequently, Emperor Flavius Honorius found in favour of Augustine. In 417 Pope Innocent I excommunicated Pelagius, and the emperor ordered him fined, expelled from office and sent into exile.
Augustine’s told of his neurotic sense of guilt in his Confessions. He told of his torment for stealing pears from an orchard as a teenager. He also had a loving and committed long term sexual relationship resulting in a son. That also added fuel to his guilt. His neuroses in the form of Original Sin became church doctrine and have been a torment to many faithful Christians since.
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Greek dualism not only influenced the division into the sacred and profane but also defined the very nature of sin. Some Christians think of sin as a force outside of themselves vulgarly expressed as, “The devil made me do it!”
One can externalise evil and think it is something outside of us. Judaism maintains that there is a yetzer ha tov, a spirit of good, and a yetzer ha ra, a spirit of evil in each of us. In each of us there is a little Hitler. In Hitler was a bit of good.
Solzenitsyn, an Orthodox Christian, wrote:
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