I think you’re misunderstanding Epicurus. The problem of evil directly refers to human suffering. Whether evil exists outside of our experience has nothing to do with the paradox.
That’s alright, but then what about point #3, that perhaps suffering can be ended and, in particular, there are religions about humans living without suffering?
You’re describing part of the paradox: religion promises relief from suffering based on certain characteristics of god (in this case: all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving), while suffering continues. The nature of the promise and the nature of our reality don’t seem compatible. That’s what the Epicurean paradox is about. Obviously something can’t be right about the promise that god loves you, has exact knowledge of what must be done and is literally omnipotent. Because evidently he doesn’t follow through with it.
I don’t know how exactly other religions promise to alleviate suffering. Maybe those create their own paradoxes, who knows. We’d have to look at the actual claims of those religions. The Epicurean paradox very specifically criticises the idea of god as proposed by the abrahamic religions and in my opinion does so very convincingly.
I think you’re misunderstanding Epicurus. The problem of evil directly refers to human suffering. Whether evil exists outside of our experience has nothing to do with the paradox.
They’re also misunderstanding Buddhism. Fair to assume they’re probably misunderstanding quite a lot.
Happy to hear your interpretation!
That’s alright, but then what about point #3, that perhaps suffering can be ended and, in particular, there are religions about humans living without suffering?
You’re describing part of the paradox: religion promises relief from suffering based on certain characteristics of god (in this case: all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving), while suffering continues. The nature of the promise and the nature of our reality don’t seem compatible. That’s what the Epicurean paradox is about. Obviously something can’t be right about the promise that god loves you, has exact knowledge of what must be done and is literally omnipotent. Because evidently he doesn’t follow through with it.
I don’t know how exactly other religions promise to alleviate suffering. Maybe those create their own paradoxes, who knows. We’d have to look at the actual claims of those religions. The Epicurean paradox very specifically criticises the idea of god as proposed by the abrahamic religions and in my opinion does so very convincingly.