The Existential Problem of Evil and The Brothers Karamazov

Tim O'Connor (Indiana University) reflects on the psychological, existential nature of the problem of evil, and looks to Dostoevsky's Father Zossima of The Brothers Karamazov for an answer.
This video is provided by Biola University's Center for Christian Thought. Learn more at cct.biola.edu.

[@DeimosDivided]

There is no logical answer to Ivan's critique of evil and God. He singlehandedly conveys his arguments in "The Grand Inquisitor" and it is one of the most compelling arguments I've ever read. But Dostoyevsky's rebuttal to these problems wasn't an answer you can put in words; rather, it embodied the heart and the body as a whole-that whose philosophy could be found in Alyosha. Unlike Ivan who spoke theoretically about atrocities and tragedies, Alyosha visited people in Petersburg and suffered WITH them. He was a listener and helper for children, the disabled, and the hurting. Through seeing and feeling the pain of others, he gained a spiritual awakening that could only be discovered by journeying in the cruelest depths of humanity to achieve a level of gratefulness and universal love that could not be found otherwise. Ivan could not reach this realization because he became so alienated and isolated from God and His people that he could not experience any appreciation or joy in life.

[@tedlicious]

+Patrick Sistrunk Wonderful comment. I find Nietzsche a very interesting philosopher, but there is something to be said for practicality; it would be virtually impossible to live by his precepts. Similarly, Ivan and the theoretical. Too often this passage of Brothers K is cited, but seldom is Alyosha's rebuttal mentioned.

[@johnnyscifi]

tedlicious His rebuttal by kissing Ivan, like how jesus kissed the inquisitor? I can relate to Ivan only, in that story

[@floridtv]

The Brothers Karamazov was meant to pose the problem, he died before he could write the next novel which would contain the answer.

[@korayertug794]

Exactly. As we were discussing this matter with my teacher of literature, he said that one of the biggest problem with Ivan is that he couldn't dare to act. He felt, he thought but he couldn't dare to act and didn't know how. Alyosha was almost reverse of him.

[@zjw5]

@@EPICPACKOPENINGSXD do you think it is also irrational that our actions of disgust and resentment will also influence the behaviour of the rest of humanity?

[@silverskid]

Dostoevsky said that there is no rational or intellectual response to the problem of evil and suffering put forward by Ivan in the novel. He believes that in the end we have only 2 fundamental ways to respond as living beings (not participants in a debate): 1) To affirm the individual as the source of all morality or 2) To affirm the existence of a source of morality greater than ourselves. Even then, some will see that greater entity as the State (he came to oppose Socialism for this reason). He tries to show (not prove logically) that all attempts (like Ivan's ) to take on the role of moral authority leads to inner conflict, bad conscience and narcissistic self-absorption. This is how he sees modern man/woman. In line with Orthodox Christianity, he affirms the value of radical acceptance of not only the evil around us but also the dark and evil stirrings within each of us which we try to disown. But this can't be forced, this radical acceptance of evil as part of "creaturliness." It's not clear to me that--even if one can fully accept the reality of evil while condemning it morally-- that therefore we can all have faith in, much less surrender our will to God, which is D's way of understanding a healthy response to evil. The move from acceptance to faith in God and Providence is a supra-rational leap which cannot be willed if it is sincere. If I or anyone else just doesn't experience the world in that religious manner there is nothing more to be said.

[@michaelorleans5396]

Well said, my friend..Well said

[@politicallycorrectredskin796]

FD liked to split characters in many parts. I am still convinced Rogozhin and Mysjkin are the same person, but it is still under debate amongst my literary buddies. In the same vein, Aleksej, Ivan and Dmitri are Fjodor split in three for analysis. He's the dead God and his sons are aspects of him. That's the point of the novel. You can't find the answers in just one of these directions, because you need all three as a human. Emotions, morality and intelligence. That's why the brothers all find balance toward the end of the novel. Aleksej becomes wise enough to not require or expect super-obvious miracles to prop up his faith, Ivan understands that there are questions he can't answer and things he can't prove, and Dmitri commits to a woman. Do all of those things and there can be redemption, even for you. The alternative is self destruction, endless misery and delusion. There are three kinds of people who typically don't get Karamazov: Christians, atheists and hedonists. Because they have all done what FD suggested in Karamazov that you can't do; limited themselves to one aspect of being a human. They read only "their" part of the book and ignore the rest of it.

[@jeffsmith1798]

This discussion is so relevant now. It’s uncanny how enlightened this talk is especially now.

[@helenamcginty4920]

I have found life much better since, after several years of struggle, I stopped trying to believe in a God, good bad or indifferent. I found coping with problems no easier nor more difficult than previously. It is I who solve my problems. Sometimes with help from friends and family sometimes alone. I continue to question myself but with no reference to any god. I still revel in the natural world. In my friends. In my family. All just as they are.

[@AdarshRaj-nw3yj]

Alot of Dostoevsky's work's influence can be seen on Netizsche.

[@g4merboie789]

Aliocha "is right" not because of arguments or because of any type o rationale. He acts according to it. He isn't smart enough to refute his opponent, nor does he have to be. That kiss was the expression of love for a lost soul, the showing of compassion for the doubts of his brother. That's why religion exists with science, because it's not based on what you can put into words. It's based on the metaphorical yet showed only through practice. It is truly one of the most beautiful creations of man.

[@treid100182]

"We are all Dostoevsky...we are all one." Basically, the universe is one thing, therefore everything in it is of the One Thing. Think about the Big Bang as if it were an ink bottle being thrown at a wall... just because the middle is thicker and the dripping lines are more complicated, doesn't mean those complicated lines are anything other than the very ink in the middle. The Universe has ONE mind...we just experience seemingly separate. We are all the universe experiencing itself, and Fyodor

[@Hendrixleft]

treid100182 the collective conscience

[@zacharykingston1046]

Oneness created duality to experience itself and do on and so on

[@youngman7600]

Big bang theory is made up

[@JohnSmith-ry7wh]

Stupid Buddhist relativist gobbely gook. We are all separate and will be judged separate. We must love God☦️ before all else. But we must love our neighbor as ourself.

[@Thelonious2Monk]

To me the more important point in the book, is the realization that morality is not connected to being religious at all. Most people are moral whether they believe in god or not. Both Mitya and Ivan who are atheisists (Ivan in his beliefs and Mitya in some of his actions) are tortured by their conscience. They want to do good, although circumstances sometimes prevent this.The discussion by these academic professionals is about the inner peace that a belief in god brings to a man/woman (in spite of the obvious problems in the world). They do not talk about the more important point of the moarlity of humans and the (supposedly) importance of religion to moarlity. Dostoyevsky shows clearly that religion is not needed for human socail existance.

[@sergantDon]

"morality is not connected to being religious at all" - that's precisely the opposite of what Dostoevsky was saying. Ivan's theory that "anything is permitted if there is no God" bring him to the brink of insanity and makes Smerdyakov to kill his master/father and then kill himself. This is one the main points of the book.

[@ivabanovic6203]

He was trying to say exactly the opposite

[@shalaby8968]

Are you sure you didn't notice the big line drawn between the father zosima and Alysha and between smrdiakav and mitya and between all of them was Ivan standing his thoughts are contradicting each other while his mind is telling him "if god doesn't exist them then anything is permitted" and from the other hand his soul is telling him to be moral and defend his brother that's was the Reason there was so much focus about Ivan in last chapters of the book.

[@JoeChrisMorris]

Ivan believes in God, it's Gods world causing him distress!!

[@commandershepard1944]

Sandals....sandals....seriously?

[@kirimsalfeux2352]

Hahahaha

[@blackmetalmagick1]

But the Spartans wore them.

[@品味历史品味人生]

Substance over form

[@charliewest1221]

Fishy sandals.

[@hisholiness4537]

When I first read his "I'd like to return the ticket" speech my jaw dropped. He said what's been in my heart for so long so eloquently. Simply knowing that people and other living beings suffer everyday makes me weep sometimes, and humanity's lack of empathy and care for anything that's not in their immediate self interest makes me irrationally angry. Why do you purposefully make this world a worse place for your children? Why have children when you're actively ruining this world with your actions? On top of that, you burden them with you and your ancestors' sins, and they'll have to live with the consequences. No amount of good will, charity, or progress has been worth the sheer magnitude of evil committed by mankind, especially those upon itself. Hope AI saves this world from the onslaught of man.

[@eskent4230]

If you’re waiting for a cold mechanical empathy devoid entity such as AI to save us, you will not be in for good surprise.

[@_knitch]

I understand where you're coming from and have felt those feelings myself. But to read TBK and only walk away with Ivan's ideas is a bit like learning the setup of a joke but discarding the punchline.

[@rafaelmendez49]

Best summary….keep up your work

[@tzmythos]

The problem of evil has nothing to do with the existence or non-existence of God. It is a human problem, centred in our own attitudes and actions, and try as we will, we cannot distance ourselves from evil by looking for other culprits, or blaming God. We must look to ourselves, to our sick societies, to our silence in the face of evil that allows it to thrive, and to our inner weakness, greed, apathy, lack of compassion. But what many of these discussions fail to do is distinguish between evil and suffering. Though they so often come together, we can suffer immensely without the participation of evil, and evil can (and does) act without seeming to cause suffering. Indeed, much of what we as a society enjoy and want more of is based on evil, and we do not suffer from it ... though in actuality, we do, not even realising it. Suffering is part of being alive. Where there is life, the is pain, and as difficult as it may be to endure, pain and suffering are part of the wholeness of being. We cannot erase ever the possibility and reality of suffering. But we can dispel evil. We can dispel it within ourselves, and we can dispel it from our societies. Difficult? Oh yes! It requires looking deep within ourselves and recognising our own acceptance of evil, our implicit cooperation with it, and our own propensity for evil. Then the hard inner work of rooting it out, and at the same time, intentionally and persistently cultivating and strengthening what is good in us. It doesn't matter if you seek the support of a higher power, believe in God, or know that you are a spiritual being as I do. What counts is your willingness to nurture the very best in you, and dispel the worst, and your determination to speak up against social evil wherever you see it, and loudly refuse to be complicit or accept its rewards.

[@silverskid]

Tosca Z The problem of evil, as it is discussed in this video and D's novel, is clearly ensconced in a Christian context and has (literally) everything to do with God. In a different context (like Theravada Buddhism) there would be no "problem of evil" as stated here but only a problem of ignorance regarding the dhamma (or way of salvation). (Btw, that is also Plato/Socrates position).What appears as evil in ignorance is grasped as the consequence of misguided action from the standpoint of wisdom. In a secular context, the word "evil" takes on a variety of meanings (some of them contradictory, as when well meaning sexologists were dubbed "evil" by more puritanically minded citizens during the sexual revolution). The point is that without qualification or context evil is ambiguous, much less "the problem" of evil. Was the USSR really an "evil empire?" Is the use of torture in the name of security necessarily evil? Is capital punishment evil? Catastrophic pollution without regard to the future generations? Prostitution? Cloning human beings in the future?Are all these things even "bad" morally speaking, or does that require an argument in each case (communism, cloning, various street crimes, torture et al.)? Within D's novel these problems are avoided because there is a clear conception of evil as that which contradicts the will of God as manifest in the Gospel and the lives of saints. D rejects the kind of individualism most secularized people take for granted as "good." In sum, any meaningful or intelligible discussion of these matters has to start with some fairly clear principles and definitions since in a big and complex world one person's meat is another's poison.

[@lordosmhtsaras]

If evil didn't exist then God wouldn't exist either,says Dostoevsky.Meaning;there would be a world of neccessity,where all things would be above good and evil because of their nature.A world where man could not have an option,a totalitarian world.God exists,says Dostoevsky,because He gives the option of good and evil,He set us free to choose love instead of neccessity,just like the three persons in Him.Father,Son and the Holy spirit is above the common Being.God's Being does not make him good.He is good because God free to love His other hypostaseis,the Son and the Spiri.He does not have to obey in a nature of neccessity.That's what man has to do.To love someone like God.

[@maforo85]

Tosca Z Right !! You are on the right path ! Good and evil is part of life, is the ying yang of life, it is the contrast. Good and evil only exist as a human judgment.

[@charliewest1221]

@@silverskid : Won't you fellas learn to write in paragraphs!

[@JasonJeckers]

@@charliewest1221 - agree, though there should be a question mark at the end of your sentence.

[@TheVThakur]

And to be frank, Ivan's arguments were more convincing, just look at the popularity and debates surrounding 'The Grand Inquisitor'. I have not heard similar discussions going on over Father Zossima's views. Yes, he was holy, saintly, but the burning questions raised by Ivan, they were answered in the most simplistic manner, which I find to be pale in comparison to highly decorative style of argument presented by Ivan.

[@johnnyscifi]

Vikrant Thakur If i remember correctly, Zossima was very much like Dimitri in his younger days

[@Joeonline26]

Wrong. Read more of Dostoevsky, particularly his letters in the time after he'd finished the novel. 'The Grand Inquisitor' is not meant to be read as a debate, it simply presents Ivan's point of view on religion with smaller interjections from Alyosha, its not a debate. If you must think of it as a debate, however, then Dostoevsky provides his rebuttal to Ivan's grand inquisitor later in the novel and I think you'll find it more than surpasses the arguments put forward in the grand inquisitor. So no, contrary to what you may think, Dostoevsky's writings on Zossima shortly before the characters death is not his response to Ivan's grand inquisitor argument. His (Dostoevsky) rebuttal to the grand inquisitor is much bigger than simply Zossima's views

[@g4merboie789]

That's not true. What dostoevsky was trying to convey is that you cannot justify evil with words. It's not justifiable, its not about the argument itself, it's not about proving your opponent wrong. That's why the kiss is so important, its put the ideas of religion into an action. You cannot explain god with thought or words, only with actions

[@charliewest1221]

@@Joeonline26 : I would venture to suggest that one reads the "Grand Inquisitor" in conjunction with the chapter in which the devil visits Ivan. This exercise, I believe, opens up interesting avenues of meaning.

[@Joeonline26]

@@charliewest1221 Exactly. That's a good suggestion, one I probably should've mentioned in my previous comment

[@marcusfunk2618]

i'm almost half way through this book, i have never read anything like this before. i feel like the book is beyond me in that my understanding of his writings to their fullest is very hard for me to do. i do not feel like i am getting the whole point of it, and getting the most out of it. That being said i can not put it down, its so good, so much so that i will probably read it again as soon as i have finished or shortly thereafter.

[@sergantDon]

It's probably a good idea. Dostoevsky isn't easy to understand at all. He makes you think, because he goes into the deepest parts of human soul. My favorite out of all his books, with The Idiot being the second .

[@paulscottfilms]

It also depends on your age possibly. I am just on Brothers Karamazov now, I am 73. I would not have had the patience in my forties, and in my fifties, I drank too much.

[@bobtaylor170]

@@paulscottfilms, it's good to know there's hope for me at 68. I've had severe health problems since childhood and have never had the energy for The Brothers Karamazov.

[@politicallycorrectredskin796]

I would advise people to not worry too much about getting everything in Karamazov. A buddy i mine is an FD translator, and he doesn't get everything either. Almost every page can be read many times with a different focus, and it will still make sense but be read quite different. 1: Narrative. Who does what, when and where. Most people will be mostly on this level for a while. 2: Subective. The narrator is not necessarily to be trusted. FD liked to lie a little in his novels to challenge his readers. 3: Metaphorical. Two general types: religious and emotional. They sometimes blend together, but if you find some outliers you'll see what I mean. Some are very clearly one or the other. 4: Political and historical. You don't have to know anything about 1880s Russian society and the world geopolitics of that time, but it helps. 5: Sarcasm, irony, psychology etc. Some overlap with the first point, but includes characters as well. Every line can and should be interpreted. 6: Allegorical. The characters as representations. Fjodor is Russia/humanity/God, Ivan, Dmitri and Alexej are three parts of the whole; the wild, sinful and untamed, the atheist intellect, the religious mysticism, or eros, logos, deus, all three prevalent in Russian history. The way you confirm this is by realizing Ivan killing God/Russia and basically framing Dmitri is perfectly in line with FD's political views post-Siberia. That is what he thought intellectuals and radicals had done. Anyway, good luck catching everyting in this one. I've read it five times at different stages of life, and it's different every time. The best book I've read, but not exactly a breezy read.

[@TheVThakur]

Or, maybe Alyosha's silence was the answer for all the questions, just like Christ in 'The Grand Inquisitor'. But Ivan's views are significant and it really hits you, while Alyosha might have had something to say in the next book which never happened for Dostoevsky because of his unfortunate death. But, ultimately, its great. All the discussions, doubts, chaos, silence and love are necessary to find oneself. Ivan didn't find the answers and he went insane, while Alyosha found it quite naturally in self and universal love.

[@johnnyscifi]

Vikrant Thakur It was Alyosha embracing his brother, that acted as words, like Jesus to the Inquisitor. Id love nothing more than to be an Alyosha in this world, but unfortunately, im an Ivan

[@floridtv]

The Brothers Karamazov was meant to pose the problem, he died before he could write the next novel which would contain the answer.

[@shantanubasu9289]

My God exists within me. I try to remember how much Christ suffered and what his body and spirit do, after his body gave away to extreme suffering. We must find all kind of methods to overcome our suffering

[@shantanubasu9289]

If we fail to survive, others, will find a meaning and introduce a solution, which might help many.

[@loualcaraz6497]

The host at 9:10 does a better job of explaining Dostoyevsky in 1 minute than the expert does in 12.

[@ComradeAgopian]

Dostoevsky was Russian Orthodox to his very core .

[@johnnyscifi]

ComradeAgopian He most definitely was, a Christian with a vast consciousness, but a devout Christian til the end

[@paulscottfilms]

Yes. It was good for me to learn to understand what orthodoxy is, and means .

[@DeDona1]

@@johnnyscifi but he also loved his vices which was part of his struggle. Same as CS Lewis. Don't sugar coat it.

[@ElonMuskrat-my8jy]

​@@DeDona1He fought against them and eventually won. He died at peace with God. Have you seen his face on his deathbed? That is proof.

[@donaldreed2351]

Better to die in bed, believing, than dying in the howling infinite of reality?

[@andrewmarkmusic]

It’s amazing how much gnostic and Marcionite ideas have been scrubbed and cancelled throughout history. It’s within books like The Apocryphon Of John where the problem of evil is explained.

[@syourke3]

The problem of Evil is the greatest problem for Christianity and for all monotheistic religions. No matter how one bobs and weaves, one cannot avoid the ultimate fact that an all powerful and all good God is inconsitent with a world full of suffering and evil. Nor does the "free will" argument explain evil and let God off the hook. Nor does the Devil because Lucifer was a fallen angel and thus created by God. No, if there is only one God who created the universe and everything in it, there is no escaping the conclusion that God is responsible for the existence of Evil. Manicheans had a more logically consistent theory - two gods, one supremely good, the other supremely evil, who are engaged in struggle in the world.

[@boyanaly6511]

There is nothing evil in this world except the evil of doing injustice to your fellow man...the whole law of nature requires destruction and death for it to evolve and become better.... God in his natural law is able to create something good out of something evil.. When you die, your body becomes food for the plants and plants will become food for the animals and animals will become food for humanity...Even in things which you label as misfortune is actually a hidden fortune waiting to be unwrapped...Even our insignificant Death becomes a benevolent and generous thing in the universe if you look at it in a different perspective... ..The only evil in the world is when you go against your nature and turn into evil and unjust person... Because you lose your humanity... you lose your human nature...

[@dharmani_youtube]

Idk who are Manicheans as I write this comment but sounds a lot like Zorastrians from your description.

[@johnnyscifi]

If Dostoyevsky were only born 100 years later. After two world wars. Ivan's claim against god wouldve been absolute!!

[@frederickanderson1860]

The human mind can adjust too many situations. In combat situation its a shock to see human carnage and destruction, yet many adapted too it.

[@JoeChrisMorris]

Ivans no atheist, he very much believes in God! its Gods world he has a serious problem with, in particular the suffering of children in it

[@izzulakmal8738]

maybe people did believe in god since birth but people grow up doesn't believe god is good, but what's next? most likely they will deny god exist so they can pretend they don't live under a tyrant which they can't kill. so they deny god to kill god spiritually (which seems understandable for me) but to do such thing doesn't change the the fact that the world still horrible. that realization just make their soul even worse because now they just suffered but have no one to blame or ask mercy from. which might goes to the next stage which is to blame everyone else for their suffering because they sure it wasn't their fault the world sucks. so that just one of my reason to believe in god (but that just my opinion)🤗

[@celestilbernas972]

It's the second book I read next to Crime and Punishment...

[@TheVThakur]

Maybe, Dostoevsky failed somehow to depict the other side of the argument as convincingly as Ivan's arguments.

[@haniffhaniff5764]

Vikrant Thakur may be there is none?

[@ElonMuskrat-my8jy]

The answer is found in the person and teachings of Elder Zosima.

[@SamSung-nf6tr]

Is suffering evil? That is the question.

[@josiah1851]

If there is a god yes. If there isnt, no

[@izzulakmal8738]

sometimes?

[@aaronberendes4183]

Only Eastern philosophy, or Eastern Metaphysics can answer these vexing questions in a in a logical and satisfying manner. Without a proper understanding of the doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation, the suffering and apparent injustice of life will never be solved.

[@bobpolo2964]

The word of God is better

[@prashantkumarparmanu]

karma concept is very tricky just as a puzzle and self-contradictory paradox ..... no truth is here

[@aurilcia]

I'd say it's the opposite. Karma and Reincarnation is only a surface answer. Christian theology, and more specifically, Orthodox Christianity is way more logical and satisfying.

[@AngusRockford]

I'm sure we can all agree that the existential problem of evil is only exacerbated by that dude's gnarly sandals.

[@dmtdreamz7706]

it was dark you know it was hole dark but I felt there there was this mesh mesh is what I can call you know like a like a mesh coming on over me and and behind that mesh I mean this is really weird but you can understand me because you have felt different kind of stuff behind that mesh there was lots of people there I could hear like roaring roaring lots of people behind the mesh and and when I was thinking what I was thinking is when that mesh caught me I'm gonna die and that's what I was thinking and when the mesh was about to cut me like it was a dream you know when you're on a dream and you're about to die you wake up so the mesh was about to to call me and I was about to die and my friend was waking me up hey my friend was Hey Dude what's up man when it was like and I couldn't I couldn't go to sleep that night and then when I think about it it's it's really weird so I hate it like I'm sitting here and I hate it and I'm like I don't I don't feel anything and I go to sit back and I was like oh I got cursed and like I hear an echo I hear the last word echo cuz I'm starting to slip out and all of a sudden like I'm falling I'm falling that I lean like this flower babe all the flowers are like the highlighter colors like neon yellow blue like they're like very bright and they're like waving like this and I'm like in the middle of them and I'm thinking it's cool at first I'm like this is cool and then like I'm waving like this but I can feel like my friend calling my name and she's freaking out and they're telling her not to shake me because I'm what make me have a bad true I can hear them saying this and I could hear her being paranoid so it makes me want to come up out of it so then I'm like grabbing the flowers trying to like pull myself up out of the hole but then like I'll like slide back down and it first is funny but then I look like okay I don't want to be here anymore harder trying to grab by holding him I can't so everything just leaves everything just leaves just like black everything is black nothing's around me no light it's like I'm in a black room like the spotlight like I'm about to sink or something and I hear I can hear it I can see I'm scared at this point I made up in my mind finally went too far and tried to roll see I thought Steve because I didn't feel anything I wasn't hurt anymore and like I had I had got to the point where I was making agreements with God like okay God if you get me back to where I come from I promise I won't try anything else I took a really big big rip and that's when like every reality was like really like they're just tearing apart kind of like a zipper I've had a zipper effect I know people have talked about that before but then I started getting like voices like singing to me and they were singing like you know you know that just a small world song at Disneyland so it was like that but they were singing uh like oh you're trapped here forever you [Â __Â ] up really bad there's no going back you know and it was like a toy factory so I was being like moved to like a like a factory full of Lego people so the toy people were like basically taking me apart folding me into a box and then unfolding me it was like really like vivid just being slammed into the ground and torn apart and put back together kind of thing complete you go deaf no no record election of my prior life for my or ever escaping from this like it was just now and like this is my reality now and it's gonna be that way for that forever I was being pulled out of reality by like this very powerful figure almost like a God in a way he took me out with his like fingers I couldn't see him he was behind me but he pulled me out and he told me he's like you know I need to show you something because I respected at that time I knew the power had so I told I was like oh well I'm gonna go into it and ten and respect so he pulled me out and he told me he's like I'm gonna show you something and it was a huge infinite number of other realities and bubbles little bubbles of other realities but like ours but certain things were altered about them so instead of us having two eyes we'd have three eyes and just all alternate realities but just infinite number of these alternate realities and he put me in the different ones so I live different lives I'd lived the life of a guy with like a blue hat at a soccer game watching a kid play soccer and then I live like another life with a mom and her kid in a store so he'd put me in these different realities and then he told me he pulled me out but he pulled me back down where I could see the infinite number and he told me is like this is not a joke you don't know what you're messing with so don't do this ever again I like turned into the sweet I remember being this seat and it's like I could feel the weight of myself sitting on me there's any sense it's like Bradley gravity felt like it changed and I couldn't move it was so weird and I I don't like it just got a little bit worse than awful bit worse but then the next time I thought that it was dark it was evening so the lighting was pretty bad and I think that's why I did it but like I thought my legs fell off like I couldn't see them in front of me I feel like everyone I've talked to us it's like they've become whatever they've been around that's what happened for me I became the car seat I felt like I was gonna be the car seat forever I felt like I was like I was trying to remember what it was like to be a person and I physically couldn't do it like how do I I didn't know how to make it stop and then when it when I was out of it I asked my friends like who was he doing he said nothing so I just sat there like stone-faced I didn't react didn't kind of guess because I thought it was a freaking seat like I didn't think I could actually move I held it in in the second I blew it out it hit me like a train yeah it was crazy so it hit me and I'm just sitting in the corner of the room looking at them and as I'm looking at those people literally time froze like it felt to me like time as we know it froze and I'm just sitting there and it's like I'm stuck in this headspace the scary weird head space my body felt like 100% numb 100% numb and I was stuck in this headspace and felt like time froze and I'm sitting there looking at them and as I'm looking at them say your vision is like a piece of paper and then you take scissors and cut the paper that was like my vision it looked like someone took scissors and cut my vision in half like that probably sounds totally crazy to you I hope that makes sense but uh my vision chopped in half like with scissors like it was ripped and then I took my arm and I thought that was weird so I grabbed what I was seeing and I can move what I was seeing like my whole vision I could move it with my arm it was the freakiest [Â __Â ] ever bro it was scary man it scared me man it was traumatic and then I'm just moving my my vision back and forth with my hand and I'm like what the hell did I just do and all of a sudden it's like gravity turned sideways so instead of the gravity pulling me down towards the Earth the gravity pulled me to the side like the sideways to the right of me so all of a sudden after that vision thing happened I fly to the right I fall on the carpet sideways and it was like I was having a dream but I was awake so I fell on the ground and I closed my eyes because he was like freaking me out so much and as I closed my eyes in my head I could see a train and it's like I was standing at the edge of the train tracks leaning my head out and the train kept hitting my head over and over and over and over it was scary [Â __Â ] man it was scary man once I held it in at some point my vision actually begin to vibrate and it like looked like cell division like my vision split into like diamond shapes which were like put together and then there were like a million diamond shapes which all were made up out of me and it looked very very strange like I didn't have any actual view I just my senses were completely shut off that was just me in an empty room just like a million times and I was bald at that point and I had this fight right there were pants so I looked a little bit like Buddha and then I just felt like I was Buddha reincarnated like a million times and then it just zoomed back on is the single version of me which was in the middle my senses just completely disappeared and it just everything zoomed in and Changi there was only the colour where there was nothing else but the colour it then it slowly began zooming out and I realized that I wasn't the colour wet anymore but I was the letter S from the alphabet and then like my view shifted to the site and I saw an endless line of Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia and that then turned and turned into like a circle so it was like a circle made out of Sylvia I just just the word not like anything else and then that circle shifted like the line shifted to a circle the circle shifted into like a full sphere and then it zoomed back out again and the sphere was apparently inside my head

[@johnnyquest6115]

So what these guys are saying is that you have to accept evil to accept God. That is really fucked up! As an atheist I ain't being "self-righteous" when I'm repulsed by evil, I'm being practical so we humans can do our best to reduce evil to the lowest level instead of waiting for God to do it for us. That's not too much to ask, is it?

[@Manfred-nj8vz]

If I am allowed to express my personal opinion: Dostoevsky is one of the most overestimated writers of all time. Really D.? What can one say about Alyosha's theological discussions with a 13 year old boy? What can one think about the ending of Brothers Karamazov, where Alyosha together with some pre-adolescent children (!) are all together cheerfully happy as they celebrate... the coming of the Last Judgement Day!... Seriously? Is this suppose to be good literature? Even a believer reader should have enormous problems with such a literary, such an artistic solution, which is not. In Dostoevsky we find always the following concept: All "good" guys get to be rewarded and all "bad" guys either commit suicide or go to prison or get crazy. Ivan Karamazov, the one that could have saved Dmitri's - his brother's - life, gets crazy one day before the court! And why? Because he is the "atheist" of the novel! Is there anything more p r e d i c t a b l e in whole literature? Do we want our literature to be predictable in that silly way? How can a healthy human mind accept this forced and totally disgusting solution? And this novel is considered by many, many, many "serious" people that read (do they actually read?) serious literature as "the best novel ever written". H o l y cow! After having read Dostoevsky's works again and again I have come to this conclusion: He is the most horrible, boring and kitsch author out there. Not even his language has anything to offer! And although I don't agree with every single critical opinion Nabokov expressed for a number of authors, I totally agree with his opinion on Dostoevsky. There are so many writers out there that are... writers! D. is at least mediocre. And please, for all of you reading this comment and thinking that I am crazy: Read D. anew; don't let yourself repeating "what the world is saying". Shape your own opinion.

[@jeff61177]

7:25 .....if you get to a point of profound moral develop and love of God....so much so that you loose all morality and only care about defending the idea of your profound lie that is your God.

[@MrDoremouse]

Breaking news: A manuscript by Fyodor Dostoevsky has been found in a Russian library. His one and only attempt at humour, it bears the title, ''The Chuckle Brothers''.

[@thedativecase9733]

I think you mean "The Brothers Chuckle"

[@natashazheltova1412]

Dostoyevsky has many humorous works, by the way. But among his "big 5" only "Demons" are quite humorous. Ironically, it's also Dostoyevsky's darkest novel.

[@kresimirvunic5589]

@@natashazheltova1412 There is humour in Dostoevsky but a very dark Slavic humour. Certain moments when characters in Dostoevsky express rage are quite funny, yet his homour is rarely entirely obvious. I actually found parts of 'the Idiot' quite funny, but it is a humour very much informed by pain.

[@natashazheltova1412]

@@kresimirvunic5589 yeah, I know what you're talking about. For example, in "The Idiot" there are also some funny moments with old general Ivolgin, even though it's quite a tragic character.

[@mjakotka]

Dostoyevsky is a very funny writer. This side of his work can undoubtedly be lost in translation.

[@ransomcoates546]

A discalced Carmelite?

[@alexsveles343]

Creation of a totalitarian state as nietsche tought is certainly not a solution

[@alexsveles343]

What tha hell are they talking abou,..,suffering is a good thing…it helps us accomplish great deeds,Dostoyevsky said that,,,someone who wants to be great without having to suffer first is a mere entitled narcissist

[@epenies]

I can't taker this man seriously wearing those sandals.

[@TheVThakur]

Sorry, but these are just shallow answers.

[@thecountofmontecristo57]

The Answer is simple: Free Will. This world is what mankind has made of it. We are imperfect, so is the world we build.

[@MBarberfan4life]

Matthew Harrison That might very well solve the logical problem of evil, but I don't see how that solves the evidential problem of evil.

[@vitocorleone3764]

Cause free will is what caused hurricane Katrina that killed people I know

[@phillipdominy2764]

free will is correct! All the people in n,o, choose to live in an below sea level- hurricane prone environment. no one should have been surprised.

[@vitocorleone3764]

phillip dominy so good, god loving people died because they committed the crime of choosing to live in a place where hurricanes are prone to happen even though a hurricane that bad had never happened in LA's recorded history? So please pick a spot on earth where you are in no danger of natural disaster ever. You are a heartless man and whatever god you claim to know is the truth is not worth worshipping

[@phillipdominy2764]

you misunderstand. we all will die at some point. often our choices dictate the manner of death. how am i heartless? i wasn't critical of anyone-just pointing out the truth. you are now the judge of people? how do you know whats in my heart? I actually went there to help rebuild the place. can you say the same?

[@rami-sep]

very profound .. thank you

[@treid100182]

Calling Dostoevsky an "atheist" is stupid because Dostoevsky cannot be defined by any one word. Nevertheless, lets not discourage dostoevsky enthusiasts to stop posting their discussions. We are all dostoevsky... we are all one.

[@michaelorleans5396]

His shoes..his shoes..omg

[@paulscottfilms]

I think that God is used by us for comfort. if we pretend to believe God, it gives hope that God may intervene if necessary and indeed certainly at our death

[@cheeseandonions9558]

Also, it's perfectly possible be a moral man and wear socks with your sandals...

[@retsehcmaharg]

Don't these guys own suits? Show us some respect!

[@laurencewaring8039]

The Bible and wider Christianity can not sufficiently explain suffering by the hands of evil. End of conversation.

[@nikokapanen82]

Correct. All theologians and philosophers through out the human history tried to explain why there is so much evil and every single one of them failed. It is simply unanswerable problem at this time of human life. Us, Christians are relatively fine with it, because we have the Holy Spirit calming us down and explaining that the time is coming when we will hear and understand the full explanation to this question of all questions, why so much evil in the world. I am convinced that not one second of any suffering will be without reason for it to happen, all suffering what ever happened and will happen, happens to accomplish the eventual condition of the universe where perfect order, peace and joy exist forever.

Dostoevsky was an atheist only in your dreams ! read his books instead of parroting things about which you have no knowledge.

[@anarchic_ramblings]

Way to dress up! Well done. It's not everyday one is interviewed on film.

[@a7r7s38]

Big influence on his speech.

[@floridtv]

The Brothers Karamazov was meant to pose the problem, he died before he could write the next novel which would contain the answer. These guys are so dim.

[@soccom8341576]

God is UNCONSCIOUS. He does what he does, including the worst suffering and atrocities. He doesn't bless you or anything. Give up the naive picture of a bearded father in the sky.

[@jarrodyuki7081]

philosophy is WAY TOO DANGEROUS!!!!!!

[@jarrodyuki7081]

nietsche>>>>>>>>fyodor!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@capturedbyannamarie]

Read cs Lewis

[@gudduboy]

Study Quran. You will find that Allah made this earth for human being to see who is best in good deeds when human being are free to judge or believe of anything. He does not force us or he does not create harmony on earth. However, it is the human who try to create harmony by themselves and compete with each other to do good deeds.This life is a place of exam. we, human being are not programmed at all. we r free. Allah knows everything but he does not interfere to human action.

[@user-di5rm9ee1p]

Go and study quran, Dostoyevsky is too complicated for you!

[@ppjjazz8885]

What does this have to do with anything? Sorry, but I can't take seriously the same book that glorifies sex with children and sees underage girls as celestial virgins.

[@djneonfrequency]

I am the son of god

[@bobtaylor170]

Ah, the Lord Shane Sunshine. We've been waiting for you. Right this way up that hill over there, Lord!

[@niemand262]

I have to wonder if people like this are the reason right leaning folk hold academics in such poor regard. this "philosopher" from Indiana is an embarrassment to the word philosophy. People say "I can't see X", so he reminds them "yes, but God can make you see X". This was his argument for how people should come to accept that suffering in the world is compatible with god. He has used his conclusion as a premise. This argument wouldn't pass a 100 level philosophy course.

[@FlowLai]

Well that was a load of verbal diarrhea. If you don't keep your own presuppositions in check before you engage with other ideas, you won't hear them. The speaker didn't even try to engage with the problem of evil. And neither did Ivan for that matter. Both the speaker and Ivan were talking about psychological or emotional responses to the problem of evil, Ivan offering one conclusion and the speaker saying how there can be many more. Plantinga has already shown that the problem of evil can't "prove" that God doesn't exist. There are loads of other philosophers/theologians offering a variety of complementary explanations. They might not convince everyone, but the work has been done.

[@celestilbernas972]

It's the second book I read next to Crime and Punishment...

[@stevendurham9996]

Wow. Great job.