The Problem of Evil

Why does God allow evil?

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• This problem questions God's omnipotence, omniscience and goodness.
• People argue that because religious believers understand God to have these qualities, God cannot exist at all.
• One would expect a perfect God to create a perfect world, however it seems that a perfect God has created people who cause suffering.
• "Either God cannot abolish evil or He will not. If He cannot, then he is not all-powerful, if He will not, then He is not all good."
• - Augustine

Natural Evil

• Definition: suffering caused by the forces of nature, beyond human control.
• A few examples are;
• Storm Desmond and the flooding in Cumbria
• Hurricane Katrina
• The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
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• Bildunterschrift: John Hick described evil as 'physical pain, mental suffering and moral wickedness.'

Moral Evil

• Definition: suffering caused by human actions, man-made evil
• A few examples are:
• The Paris Attacks
• 9/11
• The Soham Murders
• The genocide in Rwanda
• The Holocaust
• Hiroshima
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• Bildunterschrift: The bombings in Hiroshima

Is God really good if there is evil?

• https://www.facebook.com/1mill.creationist/videos/1092065754157930/ (Einbetten)

Is God really good if there is evil?

• It says in Genesis 1:31: 'And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good.'
• If God made the universe to be good, then the presence of evil should be very disturbing. How can our universe be good, with the evil of Auschwitz?
• This question was originally tackled by the Greek philosopher 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 he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
• This problem was later tackled by David Hume and J.L Mackie.
• Mackie argues that God should stop evil because he has power over everything.
• The amount of suffering is also unjust. A little pain is good for us (e.g. child learns that fire is harmful) but such suffering as in Auschwitz can never occur with an all-good God.
• 
• Bildunterschrift: The Inconsistent Triad solves the problem of evil by saying that evil cannot exist at the same time as God being omnipotent and omnibenevolent. Possible solutions: God isn't good/omnibenevolent, God isn't omniscient, God isn't aware of evil (PM), God isn't omnipotent, evil doesn't exist, and we are misguided in our interpretation of events. Hume's solution: Because evil is visibly existent, and only one of the theistic attributes of God can exist at one time, He concluded that a theistic God cannot exist.

The Free Will Defence

• Simply put, a theodicy is a justification of God. It is an attempt by philosophers to reconcile the goodness and omnipotence of God with the existence of evil.
• Philosophers like Augustine and Irenaeus both wrote theodicies concerning free will and the existence of evil.
• Their views form the 'Free Will Defence' argument, where God had to choose between a world with free will and evil, or a world without either. They both reason that evil is a result of human action, and we cannot truly have free will if we cannot choose evil.
• The Free Will Defence argument helps to solve the problem of evil because it argues that God has to allow evil in order to be just, as it is an important part of free will.
• It also says that the blame for evil shouldn't fall on God, as it is a result of our wrongdoing.
• What if there was no free will?
• There would be less chance of survival, as humans cannot choose to satisfy basic needs like eating.
• There must be someone controlling humans.
• Would we really be content with this sort of life? Someone people argue that we wouldn't know of anything else, so wouldn't want anything else, however, it could also be said that evil challenges us to grow and develop as people. (Irenaeus' theodicy)
• Our world with free will and evil
• Because aren't perfect, evil is present as a result of immoral choices.
• It has to exist to have a real relationship with an omnibenevolent God, as having a relationship is a choice. Humans can choose whether to turn away from God or get closer.

Swinburne on Free Will Defence

• Supporters of the Free Will Defence argument, like Richard Swinburne, argue that God cannot intervene to stop human suffering. This is because this would take away human responsibility towards the consequences of their actions.
• Death is necessary because it forces responsibility towards consequences onto humans.
• Natural evil is also necessary to facilitate death.
• "If there is always a second chance, then there is no risk."
• - Swinburne
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• Bildunterschrift: Richard Swinburne

Criticism of the Free Will Defence

• J.L Mackie argues that if God is truly omnipotent, he could have created beings who choose freely what is good.
• He says that it is possible to predict a human's behaviour simply by their character, and this often a reliable way of determining their actions. Mackie asks why God didn't create humans with a character that meant they would do good actions always.
• Dostoevsky also put forward some criticism of the Free Will Defence in his book, The Brothers Karamazov.
• He says that the suffering of innocent children is too high a price to pay for free will. He wants God to take it back, because he feels he cannot cope with the responsibility.
• Is God justified in allowing people to misuse their free will? Hick says that if we say that some evils are too great than we start going down a scale of evils until the slightest evil is unacceptable. (e.g. if cancer is too severe, then what about flu or a headache?)

The Process Theodicy

• To reconcile the existence of God with the prevalence of evil, process theologians such as David Griffin have changed the definition of God.
• They say that God did not create the world, because he is not all powerful.
• They argue he works within the forces of nature and is limited by physics.
• Ultimately, he is still all-good, as he works in nature to maximize the amount of good over evil.
• Process theologians have also identified two types of good and evil. Good is harmony and intensity and evil is discord and triviality.
• God tries to ensure the harmony and intensity in the world, as he sees human life as worthwhile.
• The process theodicy expresses a panentheist view of of God.
• God and the world are linked, so that He suffers with His creation.
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Aquinas on Evil

• Aquinas presented an argument that stated that the existence of God is logically impossible in the face of the existence of evil, and then set out to prove this position to be false.
• As Aquinas defined God as infinitely good, and the existence of evil constitutes a challenge to the existence of such a God. Even the smallest amount of evil removes the possibility of infinite goodness.
• His argument stands that if we accept that God is infinitely good, we use the word 'good' in the same way to describe humanity.
• Aquinas was an Aristotelian, because he believed that goodness was wrapped up in cause and purpose.
• e.g.) A good knife is one that cuts well. This means that things are only good if they achieve their purpose.
• Aquinas' application of Aristotelian causation is the foundation of Roman Catholic morality. It states that every action has a purpose determined by God.
• e.g.) The purpose of sexual acts is to produce children. Any sexual acts that do not have the potential for producing children are therefore immoral.
• Similar to Augustine's theodicy, Aquinas thought that evil was a privation or absence of good.
• There are two Greek words that may be relevant to the debate;
• Hamartia (sin) means to 'fall short of the mark' or to 'fail to achieve potential.
• Metanoia (repentance) means to 'turn around'.
• This means that moral evil could be seen as a failure to achieve potential in the Aristotelian sense or the sense that humans have fallen short of God's intended perfect standard for the world.

What other explanations are there?

• The best people die because there can only be a certain amount of perfection in the world.
• The Augustinian Theodicy
• The Irenaean Theodicy
• Suffering has a positive value. For example, hunger pains make people eat so they continue to live. They may also be a warning to illness. (Pain may be disproportionate to severity of illness e.g. toothache and cancer)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSUyi4PYt7s (Einbetten)
• Bildunterschrift: The story of Job suggests that evil may be a test of faith.

Folie 12

The Ant and the Carpet Analogy

• Humans do not fully understand the purpose behind suffering.
• Because God's knowledge transcends above ours, it's possible that he allows suffering because he knows more about it than we do.
• Imagine an ant crawling through an Arabian rug.
• The ant thinks the different coloured threads are causing it unnecessary suffering.
• The carpet-maker, who looks from the outside of the ant's world, and has more knowledge about the rug than the ant, knows the purpose of the rug.
• No one can truly know what God has in his plan.
• It is easy to perceive things from a human understanding, but to understand God's plans fully, we must look beyond our finite understanding.
• However, looking beyond human perspective is something only God can do, so we must trust in him and his plan.
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Folie 14

• "For evil to triumph, it is only necessary for good men to do nothing."
• - Edmund Burke
• "Either God cannot abolish evil, or he will not; if he cannot then he is not all powerful; if he will not then he is not all-good."
• - Augustine