The problem of evil and suffering

Key ideas and concepts
1. We always here about terrible evil and suffering all over the world, both moral and natural evil raise difficult questions.
2. Does the occurrence of evil and suffering show that there is no such thing as a loving God? David Hume describes this as "the rock of atheism"
3. Augustine "Either God cannot abolish evil or he will not, if he cannot than he is not all-powerful, if he will not, then he is not all good."
4. Swinburne "There is a problem about why God allows evil, and if the theist does not have a satisfactory answer to, then his belief in God is less than rational."
5. The challenges of the concept of God.
  1. 1.If God created the universe out of nothing, then he is all-powerful.
  2. 2.He could therefore have created a universe that is free from evil and suffering.
  3. 3.God is omniscient and knows everything
  4. 4.He must , therefore, now how to stop evil and suffering.
  5. 5.He is all loving (omnibenevolent) and, therefore, would wish to end all evil and suffering. He would not want his creation to suffer.
  6. 6.Yet evil and suffering exist, so either God is not omnipotent or omnibenevolent, or he does not exist. This is known as the inconsistent triad.
6. God is (a) omnipotent and (b) all loving, however (c) evil exists. This means that either (a) or (b) must be logically wrong. This is the inconsistent triad.
7. Theodicy - literally meaning 'righteous God' is an argument that suggests God is right to allow the existence of evil and suffering because, in some way o another, they are necessary.
8. Epistemic distance - God keeps a distance from humanity in order not to overwhelm. John Hick.
9. Counterfactual hypothesis - if God interferes, then humanity cannot develop. John Hick.
Solutions to the problem
1. Augustinian theodicy
  1. Firstly, this states that God is good and that he created a world that was perfectly good. "God saw all that he had made, and it was good".
  2. Evil is the going wrong of something that is good. Evil did not came from God. It came from decisions made by humans who were given free will, they turned away from God.
  3. This is an example of what Adam and Eve did in Genesis, Augustine believed that God's cration was ruined by human sin and that evil and suffering wee the punishment humans brought upon themselves.
  4. As a result Augustine claimed that God is just and allows suffering to happen as a result of human sin Yet as an all-loving God, he sent his son, Jesus Christ to die so hat those who believed could be saved..
  5. Criticisms of Augustinian theodicy
    1. If God had created a perfect world how could it go wrong? Evil must have originally existed because humans could choose it.
    2. If the world was not perfect, God is therefore to blame for evil and suffering.
    3. In nature, suffering is vital for survival, things must die so others can live.
    4. God is not just in allowing all humans to be punished for Adam and Eve's sin.
    5. The existence of hell, a place of eternal punishment, contradicts the existence of an all loving God. If hell was part of the design then surely it was designed to go wrong anyway?
2. Irenaean theodicy
  1. He claimed that God deliberately created an imperfect world so that humans could develop into perfection.
  2. God created humans with the intention of allowing them to develop. He could not have simply created perfect human beings because this would remove the choice to choose the imperfect.
  3. Perfection could be achieved by humans if they willingly cooperated with God. So God gave humans free will, s humans can freely choose either good or evil.
  4. Therefore God needed to permit evil and suffering to occur.
  5. Criticisms of Irenaean theodicy
    1. Suffering does not always result in positive human development.
    2. Suffering can produce nothing but misery and more suffering.
    3. Why are there such extremes of suffering that can never produce anything good?
  6. Evil and suffering allow humans to develop positive qualities such as love or courage. "We rejoice in or suffering because we know that suffering produces, perseverance, character and hope"
3. Process theodicy
  1. The universe is all about continuous creativity - new things happen all the tie as part of a universal process and from one thing comes a never ending cycle.
  2. Sometimes the process produces god and sometimes evil.
  3. Even God is developing and changing, he is partly distinct and partly part of the universe.
  4. God can feel the effects of evil and suffering because he is part of the universe, he suffers alongside us.
  5. God started the evolutionary process that led to humans, Humans are free to ignore God "God does not refrain from controlling the creature simply because it is better for God to use persuasion"
  6. Criticisms of process theodicy
    1. It denies that God is all powerful.
    2. God is not all loving because he seems to allow suffering and wrongdoing.
    3. Is God truly a being worthy of worship?
    4. Does good outweigh evil?
The free will defence
1. Swinburne explains this world is the logically necessary environment for humans to live in, it provides the freedom to make choices, both good and evil.
2. Without such choices, the world would not be free, God therefore cannot intervene because to do so would interfere with human freedom.
3. "The less he allows men to bring about large scale horrors, the less freedom and responsibility he gives them.
4. The world has natural laws that can cuase suffering. Swinburne describes evil and suffering being necessary because there will always be "victims of the system" because the laws of nature must operate regularly.
5. Criticisms of this view - it dos not sound like the plan of an all-loving God, perhaps God could have done better?
6. Alternative views - monism
  1. Monists believe that the universe is good and that evil and suffering are just an illusion of the mind
  2. We only feel suffering because we cannot see the whole picture., evil must be an illusion because God does not make mistakes.
  3. Criticisms of monism
    1. There is real evil and suffering, God would not allow humanity to suffer as a mere illusion.
    2. If evil were an illusion, why should we bother trying to be good?
    3. We would not know if we were being evil because it is simply an illusion.
Conclusion quote - Swinburne "A generous God will seek to give us great responsibility for ourselves, each other, and the world, and thus a share in his own creative activity of determining what sort of world it will be"

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