Evil And The Existence Of God

Before we can dive into the problem of evil, we must define a term. Whenever the word “God” is used in this paper, it is referring to the classical theistic conception of God. In this view of God, God is that, “than which nothing greater can be conceived” in your mind. Any attributes or qualities that make a being great, God has to the maximum. This means that, among many other qualities, God is benevolent(all good), omnipotent(all powerful), and omniscient(all knowing). Furthermore, God is the creator of the universe and is personally connected to the human race.

God had to allow the possibility of evil, because if there were no such possibility man would not be free to choose good over evil. If there were no evil and suffering humans would always follow God's law because there would be no difficulties in doing so. The evils in this world are required by a God of love who seeks the development of his free creatures from their original innocence into fully mature spiritual beings. In other words, we human beings learn to be morally mature enough to grow closer to God. Evil can lead us to the final goodness and perfection. In this regard, God is partly responsible for the evil in the world.

The notion of God redeeming evil and or suffering is the motivation behind this concept. God allows evil so that we as humans receive a moral message from the evil/suffering that occurs in our lives. Good cannot exist without evil and vice versa. Good and Evil have become interdependent one each other. If God stands for what is all good and the Devil stands for all that is evil, together unwilling working together but against each other at the same time. These forces can’t be controlled by humans. So, if God stands for all things good, why does he allow suffering? To test us? To keep the balance? To encourage us? Why not all the above? No one knows for sure but one can argue that all those points can be attributed to the allowance of evil. How else would we learn the importance of have the forces fighting for you and against

In the course of this essay I will argue that evil is not compatible with the existence of god. This means that evil and God cannot coexist because if god were present, the existence of evil would contradict all that god is believed to be. Abrahamic religions insist that God both created the world and that he preserves and maintains it. Christianity claims that God is all knowing and is boundless in his abilities. Religions claim that God is benevolent, and only wants the best for humanity and the universe, as his creations. If all of the above statements be true, then it is hard to understand why god would allow evil to thrive right from the beginning of time.

One of the oldest dilemmas in philosophy is also one of the greatest threats to Christian theology. The problem of evil simultaneously perplexes the world’s greatest minds and yet remains palpably close to the hearts of the most common people. If God is good, then why is there evil? The following essay describes the problem of evil in relation to God, examines Christian responses to the problem, and concludes the existence of God and the existence of evil are fully compatible.

This is a significant problem to the revealed religions because they believe in a wholly good and omnipotent God. Why then, would this God allow evil? In this paper, I will provide, explain, and evaluate St. Augustine of Hippo’s

Furthermore, god is supposedly full of wisdom, his wisdom is infinite, yet the world lacks heavily. One way this can be viewed is with nature, how nature scarcely tends to the need of human and animal happiness. One question that one may ask is can and is god able to prevent evil? Does he have what it takes; maybe god is impotent (lacking power, strength). According

John Hick discusses in his essay The Problem of Evil, the objections to the belief in the existence of God is the presence of evil in the world. He begins by posing the traditional challenge to theism in the form of the dilemma: That if God was perfectly loving, he must wish to abolish evil, and being all powerful, is able to perfectly do so as he will its. He then proceeds to present some views regarding this issue, giving insights from three point of views, that of contemporary Christian Science, the Boston Personalist school, and the theologian Augustine. The first opinion takes evil as an illusion, as a construct of the human mind. The second confers upon God finity, God as a struggling ruler,

The problem of evil as suffering is a problem of what to do with the obstacle for the believer but also an obstacle to unbeliever to converge because they do not think it harmonising. In contradiction to compatibility, an atheist often suggested that the present of evil entails the absence of God. Atheist argued, if God exists, then as an omnipotent, he is able to prevent the evil occurrence. For omniscient, it implies under any circumstances evil will occur if he does not act. Then, being perfectly good, he will prevent its occurrence and so evil will not exist. Based on this above proclamation, the existence of God does not compatible with the evil of whatever kind. However, theists response to this logical problem of evil by an atheist is that necessarily perfectly good being, foreseeing the occurrence of evil and able to prevent it, will prevent evil. The essay will first, define what evil is according to Swinburne as one of the philosopher of religion, Second, Swinburne four categories of evil will be discussed (Physical evil, mental evil, state evil, moral evil). Third, Phillip logical and existential problem evil will be discussed through. How will all these above assertions be a problem to those that and does not believe in God.

evil creates or brings good. Yet, if there was only good we would not have to

The Problem of Evil The problem of evil when describing a just and good god is one of philosophy’s most controversial areas of concern. Why is there evil? Evil comes in many forms and theist and atheist agree that the world is full of evil. Theists tend to believe that God is an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent god.

Instead, the evil we know is merely the product of a limited, human perspective on “the true character of God’s creative bounty” (Cahn, 252). In this theory, there is only one element: God’s benevolence. The “evil” that humans perceive is not the opposite of God’s will, but simply the absence of his will. This theory is similar to the idea that “darkness is only the absence of light,” or “badness is only the absence of goodness.” If this reasoning is correct, then God could not have created evil because evil does not actually exist.

At its core, the problem of evil is based on the inconsistency between the reality of what is happening in our world, and what is expected. The expectation is that our world should be exclusively good given the fact that God is the pinnacle of perfection, and God created our

From shooting to bombings to rape or just simply stealing someones lunch money, it is evident that evil does in fact exist. But where does it come from? In The Bible Ezekiel 28:11-19 states that evil derived from the fall of Lucifer as a result of pride. The Bible acknowledges the existence of evil. This leads to one of the biggest road blocks in christianity, how can a God who is omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent allow evil to exists? It is a common misconception that the existence of evil limits God from being all three things at once. A God who is all loving, all knowing, and all powerful can exist in a world full of evil because evil can be used for a greater good, God has the right to inflict harm, and we are given free will.

For example, in the Biblical story of Joseph, Joseph is only able to save his family and Egypt because of the fact he endured suffering. This suffering was in fact thus for the benefit of everyone, even though Joseph only received more and more