How Does Christianity Adequately Explain The Existence Of Good And Evil

Christian’s believe that God created the universe and everything within it. God’s plan for creation was rooted in goodness, yet suffering is a result of human’s betrayal against God. This comes from the choice Adam and Eve made in Genesis. They chose to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree when God told them not too. They chose evil and it has affected humanity today. God loves humans however, he gave us that choice and humans chose evil.

The Problem of Evil is one of the most influential and common arguments in modern philosophy against the existence of a Greater Being, God (Trakakis, 2006). Both Theist, those who believe in the existence of God, and Atheist, those who don’t believe in the existence of God, argue that evil exists in the world. The Problem of Evil explores whether the existence of evil and suffering constitutes significance evidence for atheism. When looking at the definition of the greater being, most refer to the Omni-god in which is Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnibenevolent, meaning God is all powerful, all knowing and all good. Atheist Philosophers therefore argue that no Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnibenevolent greater being would allow evil and

Many of the choices we make, using our free will, lead to suffering. We participate in risky behavior, without thinking of the consequences. For example, people that smoke have greater chances of developing health problem (e.g., cancer), which results in pain and suffering. This type of suffering is caused by our errors and mistakes. Many of the choice we make have consequences, but is it is impossible to live in a way in which we do not take risks. Furthermore, God's existence comes from intellect and not the sense, but suffering is felt through through our senses, whether it be external or internal pain. Suffering is adventitious and not

God cannot determine the outcome of our free choice. So either there is no omniscient god or we are created without free will and therefore are forced/unable to avoid doing evil. Again this shows that god is not benevolent, nor omniscient, therefore he is non-existent. Theists may argue the following reason for god to have granted humans free will. It is possible that god raised homo sapiens to rationality giving the gift of abstract thought, language and disinterested love. And so it is arguable that god gave us free will to allow for love, as free will is necessary for love. Although this may be one of many reasons that god granted us free will, it is one that we may understand. Free will is necessary for both erotic and platonic love. One may argue that evil is only trumped by love. And that the existence of evil, although in its masses is worth it for the sake of

Why Does God allow suffering? This question is probably as old as religion itself. It is a stumbling block for some of us, and for many more at given moments of tragedy. There are as many answers to this question as there are people who care to engage in theological dialogue. One understanding is that yes, God allows "bad" things to happen; God does not cause them to happen.

When we are discussing the problem of evil, we are specifically discussing a God that is omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly good. A God that is perfectly good would not allow suffering to exist, and any minute amount of suffering that exists disproves God’s existence. Unless, the suffering is justified with an adequate reason. However, even then there seems to be large amounts of evil in the world that seems unnecessary for any good reason. By evil and suffering I mean death, pain, and disease. I will be using these terms interchangeably. In the problem of evil, many arguments are placed in order to find a justification for the evil that exists. However,

An argument against the existence of God is based on the presence of evil in the world. This deductively valid argument is divided into two categories; human action and natural evil (Sober, 2005, p. 120). Human action discusses how experiences makes us better people, while natural evil are tragic events that are not under the control of humans. Each category is used as evidence to refute God as an all-powerful omniscient, omnibenevolent, or omnipotent being. In order to understand the strengths of this argument, it is important for an overall assessment of how the presence of evil questions if a Supreme Being actually exists, by arguing why a being of all-good would allow evil, importance of evil in a good world, and questioning God’s intervention in evil.

To an extent, I think that free will is an answer to the questions of God’s existence and why there is still evil in the world. In order to have free will, one must be able to make a choice. A choice between good and evil, right and wrong, or moral and immoral. But another point that is brought up is interesting to me. What about the things that are not one’s choice? Things like cancer and sickness, natural disasters, and ultimately death from things that are out of one’s control. If a all powerful and loving God does exist, why do these things? Our book says “But once one recognizes that a natural order is required for meaningful human freedom, the possibility emerges that human beings might inadvertently get caught in the gears of nature’s mechanism.” Growing up in the christian church, I was taught that everything happens for a reason. Some verses that jump out to me are:

This question had always been brought up throughout history; If there is a God, and He is all loving and powerful, why would He let there be suffering in the world? There are a few answers in which I think would answer this question, such as human’s free will, and God’s desire to use suffering to exercise and to teach people. As a Christian, I believe God created suffering to give us the freedom to choose to rely and to turn toward Him or to turn away from Him. In some sense, it is as if it was a test, if we believe in God, regardless of the suffering and pain, we will trust in Him to bring marked the end of the suffering for us.

Being a Christian we fail to understand sometimes why God allows bad things to happen to good people or bad things to happen in our life when all we are trying to do is live it the best we can. Or like that old saying goes “when it rains, it pours”. Why does evil exist in the first place if God created the world to be holy and sacred? Honestly we have all asked ourselves this question at least one in our life if not multiple times a week!

The atheist William Rowe uses an argument called the problem of evil that tries to prove the nonexistence of God’s however I can dismiss said argument. The problem of evil is the argument that an all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good God would not allow any—or certain kinds of—evil or suffering to occur. The problem of evil contends that some known fact about evil is evidence against the existence of God. This objection is typically raised against the Christian faith. The Bible describes God as a god of love (1 John 4:16) and an all powerful god (Jeremiah 32:17). The rationale behind this objection is, quite simply, if God is a loving god then he wouldn't want mankind to suffer and if he is an all powerful god then he would have the means to stop suffering. Therefore, the rationale follows, God cannot be both loving and all powerful and so the Christian premise must be wrong. However, this is, in fact, an oversimplification of Christian theology. The Bible itself acknowledges the existence of suffering and even suggests that suffering brings benefits: In Romans 8:17 it is said that “We are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also

The problem of evil (the problem of suffering) is an argument against the existence of God

Ask a person from any culture around the planet and they will say that evil has always plagued humanity. However, when different people are asked to identify the source of evil found in their culture, the answers will differ from one another, maybe even drastically. This is most likely due to the varied experiences of their culture and faith traditions among other factors. Due to my lack of knowledge about other various perspectives of evil found around the world, I strive to articulate solely from my own Christian perspective.

The problem of evil states “If God can prevent the suffering of the innocent yet chooses not to, He is not good. If God chooses to prevent the suffering but cannot, He is not omnipotent. If God cannot recognize the suffering of the innocent, He is not wise”. Obviously, this created quite a discussion in my class. I felt frustrated by my classmates and their willingness to accept this theory, it seemed like . I called up my Grandmother to discuss it, and we both agreed that although God did not deliberately will evil, he gave us the possibility of it when he allowed us to make choices freely. In my class the next day my professor asked us to raise our hands if we believed God and I instantly thought of the verse from

The problem of evil has been around since the beginning. How could God allow such suffering of his “chosen people”? God is supposedly all loving (omni-benevolent) and all powerful (omnipotent) and yet He allows His creations to live in a world of danger and pain. Two philosophers this class has discussed pertaining to this problem is B.C. Johnson and John Hick. Johnson provides the theists’ defense of God and he argues them. These include free will, moral urgency, the laws of nature, and God’s “higher morality”. Hick examines two types of theodicies – the Augustinian position and the Irenaeus position. These positions also deal with free will, virtue (or moral urgency), and the laws of nature. Johnson