John Hick View Of Evil

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.

The problem of evil is a highly debated topic among religious and non religious people. The large controversy stems from the Hebrew-Christian definition of an all knowing, all powerful creator known as God, and the presence of evil among mankind in the world, among God’s products of creation. Fyodor Dostoevsky is a philosopher who wrote the piece, Why Is There Evil? This piece explores a man named Ivan’s view on why he can’t fully except God and his world. John Hick wrote a piece named There Is A Reason Why God Allows Evil. Hicks view opposes/ can be seen as a response to Dostoevsky’s, in explaining why God has allowed

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.

In the book of Genesis in the Bible, God created the heavens and the Earth and all was good. God told Adam and Eve that they can eat from all the trees in the Garden of Eden except for one, The Tree of Knowledge and Good and Evil. God was and is compassionate enough to give the beings he created freedom of choice. Nobody wants someone who is forced into love. God also does not want us to be made to love Him but wants us to do so out of our own free will. That free will that God gives us is the source of evil. Just as Adam and Eve used the free will God gave them to be disobedient and sin, human beings evil because of their freedom to do so. In addition to free will God allows evil to exist because without it, the beings he created could not develop ethically. The Problem of Evil states that God cannot be all loving, all good, all powerful and everywhere because evil exists. Philosopher, John Hicks states that evil is necessary for soul and moral development. How would humans know that is good without it counterpart for comparison? In situations like the Charleston church shooting, where loved ones lives are violently taken by evil, the families of the victims are made to develop morally. When confronted with evil, violence, and grief, they either exhibit patience, love, courage, forgiveness, acceptance, and/or faith. Otherwise they conform or give into evil and become timid, weak, angry, or even become violent themselves. Without evil our world would be blissful.

Evil can take different forms in different context. How evil is responded to depend on which form it takes. God responds to evil by overcoming it, and turning it into something virtuous. Why or when he chooses to overcome it, is something that is unknown. Humans can be agents or victims of evil. They can be the reason evil takes place, or they can affected by someone else’s evil. Evil done by humans is not malicious, but it has a negative effect on humanity. The world is a victim because it’s inability to choose between right and wrong, good and evil. The world is a victim of humankind’s evil actions. Evil is responded to in different ways, because evil has not one definite shape, but an infinite amount.

William Rowe and John Hick: Why is there evil? John Hicks in his work There is a Reason Why God Allows Evil (adapted from his book Evil and the God of Love) starts the conversation regarding evil with the type of God that Christians believe and how this is not parallel to the evil that he perceives in the world. First the discussion on God; he talks about how it is hard to imagine a loving creator when the world is full of human suffering and pain (128). How can a God who is so in love with his creation sit far away and watch them be in pain without interfering?

An Analysis of Peter van Inwagen’s The Magnitude, Duration, and Distribution of Evil: a Theodicy

To understand evil we must first understand the concept that good and evil are term or words referring to what one given individuals believes to be the right and wrong thing to do. Good, many times

The work’s of Hick and Johnson both refer to the problem of evil. The problem of evil brings up questions of how God can exist and allow evil things to happen to humankind. God is supposedly an all-powerful and all-knowing being. Thus he should have the power to stop evil. Johnson in particular questions how God could allow something like an infant dying in a burning building to happen. He ponders how God can be all-good if he allows this and other terrible tragedies to happen.

 Evil doesn 't necessarily have to be an action by a human; it can also be a result of a natural disaster such as: hurricanes, earthquakes, illness, etc. A hurricane can take away everything from thousands of humans. This causes the people to have no home, clothes, or food. This is also a form of evil, due to the suffering it causes. This is called natural evil. People can bring about moral evil upon themselves, although, they rarely can bring natural evil upon themselves. There is a distinct difference between the two, and one evil does not cause the other. The reason I point the

It is us, humanity, with our fallen nature and our own evil inclinations, which are the ultimate cause of calamities and wickedness. It is allowed by God because His desire was a people who would choose Him and this is the world by which we are able to possess the free will needed in order to do any choosing at all. As a matter of fact, the possession of free will to choose a good, holy and just God suggests that there are those who will not – it also suggests two natures, the good and the bad. If choosing God is the perfect choice and the opposite is not, it also suggests that the world and mind necessarily would have the ability for both perfection and imperfection. This would also offer an account for the natural tragedies that we experience.

Its impossible to reflect on the origins of evil without bringing up the concept of free will. God created man with this idea of choice; the choice to believe and obey, or the choice to disobey. It was this free will that allowed Adam and Eve to fall from their initial glory and introduce evil and suffering into the world. We can justify a large amount of sustained suffering by acknowledging that it actually benefits us and is not incompatible with God's loving nature. We learn lessons both physically and spiritually that allows us to grow and mature according to God. Some suffering is used to spark revival or for a great advancement in his kingdom, cause after all we're

Evil refers to physical pain, mental suffering and moral wickedness. This pain includes such major scourges as poverty, oppression, persecution, war, all injustice, indignity and inequality that occur in human societies. It is however, important to note that although a great deal of pain and suffering are caused by human action, there is much more that arises from natural causes as bacteria and earthquakes, storm, fire, lightening, flood and drought. Another type of evil that can be identified is mental evil.

The problem of evil is as ancient as humanity itself. Since the dawn of man, thinkers, philosophers, religionists and practically every human being who have suffered at the hands of evil have pondered this enigma, either as a logical-intellectual-philosophical or emotional-religious-existential problem. The preponderance of evil as a reality in human existence, and