Michael Murray: The Problem Of Darwinian 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.

If we humans are responsible for “human evil”, then surely, only God can be responsible for “natural evil”. Yet if we apply God’s benevolent feature, the fact that natural evil exist would be contradictory, unless we alter the meaning and definition of natural evil. Either natural evil is not really evil or there is a good purpose behind the natural evils. Though free will defense does not answer these two questions, or at least not directly. We can also assume God cannot create this world without including said natural evil, but then that would, per

To elaborate on this argument, god may create an initial evil in order for humans to respond with goodness, thus creating an opportunity for goodness to take place. This argument has flaws when realizing that there are second degree evils that exist in the world, like callousness. This can be demonstrated by a homeless person. god may have made him homeless in order for others to be able to help this individual. So, the first level evil is a homeless persons suffering, but people who do kindness for this homeless man is a first level response.

While God wants his creatures to do what is considered morally right, they cannot be infinitely free without the possibility of moral evil. Thus, God cannot show his omnipotence and prevent the evil in the world without destroying free will. Therefore, God must allow for the possibility of evil. His creatures are then capable of committing evil acts and releasing evil into the world. The free will to defy God and do what is considered wrong is the reason for most of the evil in the world.

By answering the timeless question, “Are humans inherently good or evil?”, one can then gain an even greater understanding of the thing that is us. Therefore, history and society can prove that the answer is in fact that humans are inherently evil. Now, that was all without using religion, but religion provides an excellent view and explanation into the world of humanity. Presuming that the statement above is axiomatic, then religion has an issue that science and secularism do not have to deal with. The problem is why would an all-powerful God allow his creation to suffer under the disease known as sin. Even if we believe that humanity brought a sinful nature onto itself, why would God place the ability to sin into our capability? That is

The “problem of evil” has been discussed for multiple decades. Philosophers, religious believers, theologists, and many other professions and people struggle to perfectly answer this question. After reading Voltaire’s Candide as well as researching multiple viewpoints on this “problem of evil,” I personally do not believe in any co-existence between God and evil and conclude that justice, rather than evil, stems from our (human’s) genes. Voltaire’s view on evil comes from not only humans, but also nature. He includes multiple sources of evil in Candide, ranging anywhere from the Lisbon earthquake to rape or murder from man-to-man.

In Christianity evil has existed since the very beginning. God creates a perfect paradise, but the existence of "bad" is already present in the tree of knowledge. Another one of his creations, an angel, would later be known as Satan. This angel, in the form of a serpent, came to one of the first humans in existence and convinced her to eat from the forbidden tree. The bible states that all creations of God have a free will. The existence of evil already existed within these perfect beings. Later on in the Bible, more angels would follow Satan's path and become demons. God created evil alongside the living.

Everyone always has the two little devils and angels on their shoulders tempting them to go forth with their actions whether right or wrong. Evil is a choice based off of the actions and intentions of those actions. Some actions offend others, while others do not find offense to those actions. Every person in their day to day life is conflicted with the choice of doing right or giving in to the temptations of evil.

However, there is vice caused by humans. During the rise of Christianity, evil was blamed on the fall of Lucifer. Evil was a concept of failure and hardship, not of fate and will. Evil, in Christianity, is caused by Satan. The Christian definition of evil has remained throughout time.

 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

This is the problem of evil. Augustine summed it up most effectively when he said, “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 viewed evil as merely the absence of good just as dark is the absence of light, a non-being “a name for nothing but the want of good”. He looked to the Bible for an explanation for the existence of God and believed that the fall of humanity from grace, as shown in Genesis, showed the origin of evil. He believed that evil came into the world because human beings had deliberately turned away from God and his goodness. This suggests that both moral and natural evil is a result of original human sin.

– According to the bible- human kind was made and they show goodness by doing good deeds. • Evil- Evil did not originate from God, Evil came from Satan; Satan tempted man kind and that is how evil was brought through the world. Evil is done through choice -> man was given free will and we can decide what we do with our lives.

These include the relevance to Christians, other religions and science when concerning the interpretation of the story of the fall and free will. Augustine argues that natural evil is the result of moral evil of human beings. In the book of Genesis, the choice that Adam and Eve made to disobey God led to what we know as “the fall”. As God is all loving, evil would not have been part of his creative work for the universe.

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

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