Problem Of Evil Argument Essay

J. L. Mackie’s “Evil and Omnipotence” criticizes the argument that God exists by showing that religious beliefs are positively irrational and that parts of the essential theological doctrine are inconsistent with one another. The problem of evil is one of the oldest problems in philosophy. The problem of evil is a logical problem for only the people who believe that there is a God who is both (1) omnipotent and (2) wholly good; yet (3) evil exists in the world. If God is wholly good and omnipotent, then how can there be a presence of evil in the world. Given the presence of evil, we must either conclude that God does not have the power to prevent the suffering that evil causes in which case God is not omnipotent or that God does not wish

This then begs the question; what are the reasons that God believes that the existence of evil is necessary? There are two ways of approaching an argument for the belief that God has his reasons to allow evil. These two ways are a theodicy and a defense. In his book, Inwagen says “The difference between a theodicy and a defense is simply that a theodicy is put forward as true, while nothing more is claimed of a defense than that it represents a real possibility” (31). Theodicy takes into account the evidence of evil and shows that it is still reasonable to believe in a God despite the existence of evil. Overall, a theodicy is a justification for God. A defense, on the other hand, offers a logical explanation for the existence of evil. A defense may say that there are reasons that God allows evil to persist, but, humans may never know these reasons. There is one well known and most rational defense. This is called the free-will defense. The free-will defense says that God made the world and included rational beings. He gave them the power of free-will. This meant that humans held the ability to make their own decisions and to have their own desires freely without any barriers. God decided that overall, free-will was a great enough good and that the existence of it outweighed the existence of the evil that results from the abuse of

This creates a contradiction to evil. Why would an all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerfull God allow humans to suffer at the hands of evil? To allow evil would suggest that God has the knowledge and power to stop evil, but does not, which is not good, hence the contradiction that because of the existence of evil the set of beliefs describing God cannot all be true at the same time. While atheist easily explain the problem of evil away by simply stating that there is no god, theist are forced to come up with different theodicies, in attempts to justify God’s allowance of evil, which in turn justifies God and His described nature. The free will defense, arguing good cannot exist without its opposite, and the Soul Making theodicy are a few examples that some believers accept to justify the problem of evil.

These forms of counter arguments to the deductive explanation of evil’s non-compatibility with God can be refuted. The following are defenses for the deductive argument that support the primary understanding of God’s Omni benevolence as mandating the elimination of all existing evil. Firstly, Omni benevolence is a description of God’s absolutely good nature and entails that God desires everything that is good. This desire to bring about good things also means a desire to prevent evil things from happening. Hence God’s good nature doesn’t need to necessarily lead to no omission of good actions, but it does lead to the necessary idea that God

The logical problem of evil (double check if name attached like evidential problem) and William Rowe’s evidential argument from evil, show that a rational belief in God is unfeasible due to the evil that exists in the world. The problem of evil is acknowledging the possibility that God, an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent being is not actually, all good, all knowing and all powerful. (maybe delete/change highlighted part). If evil exists then how can an omni-natured being exist? (find reference). There are numerous theodicies that argue otherwise, for example, the free will argument and John Hick's soul-making theodicy. However, the problem of evil is still too significant to ignore. (find references).

In this paper I will discuss the logical problem of evil and how it seems to reject the existence of God as an omni-3 being. I will first layout the logical problem of evil, and then I will explain why it succeeds in disproving the existence of God. I do this through pointing out the contradictions between the definition of God as an omni-3 being and the problem of redeemed and unredeemed evil. As well as by proving that admittance of evil in any way when in reference to the choices of God invalidates the omni-3 definition of God. I will address claims from those who believe in God about justification of evil as well as the concept and depth of human understanding.

Mackie in his article “Evil and Omnipotence” as follows: “In its simplest form the problem is this: God is omnipotent; God is wholly good; and yet evil exists. There seems to be some contradiction between these three propositions, so that if any two of them were true the third would be false.” However, the contradiction isn’t clearly apparent from the above statements; we need to elaborate on them and add premises to show the contradiction. To begin with, we can say that a good entity will try to eliminate evil as much as it can. Also, there are no limits to what an omnipotent entity can do. So an entity that is both omnipotent and good would be able to eliminate all evil and is willing to eliminate all evil. Finally, the last premise is that evil exists in this world. So from the existence of evil we can conclude that either God can’t eradicate evil, God isn’t willing to eradicate evil, or both. This poses a great challenge to the theistic world view since it requires the theist to drop one of the above premises to make them consistent. Since no one can deny the existence of evil then the theist should give up one of God’s “omni” attributes or even give up on God himself since many people find that an imperfect God is unworthy of

God exists. That is the truth and once that fact is clearly established, our understanding of evil is clear. Proof of God’s existence can be reached through reason alone, outside of the church. Arguments against God’s existence may be based heavily on the belief that if God were real there would be no evil in the world. However, as God’s existence is proven through logical steps of reason, so also is the existence of evil explained. Aquinas’ Five Proofs are an excellent point to start understanding God’s existence. We can show that God exists through the complexity of our planet and by the uniformity of the laws the universe operates by.

This paper will attempt to review the philosophical quandary of the existence of evil and if evil exists can God exist and if so can this God still be declared perfect? The epistemological issue that arises is One’s knowledge of God and the validity of God’s existence.

3. For something to exist, there needs to be a cause effect relationship that cannot

The existence of evil is unquestionable. In our lives we have all experienced at some kind of pain. We have all had some kind of emotional or physical pain in our life. To believe in the existence of God we have to understand that what is evil? Well the simplest way to describe this would be that evil is something that causes suffering to human beings. First we can all agree on that evil exists in this world from the fact that the history of humankind is full of wars, murders,

Firstly I am going to take on the bigger and more widely discussed concept, which is God. There are many Gods within religions, all differing on nature, names and even in some senses how many. However, God in the sense of the problem of evil and the idea of God that stands to be discredited by the problem of evil, is theistic idea of God. This certain nature of God is a huge fragment in the problem of evil and applies to the bigger issue of how and why God is discredited, it is due to this. The problem of evil can only really apply to the theistic idea of God, 'as the problem of evil does not attach itself as a threat to any and every concept of deity' (john hick pg4) i.e. the other multiple religious ideas of God. The theistic view or theism is the belief in

God is known as the creator of our world; and our creator is known as being all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good. If our creator is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good, then why is there evil in the world? The definition of evil states that something is morally bad, or harmful. How can something like this exist and still have an all-good God? Does this mean that God does not exist? Is evil even real? The problem of evil is an atheistic argument to show that God, in fact, does not exist. In this paper I will argue that evil does exist in this world by the support of the Holiness and Underachiever Problem.

In Blackburn theory I am going to argue that his theory the existence of evil strongly suggests that there does not exist a God who is all-good, all-knowing and all-powerful to be false. In my argument I will try to present facts that show the existence of God and why there is evil.

As Theist’s say, God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. With God being categorized as all of that, can evil still exist? This leads us into the next question: What is the problem of evil? Before we begin, we need to learn what omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent means. Omniscient means “all-knowing”, you know everything, omnipotent means “all-powerful”, you are too strong and mighty and omnibenevolent means “all-good”. In order for us to thoroughly answer this question, we need to understand the two parts of evil, moral and natural evil. Moral Evil is defined as evil committed on purpose by humans. A few examples to help understand what moral evil means are murder, rape, terrorism, and awful hate crimes that harm others. Natural evil means evil we cannot control or the stuff we are not responsible, such as, hurricanes, floods, volcanic attacks and etc. Which are all known as natural disasters. In this paper, I am going to argue for the compatibility of Evil and Omni-God because sometimes God might be helping us learn by presenting to us what evil is and how we can fight it.