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The Belief Of Evil And The Existence Of God

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One of the main topic in the philosophy of religion is the discussion between theists and skeptics on the existence of God. Atheists say that there is a logical inconsistency between the existence of evil and the existence of God. However, theists believe that the mere existence of evil is not sufficient enough to completely dismiss the possibility of a morally perfect being existing This paper will discuss the logical inconsistencies between God and the “problem of evil” as well as the theist 's response to this argument through the free-will defense. In response, the atheist will address the problems evil that the free-will defense did not address, like natural evils. an argument that the thiests will attempt to dismiss using the “expanded free-will defense” which touches on humans primordial estrangement from God. Nonetheless, I feel the theist 's response fails to defend the existence of God because it does not fully address gratuitous evils or suffering from nonhuman beings.
Both classical theists and atheists agree that for God to be a God, he must be omnipotent, meaning that God is powerful enough that he can do anything logically possible in the universe, omniscient, God know the truth of all propositions past, present, and future, and omnibenevolent, God must be perfectly good and moral at all times. According to Peter Van Inwagen, the author of “The Problem of Evil,” God’s moral perfection and omnipotence are considered “nonnegotiable,” this means that a God

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