Why God Allowed For The Existence 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 features an argument questioning the existence of god in relation to evil, attributing both atheistic and theistic replies.

Evil people are found throughout the entire world. Young or old, small or large, evil people exist all around the world. Rather hurting other people or animals, these acts are inhumane and abnormal. Any act of violence is wrong, but actually harming or killing other people or animals is over the line. Evil has been studied for thousands of years, and the root question is always, is evil born or made? Children can be completely normal and be a great child, and as they reach middle adulthood they could fall off the deep end.

Does the problem of evil pose a challenge for theists and the existence of God? The problem of evil argues that there is so much suffering in the world that an all-good and all powerful God would not allow such suffering to exist. Therefore, a God with those characteristics does not exist. Unless the suffering is necessary for an adequate reason. Some people argue that suffering is necessary for there to be good and for us to able to understand what good is. In this paper, I will argue that suffering does not need to exist in order for good to exist, because the existence of good does not depend on suffering. I will then argue that good and suffering are not logical opposites. Finally, I will conclude that since evil is not justified, then the God that we defined does not exist.

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.

Throughout history, the Problem of Evil has always been a topic of debate between many philosophers. Some philosophers find it impossible for the existence of an all-knowing God and the existence of evil at the same time. Other theists have been able to defend how the two are compatible. J.L. Mackie, a former Philosophy professor at Oxford, attempted to prove the theists’ arguments of the co-existence of God and evil to be invalid. Mackie presents many counterarguments for the Problem of Evil.

When reading Genesis, it becomes clear to the reader that the existence of evil isn’t ignored. The origin of evil has a major connection with the original sin that Adam and Eve committed when they had eaten from the tree of knowledge. Sin was very personal to Adam and Eve, but also it was transmitted to their descendants. The serpent seems to be the agent in temptation and he was able to trick Eve into not only eating the apple, but also sharing it with Adam. The serpent is the mythical figure that which is recognized as Satan according to the biblical traditions.1 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God hade made” (Gen 3:1) The devil seems to be a master of cunning and first addresses himself to Eve. The

In Richard Swinburne’s section entitled, “Why God Allows Evil,” Swinburne states that evil is necessary for human beings to allow for the ability of free and responsible choice. He then divides evil into two categories, moral and natural evil, and argues that both are significant and necessary for free and responsible choice, but for different reasons. Moral evil is, “All evil caused deliberately by human beings doing what they ought not to do…and also the evil constituted by such deliberate actions or negligent failure,” (p.90). While natural evil is, “All evil which is not allowed by human beings to occur as a result of their negligence. Natural evil includes both physical suffering and mental suffering, of animals as well as humans; all the trail of suffering which disease, natural disasters, and accidents unpredictable by humans bring in their train,” (p.90). Furthermore, Swinburne claims that natural evil makes it possible for human beings to have free and responsible choice in a fairly significant way. I disagree to an extent and believe this claim to be weak due to Swinburne’s reasoning because of the implication that natural evil is the only way to experience these choices and the majority of the fundamental instances of choice that natural evil provides human beings with can be found within moral evil.

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

In John Hick’s piece “There is a Reason Why God Allows Evil”, he explains his view on the roots of evil. Hick brings up the problem of an all-loving God that allows evil to occur in the world. The conclusion that arises God must not be all loving then. However, Hick explains that humans free will is the problem that leads to evil. A few strengths that Hick has in his argument is the laws of nature, he mentions that they “…would have to be extremely flexible; sometimes gravity would operate, sometimes not; sometimes an object would be hard and solid, sometimes soft. There could be no sciences, for there would be no enduring world structure to investigate” (129). Nothing could hurt anyone or anything, and the world would be some perfect fairytale; “…life would become like a dream in which, delightfully but aimlessly, we would float and drift at ease” (130). Hick goes on to explain that evil allows people to learn what is good, grace and faith. If evil doesn’t exist, then how could one tell the difference from right or wrong? There would be no moral lessons to be taught or learned from since there is no wrong, and wrong an only be done when there is evil. Hick also mentions that bravery, courage and strength would have no point and meaning. Everything that builds character would not exist. The weakness in Hicks argument is that he is blaming free will for the ultimate cause of evil. There are obviously nature disasters that could be considered evil as well. Hick believes that

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?

William Rowe defines gratuitous evil as an instance of intense suffering which an omnipotent, omniscient being could have prevented without thereby losing some greater good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse.(Rowe 335) In a world with so much evil it raises the questions If God is all powerful, all knowing and all good, how can he allow bad things to happen to good people? Can God even exist in a world with so such gratuitous evil? These are questions that has afflicted humanity for a very long time and has been the question to engross theologians for centuries. The existence of evil has been the most influential and powerful reason to disprove the existence of God. It is believed among many theist that God is the creator and caretaker

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

To claim that God is not likely to exist because of the quantity of evil begs the question as to how much evil is too much (Kreeft 43). What it essentially does is the matter becomes subjective to each person, with the individual arrogantly claiming they would have the wisdom to guide such a complex reality, and it also lowers God to the level of the human mind, giving Him our reason and logic. In doing so it fundamentally misunderstands how large God is within the Christian worldview, and to make claims Humans could do better than God echoes the Greek philosopher Epicurus’ stance that if God is neither able nor willing to stop evil, then why call Him God? The problem is humans obviously cannot do it better, as otherwise there would be no question as to why suffering exists, as it effectively would not exist since humans would not cause evil. In addition, the quantity of suffering is also not a good thing to argue from as this groups many types of suffering into a homogenous category.

Atheism is the disbelief in the existence of God. Atheism is not a religion, if you think about, baldness cannot be established as a hairstyle! Atheism is wholly based on the fact that evil exists in the world. 'Evil is the rock of atheism', in simpler terms just means that evil is the foundation of atheism. The existence of evil has been an objection to theism, as evil and God cannot co-exist.