The Problem of Evil

What is Evil? This question has been asked by many, but first posed and propagated by Epicurus. This has been called the “Epicurean Paradox” or the “Epicurean Riddle.” David Hume in his Dialogues concerning Natural Religion (1779) cited Epicurus in stating the argument as a series of questions:
"Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"(Epicurus)[1]
So, what is Evil Really? There are two different divisions of Evil, but before we discuss them there is a more general definition. It can be, and has been simply stated that Evil is simply the absence or lack of Good. Norman Geisler and Ron Brooks state that “Evil is, in reality, a parasite that cannot exist except as a hole in something that should be solid.”(Geisler; Brooks 61)[2]
The fifth century theologian Augustine of Hippo mounted what has become one of the most popular defenses of the existence of God against the Epicurean paradox. He maintained that evil was only privatio boni, or a privation of good. An evil thing can only be referred to as a negative form of a good thing, such as discord, injustice, and loss of life or of liberty. If a being is not totally pure, evil will fill in any gaps in that being's purity. This is commonly called the Contrast Theodicy — that evil only exists as a "contrast" with good. However, the Contrast Theodicy relies on a metaphysical view of morality that few people, even theologians, agree with (that good and evil are not moral judgments). In On Free Choice of the Will, Augustine also argued that Epicurus had ignored the potential benefits of suffering in the world. (Wikipedia 3)[3]
This now brings us to the place where we must discuss the two major divisions of Evil. We must understand these fully to have the correct view on Evil and why it exists. Actually, the reason most philosophers see evil as a disproof of God is because they do not fully understand these two points. The two variances of Evil are Natural and Moral Evil, of which we will discuss the Natural segment first.
Natural evil is not sin, and we must strive to keep it separated so. Natural evil is exactly what its name is says it is: evil that occurs in a natural sense; not spiritual. The natural includes weather (earthquakes, tornadoes, blizzards, hurricanes, etc), pain, and suffering at the hands of another’s moral evil. If natural evil could be described in on word, other than natural, it would be suffering. Suffering seems to be the main premise of the stance that natural evil takes to disprove God. This category, in light of the Problem of Evil, is probably the hardest for people to understand. They may ask questions such as, “Why would God allow bad things to happen to good people?”
We should be ready to give them an answer. We must answer their questions and bring them to an understanding of these main principles; Does suffering exist, where did suffering come from, or is God in control of suffering, such as natural disasters, or does it run rampant on its own plaguing the poor, helpless souls of mankind? At first glance it would seem that the answers to the questions would be detrimental to our cause and that God would come out this looking like the bad guy, but let us endeavor to answer their questions unstintingly.
Does suffering exist? This may seem like a preposterous question, to some extent it is, but not as much as one might believe. There are such religions that suffering, and even peace and tranquility are only states of mind. This mentality, as harmless as it seems, is a vast trap that many fall into. It very subtly undermines the deity of God Almighty by causing men to believe that that their condition is merely in their mind, so therefore they have control over their own circumstances. This not very hard to logically disprove, for the very fact that when in the midst of their suffering they have no control of what happens.
Since there is suffering it would be illogical to assume that it had no origination, therefore suffering has come from some specific point in time. When and where did this instance take place? One must remember that if someone is asking these questions they want a Theistic response, because they already know their point arguments. So there should be no fear of giving them the Biblical origin of Natural Evil. So, let me escort such a one to the book of Genesis where we can find the saga of the birthing of evil from the womb of the Serpent (Satan) into realm of mankind. I should clarify that I do not believe that Satan is the creator of evil; only the vehicle who disseminated the knowledge of something other than good, through deception, into the minds of men. Within this passage of Scripture we see where pain and suffering begin.
Gen 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Gen 3:17 and unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
Gen 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
Gen 3:19 in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
After the great deception the Devil so greatly orchestrated and performed, mankind gave in to temptation and ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. With this new found knowledge they realized that they had done wrong and God punished them by placing them under a curse which brought forth suffering and pain. Therefore one must recognize that suffering cannot be blamed on God, but on finite man who made a choice. Natural evil is a bi-product of man’s fall.
So if the calamities and sufferings of men come from the “fall of man” has this beast of suffering been let loose to devour the peace of men at will? I think not. Yes, it was because of man’s fall that a curse was placed on humankind, yet humanity did not place a curse upon itself, but God did. God created this curse that we are still dealing with today. If something is created by something else it is subject to its creator. The curse was created by God. Therefore the curse is subject to God. Simply stated, God is in control of everything. Though he is not some, celestial being wielding his power, picking some hapless victim at random to alleviate pent up anger upon. He has reasons for which he allows evil and even controls it. Most times with the Bible, evil is considered to be a warning; if it wasn’t a warning it was a consequence. ISBE states,
This evil was to serve as a warning to those who were to live after. The ground had already been cursed for the good of Cain (Gen_4:12). Two purposes seemed to direct the treatment: (1) to leave in the minds of Cain and his descendants the knowledge that sin brings punishment, and (2) to increase the toil that would make them a better people. (ISBE)[4]
Just as a parent who spanks a child who repeatedly tries to place his hand on hot stove. The parent has inflicted pain which is “evil,” but has saved the child from a greater “evil;” burning his hand.
Moral Evil is the most dangerous form evil that there is. Why? Because if there is a moral evil, there must be a moral law somewhere, and if transgress that law we must come under the indictment of a morally perfect judiciary system; physically and spiritually. Moral evil is simply sin. We may look at this Moral Evil in a similar fashion as we did Natural Evil, by asking some of the same questions.
Where does Moral Evil come from? I must clarify that when talking about the origin of either of these evils, I am talking about the beginning of it within the human race, and not the spiritual founding of evil. We can trace the this back to the very root of mankind just as evil itself was in the root of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The basis of all evil is Adam and Eve’s offense of God’s moral character.
So we must first establish the definition of our main premise as to Moral Evil by asking a simple, yet pointed question that cuts straight to the heart of the matter. What is morality? Morality is the self-conscious living of life (Fite 3) [5]. This is a formal definition from Warner Fite’s book Moral Philosophy in which he states that all men must strive to be moral men. Meaning simply that we have to live a self-aware life of what is wrong and right. So now we have in secular philosophy an implication that there is a moral touchstone that we can compare our lifestyles to. What is this moral fundament? To the theist this God almighty, and what he tells us through his words written and spoken. We can also see this in theories of a modern philosopher, but we will discuss this at a later point. This leads us into where Moral Evil really began (or any Evil for that matter).
Free will, is the simple statement that sums up this entire section, and takes us to the heart of the matter, mankind. Free will is the culprit that has placed man in his prison of freedom. Though free will is the greatest liberty we have, it also, can be the self imposed depravation of autonomy, which finds us wandering aimlessly in a dark world with unlit hearts, and only the pinprick of light that our seared conscience provides for us. Within our free will comes the subject of morality. How? Morality comes from free will because free will is the decision between two choices. When we come to a place where these decisions are made we have exercised our free will. This constitutes morality because there is always going to be a choice between right and wrong, and whatever we consider our moral law (or lack thereof) will dictate our morality. Whether for the theist, or the naturalist there is a problem, but however great the problem is, is set by the moral law of which they live by, God’s or man’s, which we will discuss these two aspects briefly in the next point. Therein lies the problem of Moral Evil, it comes from the hearts of men.
Now that we sufficiently covered the two major divisions of the problem we can cover the problem itself. “The Problem of Evil” is an ominous sounding statement, which has saturated the quandaries many great minds for centuries, though the problem itself has haunted man since his untimely fall.
So, what is the big problem about it? Theodore P. Rebard, Ph. D. stated quite concisely, in his article, The Problem of Evil Revisited, the syllogism for the Problem of Evil- which one must remember is Anti-God in itself, as is this syllogism, but that is the Problem of Evil.
God is all-loving and all powerful. Evil exists in the world. Therefore either: God cannot suppress evil, in which case He is not all-powerful; or: God does not will to suppress evil, in which case He is not all-loving.1 In either case, God does not exist or is misunderstood.(Thomas 2,3)[6]
The Atheists or the Finite Godists are two particular groups which disseminate this Syllogism to disprove God. They feel that in the face of evil an all-good God cannot exist. So in discussing this we must first establish what God is
What is God? To answer this question is probably the apex of the Problem of Evil. For God to be God he must be something more than what we are. He should transcend this world. Not as the Panantheist, who believes that is the world and transcends the world simultaneously, but a God that is not perfected by us or the universe, but already perfect. So God being a perfect being must be by definition is not able to lie, cheat, steal, be unjust, be envious, fail to know what is right, fail to do what he knows to be right, have false beliefs about anything, be ignorant, be unwise, cease to exist, and make a mistake of any kind. WordWeb Dictionary depicts God as, “The supernatural being conceived as the perfect and omnipotent and omniscient originator and ruler of the universe; the object of worship in monotheistic religions.” (WordWeb) [7]
The above description of God leads us to a major question that is very pertinent. This question mainly deals with the natural side of the problem. That question is; how can God exist in a world that is seemingly dominated by evil? Is it possible for an all perfect, ever present, and overwhelmingly powerful God to maintain himself in an environment that requires him to dwell in the midst of the heavens and a world overcast by an ever-thickening cloud of malevolence? Does it taint his nature? This question puts the purity of the One True God on trial and leaves his character in question if left unanswered. It is this daunting problem that non-theists use as a battering ram to burst open the door of the unprepared theist’s shelter. And that is the purpose of this theodicy, to prepare the unprepared and give a weapon for us to fight against those who seek to ruin the reputation of God or destroy him all together. This brings it down to more than a philosophical or even an apologetic problem, but brings things down to a personal spiritual level. This kinds of thought process raises the afore mentioned question in the minds of those who are not grounded. Does God exist?! Sometimes our problems do necessarily cause us to doubt the existence of God, but may shake our confidence in him as a being in which we can place our trust, worship freely, love, and take comfort in being loved by him. We make a mistake when we only focus on the logical explanations to the problem, and sometimes harm those we are trying to help by giving to them only the intellectual aspect of the matter. God can and does exist in the light of Natural Evil. How do we know this? Because, it is one of the ways God actually reveals himself to us. Rick Rood said,
“Far more important than answers about the nature of God, is a revelation of the Love of God-even in the midst of Trial. And as God’s children, it is not nearly as important what we say about God as what we do to manifest His love.”(Rood)[8]
Natural evil is a venue of which God uses to express to us the Greatness of his love to us. Though bad things have happened or are happening if we place our trust God he will show his love and sustain us through it all. Although I warned against being to logical on this point not everyone believes in God so the logical argument to this is a short and simple one. The very fact that we know that evil is indeed in existence proves to us that good also is a reality. For, if good did not exist there would be no evil, and if there were no evil there could be no good; it would all be monotonous, monotone oneness. But we do see that there is a difference. This is how God can and does exist.
How does a non-theist use this? I started to answer this in short earlier, but will try to revisit it more in depth. It is a non-theistic point of view that has stated the Problem of Evil, so as not to be redundant I will not restate that. There are several different views as to the uses of the Problem of Evil. There several different non-theistic view, but I have only chosen two to give an illustration so that one may have a better understanding of how non-theists use the Problem of Evil.
The Atheist is the first of the two that I will briefly discuss. How does an Atheist view and utilize the Problem of Evil? Atheists do not believe in the existence of a God, but they do aver that there is a reality of evil. The presence of evil is one of their primary arguments in their vast repertoire of ugly, unholy weapons. In their eyes, there is evil in the world, and God, by definition opposes and is not evil; therefore God does not exist. This twisted line of logic is meant to attempt and possibly cause a Christian- or someone who is thinking about becoming a Christian- to acknowledge that his beliefs are wrong if he maintains that God exist in the presence of evil. It is argued by the Atheist that if God did exist, he would, by definition have created all things, and if evil is a thing then God must have created it.
The Finite Godist, who believes in God, is similar to another group of non-theists, the Panantheist, in the fact that they believe God is subject to limitations and merely imperfect. The existence of evil is the basal reason for the existence of this worldview. The point they try to prove is to show that god is not an omnipotent ruler. For the Finite Godist, if you take away evil you take away their imperfect God. This is how they confuse many about God. They do not want to believe in a God without error so to them it makes sense that there is evil in the world. There is evil in the world, and an omnipotent God can create so much evil, therefore God is not omnipotent.
Again we are left with another question. How can God be who he is, and allow evil to continue? How can God be in existence or be an all powerful God and allow evil to continue? Is it possible? Yes, it is. Maybe we should say that the only reason evil can exist in the presence of an all powerful, omnipotent, omnipresent God is the very fact that he does allow it to continue. But, wouldn’t a truly good God want to eradicate all possibility of us doing evil? No, for if he did this then he would not be a truly good God. Why? Let me explain. Everything these days is all about being “pro choice.” Everyone is crying out that they have been done an injustice if they are not given a choice to do what they want because someone else does not think it is right. Yet, they say that because there is evil there is no God. They think that having a good God and evil simultaneously is an oxymoron, but a good without evil in the world is the real negation. This may sound a little abstract or maybe even absurd, but this is not as nonsensical as one might believe. Evil, as strange as it may sound, is really a proof of God’s goodness. For God not to allow evil would be against his nature. He wants us to have good things, but by taking away the choice of evil he deprives of goodness itself. Gregory Koukl summed it up quite well when he stated, “…when you think about the goodness of God, the goodness of God does not argue against the Possibility of evil. That would be a bad God that made evil impossible because that would mean that we would not have something good: moral freedom.”(Koukl)[9] Moral freedom is the choice between right and wrong, so therefore if it is a good thing for us to have moral freedom, then moral freedom brings us a choice of evil. This is a necessary part of the ecosystem of our world.
“…freedom is a necessary part of moral goodness. It is also a precondition of love, and God intended to love the world and to be loved in return. Freedom, however, cannot exist without the possibility of abuse. Evil entered the world through mankind’s abuse of freedom.”(Scruton 198)[10]
I feel that evil is something that must be addressed, for it is a confusing matter. Especially to those who are unsettled as to whether or not to believe in God. I have stated throughout the entirety of this theodicy the commonly accepted beliefs of the Theists, and I hold very close to these beliefs with only slight derivations. The main deviation I take from the course of the traditional Theist is the origin of evil.
Where does evil come from? This is probably the most crucial part of the arguments about evil and God. Some believe that evil did not come from God. This to me leaves a lot of problems that need to be answered. If evil did not come from God where did it come from. Do I believe God is evil and capable of sinning? No! But I do believe that we encounter some serious, serious problems, such as evil being its own entity, and uncreated. To believe that evil is its sole creator is to believe that it has creative powers of its own. That would lead to evil being a god, and now we have polytheism.
The other idea is that evil is just an attribute and not a thing that can be created. This has been argued by saying that everything has an equal or opposite reaction, therefore since God is good evil has been in existence for an eternity; so now we have evil as a force, coexistent with God which would make God not the only eternal being, making God and evil equal in power. I think not.
The closest, yet, somewhat misplaced theory is that evil comes from man’s abuse of free will. This is a true statement, but the misplacement really falls on how responsible man is for evil in this world. I covered the scriptures involving the effect of man’s fall, but the cause of the fall was Eve’s choice to disobey God’s commandments and eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is where evil entered the world and the curse instated. So naturally the blame falls to Eve for taking the first bite and Adam for continuing in the sin. It is believed that this where evil was “created,” not so. The first evidence of this is the name of the tree. It is the Knowledge of Good and EVIL. The name in itself contains the word evil, therefore evil was already in existence. We know, although not exactly, that Satan fell sometime before Adam and Eve. So, evil has predated mankind, but is not eternal.
My belief is that God created evil. No, this does not mean God is any less of a good God, but rather creator and controller of all. The moment that evil was created was the moment God gave the choice. Out of all of his love, God gave us an option to do what we wanted to do, and not be confined to the monotone life of a drone. The very moment God decided to place the fate of mankind in their hands is the moment evil was created. To put it simply, Evil came into the world directly through man and indirectly from God through the creation of free moral will.