The Problem of Evil

Logical problem of evil

• Deductive

• The existence of evil is logically incompatible with God’s benevolence/omnipotence/omniscience

• If evil exists, God must lack power/goodness

Ganssie

• ‘Square circle’ objection

• Believing that an all-loving, all-powerful God allows evil to exist in the world makes as much sense as a square circle

• Inconsistent triad argument

Evidential problem of evil (Rowe)

• Inductive

• Type/amount/intensity of evil makes God’s existence unlikely

• Even if some evil has purpose, extreme suffering in the world suggests no good God would permit it

Example for Rowe’s evidential problem of evil

Fawn in a fire - there is no good reason or moral lesson to be learned from a fawn painfully dying in a fire

Augustine (Inconsistent triad)

‘Either God cannot abolish evil, or He will not. If He cannot, He is not all-powerful, if we He will not He is not all-good’

JL Mackie

• Problem of evil is a ‘logical problem’

• Theists have to show their beliefs make sense

• If God is omnipotent he must have power over ‘casual laws’ ie the laws of the universe - why then does God not stop evil if he has the power to?

Dawkins

• Even with no humans, there is still suffering in the world

• Questions whether evil outweighs good

• Says religious believers struggle to defend goodness in the face of all the evil and suffering in the world

Taylor

• Why do bad people benefit off good people’s suffering

• How does this fit with God’s benevolence

Natural Evil

• Caused by nature/natural world

• Fall of the angels caused disharmony

• Either: God created/allowed natural evil OR it’s the devil’s fault

• Aquinas/Augustine: evil was not God’s intention, but a necessary part of good’s existence (privation of good)

Peter Vardy’s categorisation of natural evil

1. Animal suffering

2. Suffering caused by natural disasters

3. Pain resulting from disease

4. Pain resulting from poor design of the human body

5. Psychological illness

Moral Evil

• Evil caused by humans

• Usually with intention of causing harm

• Easier for theists to explain as evil comes from humans, not God

• BUT did God not know that we would abuse our free will?/ Why doesn’t he stop us?

Theodicy (in response to the problem of evil)

Tries to explain why God allows evil to exist while maintaining his goodness and omnipotence

Iraneus - Background

• Interpreted creation story literally

• Fall as a necessary stage in the development of humans towards perfection

• Believed God allowed evil and suffering to happen as it has its place in the universe

• Mixture of good and evil is so that humans can develop and choose a relationship with God

Developing towards perfection

• Humans are created imperfectly because we are developing towards perfection

• God’s creation is therefore imperfect

Free will

• God gave humans free will to willingly develop into God’s ‘likeness’

• This process of growth/development involves suffering

• Tyler: ‘freedom requires the possibility of choosing good instead of evil’

God’s plan

• God did not make a perfect world because evil plays an important part in his plan for humanity

• Teleological/has a purpose

  • Turns us from human animals to God’s children

• Problem of scale: some people do not grow from suffering

God is partly responsible for evil

• His creation is not perfect

• Part of his plan for humanity

• Permits evil as a consequence

Soul-making

Evil has a purpose if we are to grow and develop into perfect human beings

5 strengths of Iraneus’ soul-making theodicy

1. Swinburne: because of evil and suffering humans are given the opportunity and responsibility to ‘grow in power, freedom and knowledge’, and make a difference to the imperfect world they live in.

2. Evil exists for a purpose - part of God’s ultimate plan to help us grow spiritually.

3. Rooted in Genesis 1:26 - Biblically coherent

4. God’s epistemic distance allows genuine, free moral choice, making humans’ development from ‘image’ to ‘likeness’ more meaningful

5. Concept of humans progressively improving fits with evolution

5 weaknesses of Iraneus’ soul-making theodicy

1. Universal salvation unjust - everyone going to heaven means people can do whatever they like in this life, not grow into the likeness of God, but still be saved

2. Extreme suffering - the Holocaust was not necessary to grow into God’s likeness

3. Vulnerable individuals - sometimes suffering does cause growth, but not in babies or people with learning difficulties. Or animals, who won’t be saved anyway

4. No spiritual growth - suffering can destroy people, make them lose their faith, make them bitter

5. Value of free will questioned - does free will justify such extreme pain?

Apokatastasis

Universal salvation

Augustine - background

• Influenced by Plato

• Disagreed with Plato in that P thought the world was created with imperfections

• Took creation literally in terms of universe’s origins, but mythologically in its values and meaning

The universe is good

• God is good

• Made the universe ex nihilo and free from flaws

Aug

Evil is not a substance

• Evil is an absence of God in human beings

• The perversion of something good that already exists

  • e.g. sickness is a lack of good health

• Privation of good

• Doesn’t believe evil is a force opposed to God as it would detract from God’s omnipotence

Aug

The Fall

• Evil came into the world when humans and angels first turned away from God

  • e.g. the Fall

• All evil derives from moral choices

Aug

Free will (A)

• God created everyone with free will

• Through this he gave the possibility of actualising evil

• Because we can choose our own path, we have the possibility of choosing evil

Aug

Soul-deciding

Because of free will we can decide our own fate through individual choices

Aug

Original sin

• First sin of Adam and Eve passed onto all human beings

Aug

Natural evil as a punishment for moral evil

• First sin destroyed natural order of things God created

• ‘All evil is either a sin or a punishment for sin’ - therefore God is right not to intervene and stop suffering

Aug

Redemption through Christ

• God is still merciful and just

• Planned for humanity’s redemption through Christ’s death and resurrection

• If God was just, everyone would be punished in hell, but he sent his only Son to be the scapegoat for humanity’s sins

Aug

‘Evil comes from God’

• God allows evil things to exist and allows free will

• Didn’t believe anyone could be truly evil, because to be so meant they would have had to have goodness to start with

Aug

4 strengths of Augustine’s soul-deciding theodicy

1. Free will clears God of any responsibility for evil - humans’ fault

2. Free will shows God’s love for humanity as we have been allowed the right to choose a relationship with him

3. Genesis: Augustine’s argument is consistent with Genesis

4. Evil is not a substance therefore it cannot be part of what God Himself created

5 weaknesses of Augustine’s soul-deciding theodicy

1. Schleiermacher - logical contradiction to say that a world that has been made perfectly can have evil in it. If everything depends on God for its existence then God must be involved with humanity - are we really free…??

2. Plantinga - for God to create humans with free will would be a logical contradiction. For humans to disobey God knowledge of good and evil must have existed before the Fall.

3. Inconsistent with evolution. Also, not everyone has the same DNA, so seminally present original sin argument is void.

4. ‘Privation of good’ is insufficient - evil is a real entity through Satan (Tyler)

5. Existence of Hell is inconsistent with benevolent God. If created at the beginning of the earth, then God must have known that people would sin

Hick - distinguishing between ‘image’ and ‘likeness’ of God

• Stage 1: spiritually immature - through struggle to survive, humans can develop into spiritually mature beings

  • The Fall is a result of immature humans who are only in God’s ‘image’

• Stage 2: Grow into a relationship with God (in his ‘likeness’)

Hick - epistemic distance

• We cannot truly know of God’s existence

• If God revealed himself to us, we would follow his commands out of obedience to his authority, instead of because they are the right thing to do

• We can only grow spiritually and morally if we have faith in God and still do good because we want to, rather then because God wants us to

Peter Vardy Epistemic distance example

• The King falls in love with a peasant girl and forces her to marry him

• She doesn’t love him and only agrees to marriage because of her obedience to him and her fear of authority

Similarly, we would obey God’s authority rather than loving what is good for its own sake, which is the morally superior move ∴ most conducive to soul-making.

Hick and Natural Evil

• The world is a ‘vale of soul-making’ so the amount of evil is instrumental, it serves the purpose of developing character and could not occur in a pain-free paradise.

• Evil is instrumentally good because it allows people to develop into the likeness of God

• Pain is necessary because it teaches us what is valuable and dangerous

• Hick suggests most parents develop their kids’ character by encouraging perseverance, independence and resilience

  • Similarly, the world is not paradise, but useful for soul-making

Hick: strengths

• Influential among Christians who are faced with suffering

• God has a plan and it will result in something in good

Are Augustine’s view of the origins of moral and natural evils enough to spare God from blame for suffering and evil in the world?

Possible solutions to the logical problem of evil

3 reasons that God is responsible for evil

1. Dostoyevsky: how dysteleological (meaningless) suffering could have any purpose - what kind of God would allow innocent suffering?

2. Logical problem of evil: highlights logical inconsistencies in the incoherent triad

3. Evidential problem of evil: highlights overwhelming amount of evil and suffering in the world. Even if some suffering is needed to warn us of dangers, is there too much?

3 reasons that God is not responsible for evil

1. Evil as the privation of good - God cannot create a lack of something and so cannot have created evil

2. God allows evil and suffering for a purpose but is not wholly to blame. Free will is valuable in that it allows humans to make choices

3. Swinburne argues God should not be made responsible for evil because free will is essential to being human

Privatio boni

Augustine: an absence of goodness