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The Problem of Evil

Natural Evil- Malfunctioning of the natural world, natural disastersMoral Evil- Evil resulting from human action

The Inconsistant Triad

God of classical theism is:Omnipotent- Is all powerful, could prevent evil(Genesis 1: "Let there be light, and there was light")Benevolant- Is all loving, would want to prevent evil(God named Yahweh in the bible- translates as 'God of Love')However, evil exists, therefore God cannot be possess both attributes

However- The Freewill Defence- if omnipotent is taken as meaning capable of anything logically possiblethen God may not be able to create a world where we have free will and there is no evil.Mackie says that this was no defense because God would be able to make us always choose to do theright thing of our own accord.

Augustine of Hippo

There is no such thing as evil, just a scale of goodness. Evil is a lack of goodness.There was originally no evil as God was pleased with everything he created.Natural evil came about because original sin disrupted the natural order of the world.The sin of Adam was passed onto all humans because we are all his descendants and were thereforeseminally present.We therefore deserve to be punished.God could not prevent the original sin because it was a product of freewill.However, God saves through Jesus showing he is merciful after all.Genesis: God punishes Adam and Eve by making the land hard to work and childbirth painful.

Negatives

Too much focus on Genesis- may be written to represent the qualities of God as creator rather than behistorically accurate

The snake's temptation is an example of evil before original sin.People find it hard to believe babies are worthy of punishment just for being born. This seems unjust and

an unjust God cannot be benevolant.

Contradicted by modern science and evolution

Positives

Appeals to conservative theists as the blame for evil rests with humans not God

IraneusGod could not create people perfect as in order to be so we have to choose to be good. It would not showperfect goodness if we were forced to be so.God did not create the world to maximise human pleasure but as an opportunity to "Grow into thelikeness of God".

Suffering is beneficial to us and character building.Freewill means we can choose not to be like God and this results in moral evil.

Positives

Fits in with the Christian idea of an afterlife dependant on our decisions in this life.

Negatives

Suffering is far too great for it to be seen as a learning experience- babies die very young before theyhave a chance to develop God's qualities.

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People may develop good qualities without suffering.

Suffering is not always character-building. It can result in mental illness.

Suffering is inequal.

HickWe are created an Epistemic Distance away from God and have the freewill to choose whether to move

further away from or closer to God.We wouldn't have free will if we could not choose to do evil.The world is well designed for 'Soul-making' not supreme human happiness.