In a world full of hate, pain and suffering, many people often wonder how a loving, omnipotent God would allow such unnecessary evils exist. The fact that evil's existence is a reality contradicts the argument for a loving God. If both a theistic God and unnecessary evil exist, then God must have, in all his wisdom, good reason for they're having evil in the world. In this paper, I am going to explain the argument "The Problem of Evil" or at least attempt to find reason and find a clear understanding of why things are the way they are. Perhaps also show how things could have been had thing of this world been different (a wholly perfect world). Furthermore, looking deeper into the argument, I could provide some criticisms regarding the premises of the problem of evil.
Looking into the theistic view, the first premise of the argument states that God, provided that He exists, is omnipotent, omniscient, and is a wholly good being. In justifying this premise of the argument, we can declare the God is an all-powerful, all-knowing and divinely benevolent being as a standard fact. Therefore using the theistic view, we can accept that this premise is true. However, the second premise states that there are evil in the world. Evil that is logically unnecessary for the occurrence of a good that outweighs it. Since God, in all his glorious power, could have made a perfectly good world free from any presence of evil but did not do so, one may question the accuracy of the theistic view of God's moral character. In other words, the possibility that a greater good world could have been attained resulting from minor set backs of pain and suffering. (Looking deeper into the concept of evil, philosophers may ask if evil is a necessity for there to be good. Is goodness' existence dependent of evil or badness)? In doing so, one may be lead to ask if evil and goodness are two opposite sides of the same concept, and is dependent with each other. Therefore, one may conclude that it is false to believe in the existence of omnipotent, omniscient a wholly good Being. This may even open up the possibility that perhaps God doesn't have one or many of the attributes a theistic believer believes.
The fact that duality exist in all things (good and bad, hot and cold, sadness and happiness, pain and pleasure) could possibly contradict the view of a one sided wholly good God. Thus questioning the origins of evil remains a mystery.
It is true that we all live in a world filled with corruption and an abundant amount of evil. Evil deeds such as greed or inflicting pain on others are man made evils, but there are also natural evils, perhaps the concept of pain itself or the suffering of someone has to go through before dying. Evil exists is many forms but one must reflect and meditate if such things as simple as pain can be considered a form of evil. Its is true that pain gives us unpleasant feelings, but just because it doesn't agree with what we think are pleasurable or something that gives us joy, does not fully determine the evil in the natural gifts of God. To most people, pain may be considered bad since they feel it doesn't do them any good. But what God, in all his wisdom, may think is good might be far above the level of what man believes is good. Something man may never fully understand. In addition, feelings and emotion plays a big role in man's judgment of what is considered moral. As in the child dying of cancer, perhaps feeling pity for the suffering the child is going through, blind man's perspective to what is good. Since, in a way, looking into a different perspective, a healthy person should be thankful and happy he doesn't have to go through such misery. Could a person even distinguish what pleasure feels like without ever knowing what it is to feel pain? In doing so, what if man never feels any feelings at all? Would that still be considered good? Such questions would be left unanswered in the case of there having no pain and suffering in the world. Pain can then be viewed in a negative perspective where such feelings are not pleasurable, or a gift from God knowing how it feels to be alive and the ability of man distinguishing it from what pleasure feel like. In other words, it all depends on how man views a concept, which decides if things are good or evil. These concepts may be different from what God think is good.
Moving deeper into the concept of pain and suffering, what good could possibly come from the existence of these unpleasant feelings? As in the child dying of cancer and the suffering the family of the child feels with it, perhaps God is merely testing people into making a choice. Where it is up to each individual to choose which path of action a family member may take, may it be for worse where the child's family would suffer depression and trauma from the experience, or perhaps a good outcome where the family, not being able stand seeing their child suffer would dedicate their lives into helping other through medical careers. Thus a greater good comes out from an evil situation. And although, people may choose the wrong path, it was not God who made the decision for them, He has only given them the choices, but the choice was still up to them to decide. As for the child suffering from cancer, perhaps it is a gift and an honor to be chosen by God and to be used as an instrument for a possible greater good for mankind. The child may not necessarily agree or even like what God has planned for him, and that in itself can be considered an evil deed by many, but only God knows what the future holds and possibly the child's fate is good in God's eyes. Such are concepts of good, which man may never understand.
In all things, we must also consider that goodness also exist in the world. As much as there are evil in the world, I would say that the world is not as evil as it can be. I could imagine a far more evil dominated world, perhaps a war torn planet, filled with lethal diseases and viruses where all people would just die within a few weeks after birth. Same concept goes the other way around where what man thinks is a better world are the visions and expectations of what heaven could be. So the world we live in is filled with both good and evil, not necessarily equal, but somewhat neutral. A person may be suffering from a disease somewhere across the globe, while a group of healthy students at a university could be discussing Philosophy at peace and having fun doing so. My point is the world isn't such an evil world and I believe that the world is a better world than an evil place to live.
In the story of creation, God has created the universe, the stars, the planets and constellations. Within this universe, God created the world and all that lives in it. God has created man. As the Bible says God has created man in his image. Upon man's creation, God has given man the gift of freewill, the freedom to choose his own course of action. But being a wholly good being, however, God is not capable of doing evil. Man, on the other hand, has been given the ability to choose his own way whether it may be the path to goodness or go astray into the darkness that is evil. Man, unlike God is not perfect, and do wrong decisions, thus evil in the world is not the cause of God but by man's own misdirection from follow the path of being morally good. But then, why didn't God just make man a perfectly good being such like Him? God did not do so, maybe because he found that the gift of freewill and man choosing to do good out of his own heart is a much higher level of goodness. Moreover, having no freewill, we humans would be nothing more than mindless robots who may think we have freedom of choice when we really don't. In doing so God would be deceptive in some form, and would then be doing evil. An action that would go against his characteristic of being a wholly good being.
As much as man do evil in the world, some evils are of natural causes. An example of which was the child dying of cancer. A child suffers an incredible amount of pain, pain that could have been better off not existing at all. Even in non-humans, philosophers may question why even the simplest living creatures have to suffer when such agony doesn't normally lead to a greater good. Animals suffer from pain just as much as humans do. In answering this question, one must again meditate if pain is evil or a gift.
For my conclusion, I conclude that God and the existence of evil in the world co-exists. God did not create evil, but evil are man made. The things we consider natural evils (pain and suffering) are concepts we base on emotion and feelings, and are therefore are biased and short of what God may consider is good. Other than this, the fact that evil exist could also open up the possibility that maybe God, being omnipotently powerful, can do evil provided that a greater good will come out from it. God being omnipotent and omniscient perhaps has a divine plan for mankind, which only through the path of doing minor evil will lead, to a greater good. Divine motives which man is not capable of understanding.
THe Problem Of Evil
ESSAY: "THE PROBLEM OF EVIL"
- Karlo V. Miranda -
- Philosophy 365: Religion -
- December 6 1999 -