The Problem of Evil: How Can an
All-Good, All-Powerful God Exist
and There Still Be Evil in the World?
• Dostoevsky: God and evil are not
reconcilable: evil is real, so is God,
and that situation is senseless
• Suffering (e.g., of children and animals) is
never made up and is unforgiveable. It has
no purpose or rationale: that is why faith is
not rational and does not make sense
Problem of Evil (continued)
• J. L. Mackie: attempted reconciliations
of an all-powerful, all-good God
and the existence of evil (“theodicies) fail
– Reply 1: evil is defined from our perspective
• Response: this makes evil (& good) unreal
– Reply 2: evil is needed to highlight the good
• Response: so evil is ultimately good? And
why so much evil? Why can’t God give us
such knowledge?
Problem of Evil (continued)
– Reply 3: evil is necessary to appreciate the
good; in addition, it makes us become better
moral beings
• Response: why can’t God produce good
without causing evil? Is evil ultimately
good, then, as a means? And why so much
evil (including natural evils)? What does a
dying infant learn through suffering?
Problem of Evil (continued)
• Reply 4: evil results from free choices
– Response: why wouldn’t God create a world
in which we always freely choose to do
good? To say that freedom requires that we
sometimes choose evil means that such
choices would have to be random
– Furthermore, if God truly cannot control
human choices, then he is not omnipotent
Problem of Evil (continued)
• Reply 5 (John Hick): experience of
evil is part of the process by which we
evolve into moral beings
– Response: the horrific suffering necessary
for such moral development is inconsistent
with the existence of a loving God