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The Problem of Evil: How Can an All-Good, All-Powerful God Exist and There Still Be Evil in the World?

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

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The Problem of Evil: How Can an All-Good, All-Powerful God Exist and There Still Be Evil in the World?

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  1. 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

  2. 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?

  3. 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?

  4. 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

  5. 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

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