The Problem of Evil

1
The Problem of Evil

• Weber State University
• Spring 2007
• PHIL 1000

2
The Position of Classical Theism

• Traditional Conception of God
• God is omniscient (all-knowing)
• God is omnipotent (all-powerful)
• God is omnibenevolent (all-good)

3
Evil is pervasive

• The world contains a great deal of evil
• Osama Bin Laden is evil because he seeks to
  destroy all Westerners.
• Kim Jong-Il is evil because he likes to play with
  nuclear weapons that could potentially destroy
  the world as we know it.
• Abusive fathers and mothers

4
The Problem of Evil

• How can we reconcile the existence of a
  traditional conception of God with the existence
  of pain, suffering, and moral evil which we know
  to be facts of life?

5
Two Kinds of Evil

• Moral evil bad actions and there unfortunate
  results for which humans are morally responsible.
• Natural evil the suffering to humans resulting
  from natural causes such as genetic defects,
  diseases, earthquakes, and tornadoes.

6
The Theists Burden

• Why would God allow either moral or natural evils
  to occur in the world (esp. in light of Gods
  omnipotence, omniscience, and omnibenevolence)?

7
What ought we believe?

• If we can reconcile them, then God exists
• If we cannot reconcile the two facts, then the
  problem constitutes grounds for disbelief in God.

8
Whats the argument for disbelief in God?

• Evil shows that the existence of God is unlikely.
  (premise)
• If there is both evil in the world and God
  exists, then believers in Gods existence are
  caught in a contradiction. (premise)
• So, God does not exist. (1,2)

9
Evil is an illusion

• Evil is an illusion, an error of the mortal
  mind.
• Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science,
  writes, Sin, disease, whatever seems real to
  material sense, is unreal All inharmony of
  mortal mind or body is illusion, possessing
  neither reality nor identity thought seeming to
  be real and identical.

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Problems with the Illusion Counterargument

• First, can any rational person seriously hold
  that the hunger of a starving child is simply an
  illusion?
• Even if evil is an illusion, it is a painful one,
  and it is therefore false that evil is nothing
  but illusion.

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Evil is punishment

• Evil is punishment which is justly inflicted by
  God.
• Albert Camus writes, Calamity has come upon you
  my brethren, and, my brethren, you deserved it.

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Problem with the Desert Counterargument

• Can we say that a baby born with some horrendous
  affliction has done anything for which it can be
  regarded as justly inflicted punishment?

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Lawheads Reconstruction of the Problem of Evil
Argument

• God is perfectly good. (premise)
• God is all-knowing. (premise)
• God is all-powerful. (premise)
• Evil exists. (premise)
• If God exists and is a being who is all-good,
  all-knowing, and all-powerful, then there would
  be no evil in the world. (premise)
• Therefore, God does not exist. (1-5)

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Take away one of Gods attributes

• God might not be all-good. If God is not
  all-good, then perhaps the evil arose from blind
  fate.
• God might not be all-knowing. If God is not
  all-knowing, then he might not be able to predict
  the future with any degree of accuracy and we are
  left to make choices freely.

15
Take away one of Gods attributes

• God might not be all-powerful. If nature and
  human agents have any degree of autonomy and
  power at all, then God is limited in what God can
  do to eliminate evil.

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Theodicy

• The belief that God permits some evils to exist
  and that these evils are justified or unavoidable
  is to work out a position known as a Theodicy.
• A theodicy is a justification of Gods permitting
  evil to occur in the world.

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The Greater Goods Defense

• Some evils are necessary to achieve certain good
  ends. (premise)
• The good achieved outweighs the evil encountered.
  (premise)
• Therefore, evil is a necessary element in Gods
  creation. (1,2)

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Other Defenses

• The Free Will Defense
• The Natural Order Defense