Problem of evil
The "problem of evil" is an argument, based on the existence of suffering and cruelty, against the existence of a god, as far as God is described by Jews, Christians and Muslims. In fact it predates Christianity by at least three hundred years, having been first proposed by the Greek philosopher Epicurus.
Theodicy is the formal theological study of how (and whether) evil can co-exist with an omnipotent, omnibenevolent God.
In the Old Testament period there was an attempt to create a tight one-for-one relationship between sin and death, righteousness and life. Unfortunately, this rarely panned out. The wicked often flourished, became rich and lived long, healthy, productive lives. The poor often fell sick and were cut short from the blessings of life. This flawed theodicy was applied on the national scale regarding Israel. When the nation failed in battle with the Canaanites or were conquered by the Assyrians and Babylonians and Greeks, prophets arose to offer an explanation in terms of a failure to correctly observe the Law. Jeremiah even said the Jews were exiled to allow the land to observe the sabbaths for 70 years to make up for their collective failure to keep the sabbaths. When you get out to the Shoah of the 1930's and 40s, or the Holocaust, with six million Jews slain, the people began to wonder maybe Yahweh was a little bit too focused on how his sabbaths were to be observed.
The argument
It takes the following form;
- A God that is all powerful would be able to prevent evil and suffering.
- A God that is all knowing would know that evil and suffering happen.
- A God that is all loving would want to end evil and suffering.
But evil and suffering happen.
Therefore a God that is all powerful, all knowing, and all loving does not exist.
Examples of uses of the argument
Humorous example
Andrew Schlafly exists, and has not been smote by God.
Humorless examples
- “Why did he not answer the prayers of the imprisoned, of the helpless? And when he heard the lash upon the naked back of the slave, why did he not also hear the prayer of the slave? And when children were sold from the breasts of mothers, why was he deaf to the mother's cry?”[1]
(Robert Ingersoll writing in the 19th Century)
- “Why do earthquakes, forest fires, hurricanes, tsunamis exist? Surely an all-powerful God could have created a nice Earth for his "precious creations" without all this nonsense going on. Without God creating hurricanes, New Orleans would still be going strong. Did God have something against New Orleans?”
- If all these things can be thought of by a human mind, how did the almighty one not realize these things during creation? [2]
(Anonymous 21st Century poster on the Internet Infidels Discussion Board).
- "Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
(Epicurus)
Humerus example
- "If someone evil breaks someone else's arm, why does God take so long to heal it?" - anon.
Nuts to questions of existence
A stronger formulation runs thus:
- If an omnipotent deity allows suffering to happen, then it is not worth worshipping.
- Suffering happens.
- Therefore any existent omnipotent deity is not worth worshipping.
Can't or won't
A god who can't end evil and suffering is not omnipotent. A god who won't end evil and suffering is not omnibenevolent. The question then becomes: "if God exists, which explanation, can't or won't, is there for the problem of evil?"
While the "can't" explanation gives us a deity that is less than omnipotent, it does not speak to the willingness of the deity to do something about the problem.
The "won't" explanation is far more problematic for it implies a conscious decision not to act. The deity that won't act on the problem of evil is either non-omnibenevolent, or has since stepped back from the material universe.
Responses
A theist's typical response to the problem of evil is to explain that God has purposes for every instance of evil and suffering, be it to punish sinners, to test the faithful, or to make a point about something.
When challenged about specific cases, they will often say that the God has a plan for everyone and everything, but his ways are mysterilous and his reasons may be unclear to us (or words to that effect). This doesn't resolve the problem of evil; it only tells us that it is none of our business.