The pay-off for this is the abuse of freedom that we see around us. Free agents sometimes choose to abuse their freedom, to do wrong. The wrong that we do, though, the suffering that we cause, great though it may be, is a price worth paying for something that is profoundly valuable: genuine freedom. Though God could have prevented evil by creating a world of automata, it is a good thing that he did not. Would you create a world of robots or a world of freedom and love?
The free-will defence is, I believe, a partial success. I believe that it is correct to say that it is better that the world contain agents with significant freedom than that it contains only automata, and I believe that much of the evil that we see around us is a consequence of the abuse of this freedom. Not all evil, however, can be explained in this way. There is much evil that is not inflicted by man. Natural disasters, for example, cause great destruction, but there is nothing that we have done that causes them and there is often nothing that we could have done to prevent them. This brings us to a second response to the problem of evil.
The second response to the problem of evil is that the existence of evil is a necessary condition for the existence of certain kinds of good. There are a number of character traits that are valuable only if evil exists. Compassion, for instance, is of great value, but can only exist if there is suffering. Bravery, too, is a virtue, but only if we sometimes face danger. Self-sacrifice is another great good, but can only exist if there is inter-dependence, if some people find themselves in situations where they need help from others.
God created us in such a way that we would depend upon one another, that we would be drawn together to form a community. If each of us were self-sufficient, safe from suffering, then the great goods that come from this would not have been possible.
Again, I believe that there is something to this response to the problem of evil, but that it does not resolve the problem entirely. Though it is clear, I think, that much suffering is justified, that the world would be a worse place without it, it is still simple to point to specific examples of suffering that appear to serve no greater purpose. Each of us has tragedies in our lives, and it seems to us as though the world would have been a better place without those instances of suffering.
The problem of evil, then, must be recast as the problem of unjustified evil. It is clear, for the reasons described above, that not all evil is unjustified. Some evil is brought into the world not by God but by man, and it is better that free agents and some evil exist than that no free agents and no evil exist. Some evil serves a greater purpose, making it possible to see why God allows it to exist. The existence of evil is therefore not evidence against the existence of God; it is only the existence of unjustified evil, evil that serves no greater purpose, that presents a problem for theism.
This revision of the argument from evil, however, introduces into it a point of weakness: though it is obvious that some evil exists, it is less obvious that any unjustified evil exists; unexplained evil, yes, but unjustified? Every event has unforeseeable consequences; a butterfly flapping its wings on one side the pacific can cause a hurricane to strike on the other, and a single word of encouragement or rebuke can make or break someone’s life. It is impossible for us to know, in our finitude, the full consequences of any given event. It is therefore impossible for us to know, with any degree of certainty, whether any given instance of suffering is unjustified, or whether it serves some greater purpose.
This points us to a third way of approaching the problem of evil. The problem of evil argues in one direction, from the existence of evil to the non-existence of God: If there were an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent God then there wouldn’t be any evil, but there is evil, and there therefore can’t be an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent God. Those who believe in God, however, can argue in the opposite direction, from the existence of God to the non-existence of unjustified evil: If there were an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent God then there wouldn’t be any unjustified evil, there is an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent God, and there therefore cannot be any unjustified evil.
Another problem with the fact that God can control everything is that if God was to step in at every opportunity the world couldn’t have science, as there would be a God controlling the things around us. If God was to randomly change the things around us scientists could not create the rules of basic physics. For example if God was to stop a person falling off a cliff that would go against the rules of gravity.
As God could not save everyone in the world a man could be pushed off a cliff by another person thinking that God would save him and in fact he would fall to his death. This would be an unpredictable thing and would destroy the fundamental forces that control the planet we live on. Using this fact this means that God is almost chained to watch the world he created advance with out his help.
When we suffer from evil we should draw comfort from reflecting on Scriptures, which assure us that God knows and cares about our situation, people could say that this fact shows that God is doing something to help us through the pain we are suffering. The psalmist tells us that "the Lord is near to the brokenhearted" (Ps. 34:18), and that when we go through the "valley of the shadow of death" it is then that his presence is particularly promised to us (Ps. 23:4). Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord said, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you" (Isa. 49:15). He is more mindful of us than is a nursing mother toward her child! It is of the One whom we know as the "God of all comfort and Father of mercies" that Peter speaks when He bids us to cast our anxieties on Him, "for He cares for us" (1 Pet. 5:7). Our cares are his personal concern!
This will not persuade the atheist, but it shows that discussion of the problem of evil at best results in a stalemate. It is impossible to prove that unjustified evil exists, and it is therefore impossible to use the existence of unjustified evil to prove that God does not exist. Those who believe in God can comfort themselves with the thought that all suffering serves a purpose, that, though it may be impossible for us to fathom the mind of God, God works all things to the good.
