Some Christians say that Evil does not exist, it is merely an absence of good. St Augustine first suggested this view in the fourth century. He said that all things were created good, but because of free will it was possible for things to grow away from good and become evil. However, he added, that what appears evil may be good in the context of eternity.
There was a great deal of talk about evil in the weeks following the Dumblane massacre. A parent at the school said, “Today we have been visited by evil”. Some Christians said the devil had corrupted Thomas Hamilton and this drove him to mass murder. But others said he committed his awful crime because of a psychological phenomenon i.e. the way his character was shaped by his surroundings due to a bad upbringing by his parents or the type of friends he had.
Most Christians say evil is strongly related to suffering. The bible contains many examples of human suffering: natural disasters (non-moral evil), Slavery, Wars, refugee crises, Persecution, Plagues, Mass murder, Genocide, Executions. They affect the good as well as the bad. They affect God’s followers as much as their enemies.
One whole book of the Old Testament – Job – is devoted to the problem of suffering. Job is a good man who suffers total disaster. His children are killed, he loses all his property and possessions, and he is afflicted by a painful and disfiguring skin disease. The book offers three possible explanations for Job’s suffering:
Suffering is a test – God is allowing Satan to test Job to see if he deserts God. When, despite his suffering, Job does not lose his faith in God, he is rewarded.
Suffering is a punishment for Sin – Job’s friends were very keen on this idea. They tell Job he must have sinned greatly to suffer so much. They encourage him to search his life for unconfessed sins and to repent. Job protests that he has always been faithful and good. When God eventually speaks, God rejects the second idea, and accuses Job’s friends of being wrong-minded. God introduces the third idea instead.
Suffering is a part of God’s plan, which is beyond Human understanding – Humans just have to accept what they cannot understand. God does not say what the plan is; we never know.
As if to confirm that suffering is a necessary part of being human, Christians also point to the suffering of Jesus who, as a man, suffered greatly. As Jesus prayed before his death, he said, “The sorrow in my heart is so great that it almost crushes me,” (Mark 14:34). He was executed in an excruciatingly painful way, by crucifixion. Just before he died, he shouted out, “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” (Mark 15:34). He also said, “It is accomplished!” (John 19:30), suggesting that his suffering had a purpose.
That purpose was the resurrection of Jesus. It showed that suffering is an unavoidable part of human life, but if you stay away from Satan and evil you will be rewarded in the Kingdom of Heaven.
But many people say that God does not exist at all. They say that, since God is apparently “all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowing (omniscient) and all-loving (omnibenevolent), surely he should be able to prevent suffering. However, people do suffer, so maybe God doesn’t know about human suffering. If this is true, then God cannot be omniscient.
Maybe God can’t do anything about human suffering. If this is true, then God cannot be omnipotent.
Maybe God doesn’t care about human suffering, or is even causing the human suffering. If this is true, them maybe God isn’t omnibenevolent.
If God is not omnibenevolent, omnipotent and omniscient then maybe there isn’t a God after all.
Epicurus (342 – 270BCE) was a Greek philosopher who claimed that, since evil can be found in the world, therefore there cannot be a God. His argument against God can be seen below:
1) God is all-powerful
2) God is perfectly good
3) Evil exists
4) If God exists, then there would be no evil
5) There is evil
6) Therefore God does not exist
But Christians protest that there is a God. They say that he is all-powerful, all-loving and all-knowing even though evil and suffering exist in the world. They say that, since God gave us free will, we are capable of doing either good or evil. If we choose to do evil, then that is our decision and God cannot be blamed or hated for not helping us when the suffering is of our own making. This idea was endorsed by Rene Descartes, “The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices,”
Nearly all Christians believe that God gives people free will. They live their lives as they choose. I God interfered every time people did something that would cause harm to themselves or others then people would be puppets of God. Without free will there would be no point to their lives. God has shown how people should live. Humans decide whether or not to follow God’s instructions. They take the consequences of their decisions.
Genesis 1 – 3 suggests that the world was once without suffering. Then Adam (of his own free will) ate fruit that God had forbidden him (Original Sin). God punished Adam’s disobedience with pain and hard work. Irrespective of whether Christians believe this story is literally true, it is still retold to illustrate how humans with free will have a tendency towards not doing what God wants them to do. Much suffering can be traced back to human failings
Many Christians believe that evil can only cause suffering and pain when it is not stopped by good people. This idea was explained when Edmund Burke said, “ The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”
