Religious believers need to think about evil and suffering, because if God is all-loving and all-powerful (omnipotent) then why does he let evil into the world and allow people to suffer? He knows what is going to happen (for example he probably knows when the next earthquake is about to happen, and where it will happen), and he can easily stop it, and if he is all-loving and he cares for us why doesn’t he stop it instead of putting us through all that trauma? This is a theological problem, as it challenges the nature of God. It shows God as being vindictive, in a way he enjoys watching us suffer. If he was really all-loving and omnipotent he would stop it immediately. So for God to let this carry on happening again and again, it questions the fact of whether he is actually omnipotent and all-loving after all.
Evil and suffering is a philosophical problem, because it causes the believer to accept conflicting claims, which is logically impossible to reconcile. For a theist God is omnipotent, because he created everything. He grants eternal life and makes everything good. To a believer God is all-loving, as well as omnipotent, because he is all merciful-for Christians he gave his own son to suffer and die for them (the atonement). So it would be hard for them to not believe that God is all loving and omnipotent. Yet if evil and suffering still exist then it does actually question whether he is or not. Often a theist doesn’t have a satisfactory answer to why evil and suffering exist if there is a loving and all-powerful God, when asked. So his/her belief is less than rational, and there is no reason why an atheist should share it. However, for your own personal faith it doesn’t really matter if you don’t know the answer to why evil exists if God is all-loving and powerful, because you’ll still have faith in God and believe. Although if you want to tell others, and you cant explain this then they wont believe in God. Really you can’t expect others to have this belief, you need to try and explain it, as its not rational and logical.
Therefore, this is why many people find it difficult to believe in an all-loving and omnipotent God, because they can see all the evil and suffering that exists in the world today.
The Irenaean theodicy was named after a Bishop of Lyons, in the second century. The theodicy states that God created human beings in his image and likeness (Genesis1:26). Human nature is a process of growth and there are two stages. The first is that we are intelligent animals, with the capacity for development, and the second is that we are transformed into “children of God”. In other words, we are not created perfect, but we have the ability/capacity to change, we can become perfect through developing. This transformation from stage one to two is a process of growth. The process is from being created in the image of God to becoming like God (“In the likeness of God”-Genesis 1).
This theodicy deals with the challenge of having evil and suffering in the world even though God is an omnipotent and all-loving figure, by stating that it is the evil and suffering which enables this transformation to take place. It is the thing that helps us to grow towards the likeness of God. God’s purpose is not the construction of a paradise with perfect people, but a place of ‘soul-making’, so evil and suffering enable us to grow towards being children of God. An example of growth through evil and suffering may include bereavement. It makes you stronger, as it helps you to deal with tough situations you are faced with. It can sometimes make you see the world in a different way. Also it may make you more compassionate. Another example, could be failing an exam. Next time it will make you work harder, and you’ll strive in order to achieve, and you will probably achieve a better grade. Both these examples of suffering and evil help you to gain wisdom through experience. However, it could be argued that this is not always the case, even though this theodicy says that it is. It all depends on what you are like as a person. It can make you strong or it can make you bitter and angry, it can make you lose you faith or turn to crime. It all depends on the situation, and what happened to you. Sometimes you can grow in an evil way, for example often people who have been abused grow up to abuse.
In some parts of the theodicy Irenaes appeared to be quite vague, so John Hick ( a modern day philosopher) developed the theodicy further. He wrote a book called “evil and the God of love”. He said God wants us to have a relationship with him based on love, faith and trust- trusting that he will be there for you. As its based on love and trust you have got to want the relationship, and not be forced into it. God doesn’t really want to be like a ‘mother’, otherwise he would be forever ‘popping ion’ on you’, and you wouldn’t be choosing to have the relationship with him. Therefore God has to give you free will and some ‘space’. We have to make the choice of worshipping him. This distance that God keeps is called an epistemic distance.
Hick also said that someone who comes to perfection via overcoming evil and suffering, has greater moral worth than a perfect being, because the person has grown and will have gained qualities along the way. In other words we are better people if we’ve grown to perfection, rather than God just putting us on earth perfect (so we need evil and suffering in the world to make us better people).
Therefore, God commits evil, because he has made the worls a “vale of soul-making”, so that characters can be built towards perfection. It is a bit like an obstacle course, you overcome different hurdles in life and as you get older/more experienced the obstacles become more difficult and serious. You end up growing and getting closer to God. (this idea that man has potential to be perfect and eventually like God is also in the Old Testament.)
In conclusion the Irenaen theodicy sets out to explain why evil and suffering exists in the world even though there is an all loving and omnipotent God out there. It states that it is not mans fault that natural evil exists, but it is God who created evil for our own good, so that we can choose good and grow towards and like God. Evil brings about perfection and goodness in the end so God is all loving after all. This is a good theodicy to use to account for the existence of evil and suffering.
