Philosophy - The Problem of Evil.

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Angelina Ibragimov

Philosophy 116

05/17/03

                                             The Problem of Evil

       I was always raised to believe that there is a God in the world who is responsible for everything that happens in our daily lives. This belief makes the most sense to me and makes me feel complete. However, I also know that there are people in this world who don’t believe in God’s existence and have logical arguments like the problem of evil to back them up. Philosophers like Hume and Mackie, argue that if God were omni benevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient, he would not allow evil to exist. However, evil exists (a lot of it), and makes the belief in God irrational and inconsistent. Although this is an excellent argument against the existence of God, I strongly disagree because I don’t find that the problem of evil casts any doubt for God’s existence. In fact, “evil is just the absence of good”, like Augustine once said.

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     First of all, I will use the free will defense and argue that we cannot hold God accountable for freely chosen actions. Evil exists because we chose it to. We, as free agents can choose between right and wrong. Through this we can justify our actions. What kind of world would we lead if everything was already decided for us and all we would have to do is perform it? God, although knows how we will choose, plays absolutely no role in our process of choosing. When we choose the wrong from right, we are creating evil, but ...

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