Augustine concluded his argument by saying how God is not as unfair as we think. If God were unfair we would all be sent to hell before our judgement, and God sacrificed his own flesh and blood to save some of us. Therefore God is not evil, God is merciful and just.
Irenaeus (AD 130-202) followed Augustine in tracing evil back to human free will. Irenaeus states that human ‘goodness’ comes from humans’ response when making moral decisions in an imperfect world. When humans resist temptation, it is much more valuable as a ‘lesson learnt’ than if ‘goodness’ had been an intrinsic feature of human beings. Therefore Irenaeus believes that humans were not created in a state of perfection but in a state of imperfection which will lead onto a state of perfection. Also if Humans were created with knowledge of their creator they would not have the complete freedom to do as they wished, so human kind had to be created at a knowledge distance from God; epistemic distance. Humans are formed within a universe where God does not have a great impact on their lives however can be known through faith but this depends on the individual. In our lives we have choices and it is through these life choices that we develop into ‘good’ creatures and into the ‘likeness’ of God. In order for us to develop morally toward God we had to be created and exist at a distance from him, therefore there had to be evil in the world. Natural evil (for example famine) had a divine purpose which was for us to develop qualities such as compassion. Therefore unlike Augustine, Irenaeus believes that God is partly responsible for evil. Irenaeus saw evil as a necessary part of life, something that will eventually make us into better people.
Irenaeus sees the world as being unfinished and that we are moving towards a perfect world without evil but we have not reached it yet. God’s purpose was not to create a paradise where the world was free of pain and suffering, but as a place where we can develop our souls and where we can become children of God’. God wants us to develop through our free will to become ‘children’. The only way we can achieve this, we must be epistemically distanced from God in order to give us the perfect environment to develop both spiritually and morally into ‘good’ individuals. Without evil and suffering this could not happen. Irenaeus explains that humans did choose evil, which is why ‘The Fall’ happened. Although evil clearly makes life difficult it is needed to help us understand what good is. Free will is a part of our being and taking away evil would be taking away our free will.
To conclude, Irenaeus thought that the existence of evil actually serves a purpose. He sees man as having been created imperfect and immature who then has to develop morally and spiritually to achieve perfection intended by God. This process is referred to s ‘soul-making’. From this point of view, evil is a means to an end. The world of good and evil is essential for us to move towards perfection so that we can fulfill God’s purpose.
(b) ‘The existence of natural evil destroys any argument that God is good’ Discuss.
This problem itself occurs because of certain qualities which religious believers believe God to have, and the consequences of these qualities due to the natural evil in the world. These qualities are omnibenevolence, omnipotence, and omniscience. Most religious believers would not want to deny these qualities, however these questions may be asked. How could a good God create a world with evil in it? Why doesn’t our ‘good God’ do something to prevent this evil in our world? This is a problem which Irenaeus and Augustine have tied to solve in their theodicies, however some may not find these arguments convincing.
D. Z. Phillips argued in response to Irenaus’ theodicy, that it would never be justifiable to hurt someone in order to help them. It could be said that God could never be seen as good if he is allowing all this suffering in our world, regardless of any reasons God may have for this.
Some people may believe that it is logically impossible to believe that both evil, and a good and powerful God exist in the same reality, for such a God certainly could and would destroy evil. We have evidence of so much evil that is of such horrendous intensity in our world. For what reason would a good and powerful God allow the amount and kinds of evil that we see around us? When an atheist challenges belief in God on the basis of the problem of evil, he is suggesting that it is irrational or logically impossible to believe in the existence of both a good and all powerful God where there is also an existence of evil and suffering. Such a God would not possibly allow evil to exist.
The existence of evil is also a problem to religious believers because it contradicts the Judaic and Christian concept of God, which states that God is all loving and all-powerful. Natural evil cannot be blamed on humans (e.g. natural disasters such as earthquakes). If God was all loving and all-powerful he would not allow this kind of evil to exist; and so therefore he cannot be the most powerful or loving being.
However other religious believers may believe that God created free will and therefore we are able to choose between good or evil, so evil and suffering comes from human misuse of freewill. Another is that in this world we must live in a way that improves our soul and allows us to get in to heaven, so to act in a good way, evil has to exist. A third response is that God is the most highly intelligent and knowledgeable being in the universe so he may have reasons that the human mind cannot comprehend. A fourth response is that suffering is a punishment from God, suffering is a use for God to test us and that suffering stops people from straying away from their belief in God.
The 18th century philosopher David Hume used the idea of a triangle, on which to base his argument. One side says, ‘God is all powerful’, the other says ‘God is all powerful’ and the third side says ‘evil does not exist’. Hume stated that only 2 of the 3 can exist, and the existence of evil and suffering cannot be denied. Therefore one of the other statements about God is not true. Either God is all-powerful, but does not care for the world, or God loves the world, yet is not powerful enough to do anything about the evil and suffering. Either way it is looked at this means that the religious believer is lead to have doubts about God. They may question whether God is actually as powerful or as loving as is said.
