'If evil occurs, is it any more difficult to explain if God exists than if Gods does not exist?'

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‘IF EVIL OCCURS, IS IT ANY MORE DIFFICULT

 TO EXPLAIN IF GOD EXISTS THAN IF GOD

DOES NOT EXIST?’

ADEEBA NASEEM (LAW LL.B.. 3YR)

PHILOSOPHY MODULE: THE GOD QUESTION

WORD COUNT: 2265

INTRODUCTION.

In a world of great suffering and distress our beliefs are very important to us.  Many of us choose to turn to God to help us cope and guide us, and some simply choose not to.  But here are some that deny the existence of a God, pointing to the very same suffering as evidence which refutes the possibility of the existence of God.  This argument between theists and Atheists is years old.

I intend to look at this argument in further detail and find which side of the argument is more difficult to explain and sustain.  This is the structure in which I hope to attempt it:

  • Assess the existence of the phenomena evil.
  • Evaluate the attributes of the theistic God in the order of; Omnipotence, Benevolence and Omniscience, considering both theist and atheist arguments in relation to these.
  • Concluding comments and thoughts.

DOES EVIL EXIST?

‘Evil exists in the world.  God exists.  God is Omnipotent, Omniscience and Benevolent.’

To begin we will deal with whether evil exists as that is what all arguments concerned hinge upon.  If evil exists then the contention is that a good God cannot.  If it can be logically proved that evil doesn’t exist then the phenomena doesn’t pose a problem for the theist who believes God does indeed exist.

It has been argued that evil is an illusion but this is rather detached form the harsh reality of human suffering that we see and hear about across the world everyday.  The wars, diseases, earthquakes, the human torture and the drugs seem too real to be an illusion.  The sheer quantity of evil is proof of it’s existence.  Evil is a definite reality because it causes pain and takes lives.  This weighs heavily on the side of God’s non-existence.

However, this has been taken by some to not necessarily mean that a good God does not exist. In fact one of the main arguments is that evil is part of God’s greater design, that suffering is a necessary condition created by a good God, for our moral developments as free agents.  To basically give us the freedom of choice between good and evil.  

DOES A OMNIPOTENT, OMNISCIENT AND BENEVOLENT GOD EXIST?

As we have seen through evidence and logic evil exists.  This is the most powerful weapon an atheist employs to claim God’s non-existence.  They argue that if there is a God, an all powerful (omnipotent) God then he wouldn’t have permitted evil or would have protected us from it.  If there is a wholly good (benevolent) God then he would not want us to suffer pain and unhappiness.  If God knows everything (omniscient), then he should  amount of evil and suffering there would be in the world and would prevent it.  The existence of such a theistic God is improbable.

OMNIPOTENCE

The theist would reply that simply because God is capable of preventing evil, doesn’t mean that he should or will.

If God is omnipotent then there’s nothing that he cannot control, including human actions.  If man commits an evil then does it mean that God is the author of that evil?  No, although God could control human actions, he chooses not to by giving us free will and so does not determine the amount of evil humans create.  Choosing not to exercise one’s powers doesn’t imply that one simply never had them in the first place, so free will is no threat to God’s omnipotence or existence.

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If there’s to be a world of free human agents then it must be possible for them to bring about moral evil.  If thwarted in doing so they wouldn’t be really free.  But then the atheist can point out that a being that is free to choose only good could have been created.  However, a being that is free to choose only good is the same as a being that is forced to choose only good - where then is the freedom?  What purpose could there be for God to direct people to be good - none.  Although it ...

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