The Problem of Evil

How can a God who is completely good allow evil to exist in the world?

“Natural” Evil “Moral” Evil

Two Kinds of Evil

Two Kinds of Evil

“Natural” evils are things like hurricanes, tornados, diseases, and so forth that do not occur as a direct result of any human action.

“Moral” evils are things like murder, bullying, war, genocide, and so forth that are a direct result of human action.

Three Responses

False Assumption

Evil as No-Thing

Necessary Consequence

God’s Suffering (Incarnation)

False Assumptions

Sometimes the things we think of as “evil” are really just things that stop us from doing/getting the things we want.

E.g. trivial pains, persecutions/tribulations, most natural evils.

The weakness of this defense is that it doesn’t attest to the non-trivial “evils” like chronic illnesses or war.

False Assumptions

Evil as No-Thing An ancient (not to be confused

with old) argument is that evil has no existence in itself, but is always the product of a deficiency of good.

This helps to reconcile the primordial existence of an all-good God with the very invention of evil.

Moral evils, then, are simply a product of a deprivation of good—something that happens when we cease to desire or practice good.

It shares the same weakness as the first response (false assumption)—that it doesn’t explain drastic evils.

Necessary Consequence A good argument about evil and

an omnipotent and omni-benevolent God is that in order for humans to have free will God must remove himself in some respects from the world he creates and loves.

This allows room both for natural disasters and for people to do things that God wouldn’t necessarily approve.

The Big Question: would you sacrifice your own personal will if it meant that no evil would ever occur? Would that be a life worth living.

Think about it.

God’s SufferingThe Christian response to

suffering in the world is to point to the theological outlook in the Bible that God suffers with and for his creation.

Jesus endured some of the cruelest torture in world history,

This is usually accompanied by some notion of redemption of life including this-worldly and next-worldly satisfaction.

What the Problem of Evil Gets Right (About God/Christianity)

The world is indeed a place where evil occurs and it is important not to try to gloss over that when we think about the problem of evil.

God is somehow responsible for this evil. The world, including ourselves, was not created to withstand evil. We and the natural world are vulnerable from the very beginning. As the creator, God is somehow responsible for this—this does not mean that God is evil or that God creates evil—only that God has some role to play in the removal of evil and the redemption of life.

All life is valuable—this is why evil is a problem to begin with, because evil devalues and destroys the quality of life. As the giver and ultimate enjoyment of life God should be brought into this discussion.

How to (not) Respond to Evil

A case-study in the book of Job

Job’s friends – defended God, accused job of hysteria and some nameless moral cause (Job 4:6-8). Result: Disapproved by God, told to consult Job for forgiveness (Job 42:7-9)

Job – first accused God of allowing injustice (7:17-21); sought to bring the matter before God (9:32-35); was faithful in that he never falsely accused God, overstated the accusations, or uttered blasphemies (1:22; 2:10; 6:10).

Result: God not only appeared to him personally (a big deal), but also redeemed the quality of his life and judged him justified and righteous.

God’s Response – God’s response is interesting in that Job somewhat predicts many of the things God does and says on the outside (cf. chs. 7-9 with God’s response in 38-41). It is not the words however that seem to assuage Job, but rather God’s presence in the words that give him an answer to his grief. It is the fact that God’s response to suffering is to redeem the pain we feel by being present before, during, and after the pain—suffering alongside the sufferer—that allows the evil in the world to be borne and endured.

“My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you…” (Job 42:5)The biblical message is that God is actively working in the world to redeem it from evil.