This is the “Why would God allow…” question. Epicurus was famous for his argument “1. Is God willing to prevent evil but unable? Then he is not omnipotent. 2. Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent. 3. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? 4. Is he neither willing nor able? Then why call him God?”
Technically debunked philosophically but sticks around because of its emotional weight. Contemporary use at least, tends to border on committing the appeal to emotion fallacy. Atheists seem to neglect that their worldview offers no justice at all, and in fact doesn’t even account for a standard of good so their moral condemnation is meaningless (Moral Argument). The weakness in this is that there may be good reason for God to be able but not willing. If there’s any defense or theodicy that’s even remotely possible, then this argument breaks down.
Freewill should do. God wanted a world with real love and for that you need real choice to be loving. In order for real choice, we need real freedom. Pretty simple stuff, we can’t be good unless there’s an option to be bad. That’s not to say we need a balance of both.
God didn’t create evil, evil is created when one disobeys God’s good laws. You think you hate rape and murder? God hates these things far more than we ever could. He is perfectly righteous, loving and just, he perfectly hates these things and is extremely passionate and sorrowful about these things. God came down on the cross to sympathize with us and take the harsh reality and suffering of the world on to himself. He takes these evils and difficult situations and brings good out of them such as stronger character and lessons. “All things work together for those who love God.”
God is also allowing the entire world to see the ramifications of sin. Sometimes you can’t be a helicopter parent and stop your child from entering the world or making a mistake. No one had sinned before Satan. There’s going to be a new world after this one where sin is missing because its full effects have been felt and understood. He allows our pain despite his hatred of it just as a father would allow a painful medical procedure to be done on his child. Our rebellion must be fully realized so we’ll return to him. We needed to see the consequence of sinning and turning away.
“In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth, a life full of the most atrocious tortures on earth, will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.”-Mother Theresa. With people suffering greatly, God has eternity in mind, if you want to do an internal critique and posit a God sitting by allowing bad things to happen, then you can’t exclude the fact that people suffering hardships will have an eternity of peace. Do you think the benefits outweigh the suffering? Even if you were tortured for 70 years straight, you’d start to realize it was worth it after your 700 trillionth year in heaven.
People who use this ignore the fact that the Bible acknowledges all the evil too, in fact it says Satan is the god of this world. He is the one causing all the evil, I was thinking about the Jonestown massacre, a demon would be an extremely likely cause of that, possessing Jim Jones, because the outcome was scaring people stiff about the thought of belief. That story resonates in many hearts and has hardened them to Christianity. Can’t people see that’s the devil’s only goal? To lead away from the saving truth of Jesus. People look at the world and shake their heads saying look at all this evil and then they go right on enjoying their favorite sins, sexual immorality (porn), lying, stealing, greed/selfishness, harboring anger, unforgiveness, pride. When people ignore God, they become accustomed to their favorite sins but criticize others preferred sins. Some say, I’ll believe in God when there’s no more war, violence or poverty. If you look closely, you’ll see that they’re simply saying they’ll believe when no one sins anymore.
In saying that, if you really want God to annihilate evil then guess what, you need to get your affairs in order. No human would exist if God were to do that, use your brain! Even evolutionarily speaking we’re born sinful or at least selfishly wired to only ensure our own survival.
Problem of Suffering (accidents, natural disasters) Pretty much the same deal but evil and pain not caused by man’s freewill.
Trials and hardships are what build character and endurance, sanctification is not a fun process. Pain, discomfort and self-discipline are the building blocks of an extremely virtuous person. Even atheists can agree certain hardships can build up the human spirit. Death can bring an appreciation of life, reliance on God and awareness of man’s need for love. Suffering can cause us to become less selfish and more humble. C.S Lewis believed man’s principle problem was selfishness and therefore suffering was positive in that it might transform proud people into servants of Christ. He says “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Sometimes people are surprised when bad things happen to them or they’re experiencing great difficulty, and they tend to say where was God or why didn’t he help. This comes from the myth that God is there to serve us and do whatever WE want. Some advice for this area is to invest your entire being in God alone, as much as you can because he won’t let you down. If you dedicate your whole life to your career, how distraught will you be if something happens and you’re fired? Or you live your whole life for your wife and she is unfaithful, or dies? Or you build up such wealth only for it all to be stolen? All of this is temporary and nothing is certain, if people didn’t invest so much of themselves in this world, it would be a different place.
And when it comes to poor 3rd world people…British political writer, broadcaster and atheist Matthew Parris writes in The Times 2008 “I truly believe Africa needs God. Missionaries, not aid money are the solution to Africa’s biggest problem, the crushing passivity of the people’s mindset. Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa, sharply distinct from the work of secular NGO’s, govt projects and international aid efforts. This alone will not do, education and training alone will not do, in Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation the rebirth is real the change is good, those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21 century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the know-how that accompanies what we call development will make the change a whole belief system must first be supplanted and I’m afraid it must be supplanted by another, removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.”
Plantinga’s free will defense has been known since he first published a version of it in 1977. This has not stopped vast numbers of people from using the logical problem of evil as an attack on God. One can say that the logical problem of evil still exists in the same sense—and for the same reasons—that there is still debate about whether or not the earth is flat. Only those sorely lacking in perspective and information attempt to claim that God and evil are logically incompatible.
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