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The Problem of Evil

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The Problem of Evil Kathleen Eccles Philosophy 1000 04/23/2012 The Problem Of Evil The problem of evil is the problem that arises with the idea that God is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient (a.k.a. all good, all powerful, and all knowing) how would evil exist? To expound on this idea you must first have a clear understanding omni’s. The first omni is omnibenevolent or all good, the idea that God is good and only good. The second omni is omnipotent or all powerful, the idea that God is all powerful. The third omni is omniscience which is all knowing, the idea that God knows everything infinitely. The problem that arises with a God that is all knowing, all powerful, and all good is how then would evil exist? If God has the power, knowledge, and benevolence would he be able to allow evil to exist or continue to exist? With the problem of evil we operate under certain premises. The premises are that God exists, and if God exists God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. If all of these premises are true the result is a God who wants to prevent all evil because God is all good. The same God who wants to prevent all evil will also know exactly when, where, and how evil is able to exist and know how to prevent such evil from existing. The same god who knows everything and is all good also has the power and ability to do anything to prevent evil from existing. However, evil exists so how then could a omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God exist? There are a few philosophies that counter argue this philosophy. To begin with I will explain the answer of Dystheism, Dualism, and Free Will. These are the main philosophies that attempt to answer or refute the three omni’s of God while still maintaining that God exists. Dystheism will be the answer to omnibenevolence, Polytheism will be the answer to omnipotence, and Free Will shall be the solution to omniscience. Dystheism is the belief that God might not be completely good. The idea that there are God(s) who exist to trick us. In Norse mythology Loki was a great example of a evil god or trickster. “Loki a cunning trickster who had the ability to change his shape and sex”(1). On the other hand polytheists are not the only ones with an answer centered around Dystheism. Christianity also had an answer to similarly support this conclusion, some interpretations of Christianity hold that demons are similar to or actually gods in that they have the ability to tempt people to do evil things because they themselves are evil. The fact that most religions with multiple deities see deities as being neither good nor bad, Dystheism is usually referencing Abrahamic religious views because the Christian God or the “Good God” is now tied to morality.(2) Dualism has also been used to answer the problem of evil. Typically Dualism is the belief in two Gods who are equal in power and opposing in moral stance (i.e. Good vs. Evil). Similar to the Taoist philosophy of Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang are two opposite forces that are interconnected and work together yet separately. “Yin is a symbol of earth, femaleness, darkness, passivity, and absorption... Yang is conceived of as heaven, maleness, light, activity, and penetration.”(3) Dualism supposes that two Gods exist who are not omnipotent work against each other constantly. In Christianity the Devil is used to answer answer for evil, however, the Devil is also not as great or powerful as God. Therefore if God is more powerful than the Devil then God allows the Devil to exist which is why this answer does not explain the problem of evil for Christianity. The omnipotence, all powerful, issue also has other problems for God that can create paradoxes for the idea. Such problems include the what if situation of: ­ Can God create a boulder so large that he can not pick it up? The concept behind this thought is that because God is all powerful he can create anything and do anything. Therefore God can create a boulder large enough that he himself can not pick it up. However, because God is all powerful how could he not be able to pick up any rock? Being all powerful he is able to do anything so he can pick up any rock he has created. The answer of Dualism also attends to this problem because with dualism God(s) are not necessarily all powerful. The Free Will argument is made by many people in response to the problem of evil. The concept of Free Will is that people have the ability to choose from what is right and wrong. If God is to prevent evil from existence than humans can not choose evil acts. If humans can not choose to do evil things than Free Will is no longer in existence because you are unable to choose to do any evil thing. God could thereby either allow evil to exist while at the same time allowing people to have Free Will or prevent evil as well as Free Will. Because Free Will is seen as a morally significant value in most religions it can explain why evil exists. However, some objections could be made for Free Will such as “An omnipotent deity should by some definitions be able to circumvent this without impinging on the free will of the offender.” (4) This theory however would have to change the entire way we experience reality. Another argument could be that evil does not have to exist to the extent that it exists in this world. For example, the evil things that are caused by natural things such as earthquakes, disease, hunger and so on would not have to be as extensive or even exist. Getting rid of natural evil would certainly decrease the amount of evil experienced in the world without directly impacting a person's Free Will. Yet all of these natural disasters exist to the extent that they do and therefore God is not preventing them. Additionally if evil things are chosen through Free Will than God could prevent the evil consequences of the action and/or punish the action immediately to prevent the action from occurring with such frequency. Similar in a style a parent might punish misbehaving children to prevent the same behavior from recurring over and over again. This argues that God does not hand out immediate punishments to prevent evil. The problem with Dystheism is in the idea of a deity that is not omnibenevolent. Assuming that we are all judged by our actions and sent to heaven and/or hell based upon the sins we have committed having a God that is evil or desires to trick people to do evil things actions become blurred. If God compelled you to do something is it not in one's best interest for both mortality and morality reasons to do as God has commanded. If you act against God you are committing a sin, if you commit a sin that God has instructed you to commit you are still sinning. The problem with Dualism is that Dualism assumes that God either has an equal counterpart and/or force acting against him. Which will bring us back to assigning the relationship of good vs. evil to a specific force and how responding to certain deities over others would impact the relationship with morality. Furthering the argument what becomes of one person who acts on one deity who is equal and observable as a different deity. How would a person come to understand which deity is the one that should be followed? How is one deity over another deity of the same power and ability better? (In other words how would we be able to prove that “good” is actually good?) The problem with Free Will is that it does not address Gods abilities. A God who is all knowing, all powerful, and all good should theoretically have the ability to eliminate evil or in the very least reduce the consistency of evil over time. God has neither found a way to purely rid life from evil nor has he extremely reduced the likelihood of evil acts happening on a consistent basis and this is evident from the amount of evil that still exists in the world. In conclusion there are many ways to theoretically answer the problem of evil. However, many if not most of these answers mostly or completely takes away one of God's omni powers. In Dystheism God is not necessarily omnibenevolent but instead could be both bad and good or simply bad. In Dualism God lacks the ability to be omnipotent because of rivaling interests among a second deity. With the Free Will argument God is either choosing to allow evil or does not have the ability to prevent evil. (1) "Loki." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. < http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/346586/Loki >. (2) ”Misotheism vs. Polytheism.” Iran Politics Club. Iran Politics Club ., 2012. Web. 29 Mar. 2012<http://iranpoliticsclub.net/philosophy/Monotheism­Polytheism/index.htm > (3) "yinyang." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/653297/yinyang >. (4) “Problem of evil”Wikipedia. Wikipedia Online Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 2012. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil#Lacking_omnibenevolence.2C_omniscience.2C_or_omnipotence >.
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