What is the theist's answer to the problem of evil?

Question

Problem of Evil:

1. If God exists, God must be all-perfect
2. If God is all-perfect, God must be all-good and/or all-powerful
3. If God is all-good, God musn't allow evil to exist
4. If God is all-powerful, then God must be able to eliminate all evil
5. But evil exists

C1. Therefore, either God is not all-good because he allows evil
or
God is not all-powerful, because God can't eliminate evil
C2. If God is either not all-powerful or not all-good, then God is not perfect
C3. If God is not perfect, then it is not God
C4. Therefore, there is no God

Can anyone counter this argument? This argument has the basis of the existence of evil, so after your response, state what is the basis of your argument (i.e. the Bible, prophets).

I always wondered why God allows innocent women and children to die every day and all this greed to exist in the world. Some say evil exists as an opportunity to do good, but why not create opportunities to do good with more good instead of evil?

Evil and sin are pretty much the same thing, so if you replace "evil" with "sin," the argument would still make sense and wouldn't be subject to that argument made.

The idea of "God's plan" is ridiculous. That would mean that everything was planned out by God (i.e. every murder, theft).

And if God allows us to be tempted and/or deceived by this so-called Satan, and God is all-knowing, then God knows who will give into temptation and who won't. Not to say God controls us, but if God is all-knowing, then God knows who will be tempted.

happyinblue,

The definition of God includes perfection. That is what God means: a supremely perfect being. The definition of you does not include perfection, so I fail to see where this argument is flawed.

You assume abuse of power is a flaw by some authoritative power. Someone told you it's wrong, so you believe it. You automatically assert that God actually abuses power because its capable of doing it.

If God is all-good, which is a characteristic of the God of most religions, then evil should not exist. Evil needed a cause. It can't just pop into existence unless the all-perfect God made some kind of mistake or is not supremely good and made evil itself or the evil bein.

And I see you used the words "he cannot." Here's where you're flawed. You say God is all powerful, and that God even abuses its power, but then you say that God can't do something.

I'm not defending the existence of God; I'm trying to prevent you from looking like a fool for these self-contradictions.

I ran out of characters, I just noticed, so it says "evil bein" instead of "evil being."

Answer 1

Christians argue that God doesn't want to remove Evil, since Evil is required to test the humans if they are truly followers.

My answer: If God is all-powerful, there's no need for testing. He/She/It either knows if a human is a true believer, or he can make any human true believer.

They can also argue that God's definition of "good" is unknown. We are too insignificant to truly understand his ways.

I'm just playing devil's advocate. I do not believe there is a God, but has nothing to do with your train of thought, probably taken partly from some philosophy intro course.

@To the response below mine: "Free will" is a funny term. Free will from someone who you know perfectly well, since you created him/her is free will, but a totally "mapped" free will. Mapped means you know the response of the person for all stimuli that he/she can perceive. If God is the Creator, and he/she/it is omnipotent, then he/she/it knows perfectly what your response will be to the Devil's temptation. There's no surprise to God which way any of us will go, given that he's omnipotent. Therefore it's a big God created "show" in which God knows perfectly the whole plot(including when you feel like going to the bathroom, or thinking about what beer to buy.) The whole Christian religion doesn't make sense to me for this reason. But then again as I said in my other answers, I respect Christianity, and I believe it is a beautiful religion which civilized/is civilizing the Western world.

Answer 2

God allows Satan to exist, Satan tempts man, and man commits evil. Who is to say that allowing Satan to exist is not part of God's plan for us? Just because Satan exists does not mean that God is not all powerful, all knowing, and perfect. This may just be an aspect of God that some don't understand.

Looking at the equation you wrote above, it looks like you are taking a logic class. Here is my logic:

The Lord has a plan for us that includes the process of us learning from our experiences. Without opposites we could never learn from our mistakes because there would be no mistakes to make. Everything would be good and we wouldn't know that it was good. There must be evil to understand and appreciate good.

Why do bad things happen? Only God knows why individuals are to be tried through adversity. There is something positive to gain and learn from all trials. It is our duty to realize this and use this concept to better ourselves and learn from our trials and mistakes.

Answer 3

Actually, God doesn't have to be perfect.

That's the faulty assumption. If you assume that God is perfect, then his existence does come into question because of the existence of evil.

A perfect god is actually a fairly new concept. The ancient Egyptians and Greek had imperfect gods and were happy worshiping them. The Norse mythology was an early soap opera.

Even the Hebrew god was imperfect. The book of Job portrays God as not being omniscient and as being petty and proud. The Hebrew stories are full of Jehovah being angry and jealous.

Yet, lately, some people claim that God is perfect. When they make that claim, they disprove God (since a perfect God could not create an imperfect universe).

But those who accept an imperfect god will not be swayed by your proof, as the assumption is faulty for those people.

Answer 4

This is a fantastic question, but it is not a new one; free thinkers have been asking this one for a long time now. I’m not a theist myself, but have spent a great deal of time asking this very question and the most common answer is … “free will”, which makes a lot of sense when you first think about it, but upon further contemplation I’ve found that it’s problematic. First off, when Moses tries to free the Jews in Egypt, God purposely hardens the pharaoh’s heart (read your bibles) and this is in direct contradiction to the concept of free will. The second problem with this answer is that much of the evil that and tragedy that happens in the world is not caused by human beings, like tornadoes, hurricanes and diseases. Perhaps this is God’s way of punishing us, but most apologists say that it is god “testing” us. Still, if I were to give a child cancer in order for that child’s death to make the people around her stronger and better people, you would not say I was a good person, but you would say I probably belong in a penitentiary.

Answer 5

You might be able to answer your own question by really reading the Bible as a whole, not just verses here and there. Even though I am a believer, I have asked these same questions myself and have found that most of them have been answered this way. My personal opinion is that God does not allow evil, we do. He is all powerful, but there's that whole "free will" thing.
I was able to achieve a better understanding of God when I asked Him for it. I'm not a Biblical scholar, so I can't sit here and quote scripture by heart and prove to you that He is or isn't, but i can tell you that if you ask him for understanding, He will give it to you.

Answer 6

Usually they answer with "free will" or "sin" or "Satan" or "there has to be evil in order for there to be good". If by 'God' you mean an all knowing, all powerful, all loving, and perfect being that created the universe, I have never heard a theodicy that works. The problem of evil will always be a problem for theists that believe in that type of god.

“Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to... If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked... If, as they say, God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?”

- Epicurus

Answer 7

Innocent deaths, greed, peadophiles, rapists etc all exist because some people are just plain screwed up, there is no religious reason these things happen, unless it is a religious person commiting these atrocities.

People use religion as an excuse to commit crime, its that simple (most people who are guilty of this are christians. eg - priest peodophiles, 16th century church juries).

I must agree with you in saying that God doesn't exist, only in the minds of those who can't handle reality. They need a sense of security, which church offers them - in death. So the way I see it, belief in God is like believing that you are better off dead.

Ask any priest - he'll tell you the same!!

Answer 8

there are many flaws in your logic.
problem 1: "if god exists, god must be perfect" i exist, but i'm not perfect
problem 2: "If god is all-perfect, god must be all-good or all-powerful" if god was all-powerful, he must be able to do everything, everything included abuse of power last time i checked. abuse of power is a flaw. you cannot have flaws and be all perfect.
problem 3: "If god is all good, god mustn't allow evil to exist" sugar is all sweet, but sour still exists
problem 4: "if god is all powerful, then god must be able to eliminate all evil" god gave us free will, and we chose to eat the apple of knowledge and evil. he cannot eliminat evil without eliminating us. he did that with noah.

i don't know why god let's innocent people to die. no one will ever know. if someone claims to know, they are lying.

Answer 9

Would you consider God to be good if he hadn't allowed free will? The freedom to choose if you wanted to follow him or not? If he had not allowed freewill, which he could have done, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Answer 10

Sure Isiah 55:8-9 tells you everything you need.

Blessings
David