Is this a valid philosophical point?

Question

Premise one: God is all-knowing and good (a widely held belief).
Premise two: If God is all-knowing and good, there should be no evil in the world.
Premise three: But there IS evil in the world.
Conclusion: Therefore, God cannot be all-knowing and good.

I'd like to hear some thoughts on this.

Answer 1

Well, God could be All-Knowing and evil still exist. It's the "God is Perfect and Good" image that simply doesn't make sense. The All-Knowing part plays a factor into it (If he Knew mankind was going to fall - why did he stick the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden and then tell Adam not to eat of it, to begin with?) If He were a Perfect AND Good God, he wouldn't have done that with the foreknowledge that his own creation would fall from his "grace".

In my lowly opinion, a Perfect Being doesn't need or want anything. So a Perfect God wouldn't Need our prayers, our worship, our praise... and it sure wouldn't Want it either. It is Perfect.

Answer 2

This is illogical. Premise two holds a begged question. It assumes that if god is all knowing and good then there would be no evil in the world. That is simply untrue. If you start with a false premise then your conclusions will necessarily be false. It would be like starting a math equation with the premise that 2+2=5.

Answer 3

If you remove Premise one you have a sound argument

if G then ~E

E

Therefore ~G

This only means that this form of the argument will be true if all premises are true. Until such time that we can know with certainty that god is omniscient and omnibenevolent, and that there exists something definable as evil in the world, you can not posit this as a truth statement.

Problems:

1) We have no way of affirming or denying the very existence of god. Until god is identified, any statement on his character is nothing short of conjecture.

2) What exactly do we define as evil, and how do we determine what makes something we define as evil, evil?

Simply defining the premises is highly problematic. Coming to any kind of consensus on the truth values of these premises is next to impossible.

In conclusion, you have proposed a valid argument, but this does not get us any closer to truth.

Answer 4

The conclusion follows from the premises.

Are the premises true? That's the question you need to answer.

People who believe Premise One typically question Premise Two. It takes some gymnastics for them to do so, but not really any unusual amount. Overall I don't think that this is a solid argument against an all-knowing benevolent god, though I don't believe in any such being.

Answer 5

Premise two is unsound.

Essentially it's an if A, then B statement.

A is true but B is not.

Evil is a necessary part of freedom and freedom is a necessary part of true love, and true love is essential to the best possible world since truly loving God is the highest expression of the soul.

Answer 6

what about this one
Premise one: God is all-knowing and good (a widely held belief).

Premise two: good wants to know how is the good men and who is the bad , who will obey him and who will not so god do not interfer this world

Conclusion: there must be good and evil in the world

Answer 7

Flaw; Premise two; the fact that God is good and all-knowing does not mean there is no 'evil' in the world.

May you receive a pleasant surprise today!!!

Answer 8

As a wise parent to humanity, he has put laws in place and then given us free will choice to choose our own path. The fact there is evil in the world is because many have chosen to turn their back on God and all that stands for.

Your premise is flawed.

Answer 9

every philosophical point is valid. there are no incorrect answers to a philosophical question.

However, your LOGIC is flawed.

Premise two doesn't take into account humanity's free will.

If the world were populated by humans without free will, God can create a type of world with or without evil (up to His discretion).

Answer 10

I think there is evil in the universe. But it is not of God, it is of the Devil. Im sure other religions will describe it differently. But just because God is all good doesnt mean he is nec all powerful, maybe he cant stop it. Then again, it may be us that make the evil in the world, so maybe when we die the more evil we perpetrate the less like God we are so we cannot go back to him (or it) and be at one with the source from which we came, and are more akin to the Devil and more in league with him (or it). Maybe its like oil and vinegar, if you are like oil you will naturally separate yourself from vinegar, but if the oil becomes more vinegarlike, it will then begin to blend into it. Maybe we have to become more godlike to blend back with God after we die, becuase I do think we probably did come from God. Like a slice off a loaf of bread.