What do you think about the logical problem of evil? Is it truly a problem for theists?

Question

The logical problem of evil is

1) God is almighty
2) God is good
3) Evil exists

How can evil exist if God is almighty or omnipotent and wholly good?

I am not putting God in a box, but just asking a question. You can relax since I am a theist: I believe in God.

Answer 1

one things for sure, the logical problem is further complicated by introducing mythology from a particular religion that itself needs to be proved. a religion-neutral answer might be more profitable.

1) even if you one proves that evil does not exist, then the question can be rephrased as the logical problem of 'suffering'. and suffering surely does exist and you'd have an analogous problem.

2) the crux is, if god is maximally good, then whatever the present state of the world is has to be maximally good. it has to be the best possible arrangment.

3) now, one can say that god made people free, but then one has to prove that making people free in a way that allows them to inflict suffering on each other is consistent with being maximally good.

4) same thing with evil/suffering being created by satan. one has to show that god arranging it in such a way so that satan introduced evil into the world is consistent with maximum goodness.

not saying that that's impossible, just that it needs to be shown.

Answer 2

Evil does not exist except in our mind. As an analogy consider standing in a completely dark room. The darkness seems to overwhelm you and is the predominant physical experience at that moment. Then turn on the light switch. Where did the darkness go. The fact is, it didn't go anywhere. it never existed. What really existed is, there was a lack of or no light.
Now to explain what the allusion of evil is. Scientist say everything is energy or their is only energy. Religious people say there is The grace of God or God's love. I've also heard the expression the universe is only a Stream of Well-Being. And of course what is perceived as evil, is being in the dark, being blocked from those sources. How are we blocked? By our choices, by what we choose to believe, how we live, we are either in harmony with those sources and experience them as nurturing to us and thus good or like a radio not correctly tuned in to a certain frequency or the station we want to listen to, they are unavailable to us, even though they continue to be there.
To experience the warmth of the sun one must step out of the shade. To experience the "good" of life one must simply make choices that put you in harmony with the unlimited energy, God's grace or whatever you may call it, rather than choices which leave you "in the dark", not tuned in, so to speak, which we experience and call evil.

Answer 3

"God told Adam before Eve was created that he was not to eat of the of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2:17) Further God warned that in the day he did eat fruit of that tree man would surely die." (1)

"When the world knows beauty as beauty, ugliness arises
When it knows good as good, evil arises
Thus being and non-being produce each other
Difficult and easy bring about each other
Long and short reveal each other
High and low support each other
Music and voice harmonize each other
Front and back follow each other." (2)

My personal thoughts.... A wonderous creation was put into motion. This creation was allowed to have it's own organic growth. However, humanity (Biblically assigned the task of caring for this creation) with our free will has helped to grow "evil." (Through passing judgements on the actions of some and the inactions of others.)

The logical problem you're speaking of is a problem if we envision "Evil" as a separate entity reeking havoc on our existence. This allows us to push the blame of the "evil in the world" onto Satan rather than accepting the responsibility we have in the existence of evil in the world.

Answer 4

Through theists thinking people having free will is a logical argument that goes along with their god being omnipotent.
The logical problem of evil is god. Don't worry, it doesn't exist.

Answer 5

The good and evil that you think you are seeing don't even exist in reality, at least not outside of the mind that believes in them. They are only judgments passed by the individual from their own unique perspective. What one person sees as bad or evil may seem to be the only logical thing to do from some other perspective. The ideas of both good and evil are point of view specific. This is why people like bush and bin laden are either loved or hated. Bush is seen as good by people who share his fear based thought system. Those who have a compassionate concern for all of mankind often see him as evil.

Bin laden is much the same. He is a villain in much of the western world, but he is somewhat of a celebrated pop star on the Middle East. There are T-shirt shops that sell items with his picture as though he was Jesus. It all depends on your point of view or perspective.

To sum it all up good is the name we give to people who do things that we think we like.

Evil is the name we give to people who do the things that we don’t like.

This is of course based solely on our particular point of view.

Love and blessings

Don

Answer 6

Well, I don't believe in God, but your answer could be that God gave you freedom, including freedom to create evil. Right ?

Answer 7

Evil is about men attempting to dominate other men, by grabbing onto their fears and wrestling them around like a brute.
It's the opposite of appealing to his mind.

Answer 8

the logical problem is that evil began the day eve took the forbidden fruit & will end the day Jesus throws satan into the pit, which will happen, as bizarre as it sounds. Evil is a problem for everyone, it causes us to sin. that is why we have to protect ourselves by the armor of God, Ephesians 6. the enemy is out to take as many w/him as he can - he's not taking me - I am covered by the blood of Christ.

Answer 9

I said it before and I'll say it again: good and evil are relative. What is good to one person creates evil for another.

Answer 10

Yes, the majority of us are familiar with the argument. It's been hashed out here for months.