Introduction

There are many things in life that prompt humans to pursue inquiries and
investigations which they hope to provide ultimate answer to the tricky questions about
man’s existence. These questions can be deal only with religious or philosophical
approach. There are philosophical ideas tried to situate man in his relationship to the
world, to others and to God.
There are so many religious postulates who offered ethical standards which serves
as a guide on how man must live his life to the fullest. Manifesting the power and
authority, many constituents of a particular religion are unhesitant to follow the said
teachings and never dared to question or go against it. Failing to comprehend fully the
given ethical standards as what they really mean.
The advent of science and technology unravels particular true propositions which
in the same way provide security and confidence in man’s life. If man is inclined to make
the most out of this earthly life the danger is that man no longer believes other
approaches to truth and instead relies absolutely on science. This could be a threat to
man’s existence. If man is purely scientific he can never see what the religious or the
mystics are saying about their own perspective of truth of this life.
On the other hand one must not forget the danger that may arise when human
beings are homogenized in their perspective regarding the authenticity of religion and the
infallibility of authority. Furthermore this may lead to the problem of accepting teachings
of specific religion without understanding them. Even though some scientific discoveries
contradict religious ideas and beliefs still religious fantastic stick to illogical and
irrational propositions. This also could be the danger in one’s quest for the answers to
mysteries. Hence, the problem of evil beyond the limits of these known fields, for the
Christians, this are just challenges that man needs to face. However, the doctrine seems
very remote from the individual’s daily struggle against ‘evil’.
Nowadays, million of people’s futures blighted, many young lives pointlessly
destroyed and some left orphaned and helpless, the agonizing cry and death of young and
old alike due to famine, murder, earthquake and disease. If we could just snap our finger

to stop this picture of misery, we could be a heartless monster if we will not do so. To
think, there is already a certain being that could sweep aside these things in instant, a
being that is unlimited in its power, a being in which nothing greater can be conceive of
God. Evil dwells everywhere, but how can evil exists side by side with a god that can
easily put an end to it? The presence of evil in this world offers a great challenge to the
idea that there is an all powerful, all knowing and all loving god . Some theists may say

that evil exists due to the personal choices that we made. That’s why God is not

accountable to all bad things that happened and may happen to us , for they are our own

fault alone and should not trigger us to cast doubt on the existence of God.
The problem of evil is the greatest challenge that a believer should confront in
order to defend his faith in God. Everytime man faces a great calamity he can easily ask
“Why did God let this things happen?” As most men live their lives prosperously, some
still suffer and live life miserably, man can easily ask “If God is merciful, then why do
others still have to suffer? There are a lot of attributes that believers directed to God, but
seeing all of these problems some may ask “Is God ignorant, impotent, malevolent or
non-existence? How could he just let bad things happen in this world? Is he happy seeing
this picture of misery shown in this world? In this paper the researcher will try to answer
these following questions using St. Augustine’s notion on the Problems of evil.

What is Evil?

In St. Augustine’s book the Confessions, one of the problems that he face was the

problems of evil and how it exist side by side with an omnipotent God . In his association

with the Manicheans, St. Augustine’s conception of “evil”1 was something tangible, “it is

like a material substance which consists of its own fouls and mass misshapen”2. Then as

St. Augustine gradually shifted his path into Christianity, he abandoned the notion of evil

1
Evil, in many cultures, is a broad term used to describe what is perceived as intentional negative
moral acts or thoughts that are wrong, cruel, unjust, or selfish. Evil is usually contrasted with good, which
describes acts that are kind, just, or selfless. In some religions, evil is an active force, often personified as
an entity such as Satan or Ahriman.
2
St. Augustine. The Confessions. trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
p. 156.
as something corporeal. For him the only explanation that he can use to explain evil is

that evil is something which does not exist in this corporeal world.

The Manicheans believed that both good and evil exists in total opposite. For them, the

relation between the two is useful to explain the human tendency to sin, this is necessary

in order to maintain the balance between good and evil. Augustine himself failed to

picture out something that existed which is not material; in his view this was his first

error of interpretation. This belief was an inclusive relationship between human and

divine, due to his great respect for God and belief in his ultimate kindness Augustine did

not permit to believe that the good God had created an evil nature. For him both good and

evil were infinite, but the former was somehow larger than the latter, as to think

otherwise would be irreverent. Augustine also believed that God, in his infinite goodness,

did not create any of the evil that was said to exist.

If God did not created evil, where did it come from and what really evil is? A philosopher

once noted that which we call evil is merely ignorance and that good is that which

everyone desires. Benedict de Spinoza said that the difference between good and evil is

merely one of personal inclinations: "So everyone, by the highest right of Nature, judges

what is good and what is evil, considers his own advantage according to his own

temperament”.3 Both good and evil cannot exist if neither one of them is not present,

good cannot exist if evil is not present and evil cannot exist without good. Both of them

depends on the existence of the other, therefore good is used as a stepping stone in order

for us to know what is evil and evil likewise to know good.

3
Benedict de Spinoza. Ethics trans. by Edwin Curley. Penguin Classics, 2005. p. 135.
Problems in the View of Evil

The very first problem that we have deal in this view of evil is its relation with

God. For Augustine, the fact that evil and good are engaged in a struggle begs the

question of what would happen if God, the ultimate good, “refused to fight against evil”.

If the powers of evil can injure God, this may mean that God is open to violation and

destruction. This will contradict the idea that God in his nature is omnipotent. On the

other hand, if God is not harmed nor injured by evil, there may remain a possibility that

some lesser part of God’s creation is mingled with hostile powers. The hostile powers, of

course would not be from God’s creation, because as we all know that everything that

God has created is good. Most probably this hostile power that corrupted the subordinate

part of God’s creation is due to the negative influence from “some of his creations” 4. In

the latter part this newly corrupted parts would require assistance “to deliver and purify

it” returning to its former state, which is being good by nature.

The Manicheans declared that the human soul is the element that has fallen from

the grace of God. With this the needed help that humans need in order to recover from

their current to its former state is the word of God. Following this idea may came up to

another and more arguably serious problem in the Manichean’s doctrine. To think, the

word of God as we all believe is as the same substance as human soul. Like the human

soul which has the tendency to be corrupted and destructed, the word of God may also be

susceptible to corruption. Expect that if the word of God, “free, pure, and intact” as it is

really is, might be destabilized by evil, and does this follows that it can destabilize God

too? This may lead us to jump into a conclusion that “the entire story that we know about
4

For instance, Freewill is considered as a creation that God have made and he have given to human
persons. Historically, freewill is considered as the root of evil, because of this freewill human persons have
the authority to choose between doing something good or doing something which is evil.
God is false and repulsive” which contradicts everything that we’ve believed. Augustine

added as he tries to demolish this argument that if we’re going to take the opposite side

and claim that God is corruptible, “the very proposition is false. Augustine’s logic is

convincing, and it swiftly becomes evident that the Manicheans’ thought on the nature of

good and evil is evil is naturally faulty, and cannot possibly present an acceptable

solution to the problem.

Another thought by the Manicheans’ is that, “it is more acceptable to say that

your substance suffers evil than that their own substance actively does evil" 5. This

thought effectively waived person’s responsibility for their sins, making it into a need in

order to keep the up the cosmological balance between good and evil. This thought is also

unacceptable to Augustine, for him it is our freewill that leads us to do wrong. In this

theory by Augustine, it is clearly noticeable that he had already departed from the

Manicheans’ thoughts he have abolished their belief and make his own. Augustine in his

theory lays the blame for doing something wrong squarely into himself (all humankind).

With this theory Augustine suggests a different approach with regards to the origin of

evil, also with this it may be easier to reconcile with the nature of God in relation with the

human beings and freewill.

Augustine, considering his own sins, says, “when I willed or did not will

something, I was utterly certain that none other than myself was willing or not willing" --

that is, that any evil that came about as a result of his actions was his fault alone, as he

5
St. Augustine. The Confessions. trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
p. 113.
was the one who made the decisions that preceded and resulted in the wrongdoing . 6

Another difficult question that Augustine has to face in this view of evil is that “what

motivates a person to commit sins? (e.g. After stealing an apple from an apple stand and

leaving it uneaten afterwards, the crime that has been done was completely without a

motive and could not possibly have eventuated in any good.) Why is it that human

beings has “the power to will evil and reject good?”7 Augustine turns into the

consideration of the very nature of evil itself, rather than the very act of sinning itself . As

a result, evil has been considered as corporeal and present in the physical world, but as

considering it in this way created more problems that it solved, a new strategy is in order,

for Augustine, “it is through examining the entire nature to find the very core and source

of evil”.8

In the Genesis, the very first book of the bible, it states that God created the earth

and everything on it, and since God is good, “he created good creatures”.9 And since all

of God’s creations were good, then in contrary it may be the case that evil is incorporeal,

it has no being. The most common conception that human beings show when we talk

6
St. Augustine. The Confessions. trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
p. 114.

7
St. Augustine. The Confessions. trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
p. 114.
8
St. Augustine. The Confessions. trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
p. 115.

9
St. Augustine. The Confessions. trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
p. 115.
about evil is fear, but with this thought that Augustine has said, it requires a rational basis

in order to overcome this misconception. By the very fact that evil is incorporeal, there is

no enough reason to fear evil, incorporeal things or substances cannot harm anyone. For

Augustine, fear in this situation becomes evil in itself, due to the fact that fear leads

human beings towards the feeling of being disturb and tortured.

In order to make this theory more reliable in answering the problem of evil,

Augustine tries to show more theories in order to prove that evil is incorporeal. To prove

that evil is incorporeal, Augustine affirms that “things that are liable to corruption are

good”10. This argument is considered true because things that are vulnerable or

susceptible to corruption are good, by the fact that these things exist and were created by

God. With this statement, it can be easily declared with such certainty with the relation of

all of His creation as long as it exists, it is good. Dealing with it logically, it is impossible

for evil to exist, because since the concept of the evil is opposing to good and with this it

leaves no room for good contained within itself. This would mean that evil simply does

not exist as something corporeal.

Freewill and Natural Evil

Augustine abhors the idea of Plato that simply ignorance causes evil. In some

circumstances, Augustine believed that even we can overcome our ignorance we still are

not able to know ultimate good and also unaware of God. Probably the most powerful

counter theory to this problem of evil is the theory of Alvin Platinga, the so called

“freewill defence”. According to the said theory, every suffering that we have to
10
St. Augustine. The Confessions. trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
p. 124.
encounter here on earth is the price that everyone must pay and a price worth paying, for

it is through the freedom that humans posses in which makes them capable of making

genuine choices about their actions. Our freedom to make genuine choices allows us to

live lives morally and enter into a deep relationship with God, but we can also misuse our

freedom to do wrong choices.

There are also those evil that we do not will but still exists. (e.g. In January 19 2007,

seven year old Joshua DuRussel of Michigan, USA, dies less than a year after doctors

discovered a rare and inoperable cancerous tumor that progressively destroyed his

brainstem. According to an official at his school, the animal loving baseball player ‘had a

real struggle, but he never gave up hope and never complained). 11

Even if we accept

that freewill is a possession so precious that is worth the cost in moral evil, the bad and

cruel things brought about when people uses freedom wrongly, then why does natural

evil still exists? Did God diminish our freewill?

Conclusion

In concluding Augustine’s argument, he returns to the immutable goodness of

God, his argument, reiterating that all things are made to be good. His original conception

of evil was flawed to stand up to the extreme scrutiny. To consider evil as an in existence

substance, it would possibly imply that God’s omnipotence is capable of being

destruction and corruption. In Augustine’s argument, he clearly declares that there is no

possible way to reconcile the existence of corporeal evil with the existence of the
11
N. Marshall, “In Misery” .New York Times. sec. 1A, p. 3.
omnipotent God. Therefore, in his argument Augustine concluded that the only possible

conclusion to this problem is eliminating the idea that evil is a corporeal substance. As

has been stated even before, there was never been an answer that can solve the problem

of evil, this problem can be elaborated when we try to go beyond the idea of God. If God

really created us, there would be no enough reason to put God as the one who created

evil. The idea that most of early theist believes like the idea of evil for the greater good

seems to be much debatable in the light of some events like the holocaust.

In my opinion, there are really no grounds to believe in the corporeal existence of

evil, but if there was, it would be logically impossible to reconcile its existence with

existence of God. Not even one religious explanation can ever satisfy the argument of the

problem of evil without deducing God’s power. Evil has and will continue to exist, and

many will suffer under it if the doer of an action uses his/her freewill in the wrong way .

God’s power is only to persuade us to do right things, with this the one accountable of the

action that have done would be no one else but the one doing the action . For example, the

devils tempting of Adam and Eve did not persuade their fall, for if the temptation had

been coercive, then their punishment would be unjust. Adam and Eve have voluntarily

succumbed to the temptation because of their own craving for power and satisfaction

having the thought that they would be like God if they eat that forbidden fruit. For

Augustine the most possible reason why sin came into this created world is pride, at the

same time he carefully insists that pride is not the cause or the component of every sin.

Some sins are committed due to ignorance, extreme anxiety and desire, like most of the

cases nowadays are committed through these reasons. The fall of Adam and Eve leads
the world into “original sin”12, even with this original sin man still has the capacity to

reason out and to will, for this is not included to the penalty that God has given due the

sin that our ancestors have done. Therefore, man or human beings are the only one

accountable to every evil that they may have experience in their everyday life, these

would the results of every erroneous action that they have done.

Bibliography

12
It is the condition imposed by God as punishment on Adam and Eve for disobedience.
According to Augustine the condition includes dispossession from a naturally perfect environment, the loss
of natural immortality and the acquisition of susceptibility to physical pain, fatigue, disease, aging, and
rebellious bodily disorders, especially sexual lust. The condition is not only pathological, it is inherited,
infecting every descendant of Adam and Eve. The condition is innate, not acquired; as Augustine puts it, it
is transmitted by propagation, not imitation. Augustine’s view, then, is that our first ancestors squandered
their patrimony and our inheritance and as if that were not bad enough – thereby contracted a suite of
infirmities that is passed on to all their progeny.
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St. Augustine. The Confessions. trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University
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