God and evil

H.J. MacClosky

The problem stated

Evil creates a problem for the theist

He can either
- Admit a limit to God’s power
Or - deny god’s moral protection
Further more he can assert either –
- That god is not powerful enough to make a world without evil
- God created only good but another power created evil
- God is all powerful but morally imperfect, choose to create an imperfect world
Theologians will not accept these. They say god and evil combatible

There are generally two kinds of evil

1. Physical evil
2. Moral evil

These both constitutes the denial of the existence of god in sense it is defined

i. Physical evil :

It is constitutes of earth & animal kingdom

a. Dangerous animals
b. Natural calamities
c. Diseases
d. Physical deformities

Most of these evils contribute human pain and suffering and are evils whether or not they result i
pain

ii. Moral evil

It is simply immorality –

Selfishness, envy, greed, deceit, cruelty, wars etc.

Moral evil is more serious than physical evil

Proposed Solutions to the Problem of Physical Evil by theist :

1. Physical good is impossible without physical evil

 Pleasure is possible if there is pain
  Eg. Colour
 It does not cover all physical goods and evils
 Physical evils are not reducible to the one problem of evil
 Absents of one is not presence of one

2. Physical evil is God’s punishment for sin

 Only few can be justified
 The punishment is not distributed equally
 The sufferings of the children with deformity to be explained
 What is the sin of the animals

3. Physical evil is God’s warning to man

 There are many methods of achieving the end
 Eg. Miracle, special revelation etc.
 On the contrary Evil seems to be more powerful

4. Evils are the results of the operation of laws of nature

 It does not cover all physical evil
 If nature is all powerful what’s the definition of god?
 God constantly intervene in the operation of his own laws
 He could have made better world and laws

5. The universe is better with evil in it

 How much will be too much
 Physical evil has a justification not justified the problem

Proposed solutions to the Moral evil :

Rejection of god’s law

Opposite of moral virtues are moral evils

1. Free will alone provides a justification for moral law:

Criticism :
 Logically possible
 Human actions have some good consequences and bad consequences based on
some virtues
 Value of free will out rages the moral evil
 It leads to paradox

2. The good made possible by free will provide a basis for accounting for moral evil