The Problem of Evil

1587 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The problem of evil philosophy essay

The problem of evil has been a question that philosophers have been trying to answer for centuries. It simply states that if God exists and is perfect and all-powerful then why evil does exist in our world. Two great philosophers named Gottfried Leibniz and Nicolas Malebranche attempt to answer this question with their own unique solutions. Although they both answer the same question they have drastically different views. Specifically, they disagree on whether or not this world could be the best possible world God created. In this paper, I plan to dissect both men’s solutions to the problem of evil and furthermore argue for Leibniz’s solution that this is the best possible world that God could have created.
Before I begin going through these philosopher’s solutions it’s important to understand first why they believed evil was a problem. The problem of evil has been commonly regarded as the main argument for atheism. The argument stems from the logic that if God is a perfect being and created everything; how can evil exist? The atheist will try and argue that God and evil are incompatible with one another which as a result must mean that God cannot exist since evil does. (Murray). However, if we conclude that God does exist then how does a perfect being who has the power to create everything in the universe, then why has this God created evil? Is it possible that God could potentially be the author of evil? These questions set the stage for our philosophers to propose potential solutions to why an all-powerful God could create or allow evil to exist in our world. Leibniz has two potential solutions to these questions that he classifies as the Holiness Problem and the Underachiever Problem (Murray).
As I mentioned earlier the...

... middle of paper ...

... between the two philosophers. His solutions to the problem of evil seem more reliable and he provides more evidence to support his argument. Malebranche’s claim that evil is a bi-product of the laws God has set in place doesn’t seem plausible to me. So in conclusion, I find that Leibniz’s solution to the problem of evil to be more plausible and that this world is the best possible world that God could have created.

Works Cited

Leibniz, Gottfried. Essays on the Justice of God and the Freedom of Man in the Origins of Evil.
Malebranche, Nicolas. Dialogues on Metaphysics And On Religion. n.d.
Murray, Michael. Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 27 February 2013. 29 April 2014 .
Schmaltz, Tad. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 7 October 2013. 29 April 2014 .

Show More
Related

  • An Analysis of Peter van Inwagen’s The Magnitude, Duration, and Distribution of Evil: a Theodicy

    2315 Words  | 5 Pages

    An Analysis of Peter van Inwagen’s The Magnitude, Duration, and Distribution of Evil: a Theodicy

    Read More

  • Who is this Death you Speak of?: Piers Anthony's On A Pale Horse

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    Carus, Paul. "The Philosophical Problem of Good and Evil." The History of the Devil: With 350

    Read More

  • The Problem of Evil in the Judeo-Christian Tradition Depicted in Hicks' Philosophy of Religion

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    The problem of evil is a difficult objection to contend with for theists. Indeed, major crises of faith can occur after observing or experiencing the wide variety and depths of suffering in the world. It also stands that these “evils” of suffering call into question the existence of an omnibenevolent and omnipotent God of the Judeo-Christian tradition. The “greater good defense” tries to account for some of the issues presented, but still has flaws of its own.

    Read More

  • John Hick And Richard Swinburne: The Problem Of Evil Argument

    1651 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the world, most people believe in some type of god or gods, and the majority of them understand God as all-good, all-knowing (omniscient), and all-powerful (omnipotent). However, there is a major objection to the latter belief: the “problem of evil” (P.O.E.) argument. According to this theory, God’s existence is unlikely, if not illogical, because a good, omniscient, and omnipotent being would not allow unnecessary suffering, of which there are enormous amounts.

    Read More

  • J.L. Mackie's Evil and Omnipotence

    1664 Words  | 4 Pages

    A second and stronger objection to Mackie’s version of the problem of evil is explained to us using the terms 1st and 2nd order goods and evils. 1st order goods/evils are purely physical. Examples are pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. It is claimed by many theists that 1st order evils such as pain and suffering are necessary for 2nd order goods like courage and charity. However there exists what Mackie calls a “fatal objection” to this claim and that is that along with 2nd order goods there must also exist 2nd order evil...

    Read More

  • Malebranche And Leibniz Solution To Evil Analysis

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    The two concepts of the problem of evil in the world have been a subject of much debate, with diverse views regarding the role of God in the occurrence of events and actions that causes human beings to suffer. Thus, while there is a total agreement between Malebranche and Leibniz regarding the role of God in creating the world, where both agrees that God did justice in creating the world, there has been a disparity in their view regarding the role of God in the occurrence of actions and events that causes human beings to suffer. Thus, Malebranche advances the theory of occasionalism, which holds that God is the only causal agent in the world, and is therefore responsible for all the evil that happens in the world, because God’s creatures do not have significant causal abilities upon which to act (Brown, 82). Therefore, according to Malebranche, the acts of h...

    Read More

  • Evil In The World

    389 Words  | 1 Pages

    The article I picked to show the evil in the world today was about a man named Abner Louima. This man was arrested in 1997 and is suing the state of New York for being beaten in a restroom in the station while being questioned. The sole witness Conelle Lugg, 19, he heard loud screaming and banging noises against the wall of the bathroom while he was in his cell, he then saw a police officer push Louima into a cell pants down and blood rushing out of his open wounds. The officer then proceeded to tell Louima to get on his knees. After all this Lugg said, that Louima fell to the floor and screamed in pain and begged to be taken to a hospital.

    Read More

  • Descartes Leibniz Essay

    593 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Problem of Evil is the question that asks if God is perfectly benevolent, all-powerful, and all-knowing, then how can he allow evil to exist? Many philosophers have tried to answer this age-old question, often focusing on the intellect and the will. This essay will explore and compare the ways in which Descartes, Leibniz, and Berkeley each attempt to solve this dilemma.

    Read More

  • Eleonore Stump's Problem Of Evil

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    In, “The Problem of Evil,” Eleonore Stump holds the belief that the existence of evil in our world does not automatically disprove God’s existence. The belief that God cannot live alongside evil is considered to be the Evidential Problem of evil and this is what Stump is arguing against in her paper. Stump argues, the ability to fix our defective free will makes Union with God possible, which overwrites all the un-absorbable evils in the world, showing both God and un-absorbable evils can coexist. In this paper I hope to show that God can exist, but also show that human free will is limited.

    Read More

  • Moral Evil Research Paper

    2001 Words  | 5 Pages

    Philosophers of the Medieval period struggled with the problem of evil - specifically, the existence of evil brought a question to the fore: if the world was created by an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God, then how was it that evil existed? To further complicate the matter, a second question branched off of the first as individuals pondered over whether or not God was ultimately the cause of evil. If God created everything, and evil exists as part of everything, then God, logically, had created evil. But this presented yet another issue, in that if God had knowingly created evil, then he could not truly be all-good. And it is these concerns that philosophers addressed.

    Read More

  • Moral Evils, Evil, And Evil In Non-Believers

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    Consequently, the actions of Adam and Eve have opened the doors for the two types of evil we see today, moral and natural. “Natural evil is the consequence of moral evil” (Elwell,...

    Read More

  • The Theodicies of Augustine and Boethius

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    A foundational belief in Christianity is the idea that God is perfectly good. God is unable to do anything evil and all his actions are motives are completely pure. This principle, however, leads to many questions concerning the apparent suffering and wrong-doing that is prevalent in the world that this perfect being created. Where did evil come from? Also, how can evil exist when the only eternal entity is the perfect, sinless, ultimately good God? This question with the principle of God's sovereignty leads to even more difficult problems, including human responsibility and free will. These problems are not limited to our setting, as church fathers and Christian philosophers are the ones who proposed some of the solutions people believe today. As Christianity begins to spread and establish itself across Europe in the centuries after Jesus' resurrection, Augustine and Boethius provide answers, although wordy and complex, to this problem of evil and exactly how humans are responsible in the midst of God's sovereignty and Providence.

    Read More

  • Theodicy and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

    2495 Words  | 5 Pages

    The problem of reconciling an omnipotent, perfectly just, perfectly benevolent god with a world full of evil and suffering has plagued believers since the beginning of religious thought. Atheists often site this paradox in order to demonstrate that such a god cannot exist and, therefore, that theism is an invalid position. Theodicy is a branch of philosophy that seeks to defend religion by reconciling the supposed existence of an omnipotent, perfectly just God with the presence of evil and suffering in the world. In fact, the word “theodicy” consists of the Greek words “theos,” or God, and “dike,” or justice (Knox 1981, 1). Thus, theodicy seeks to find a sense of divine justice in a world filled with suffering.

    Read More

  • Leibniz: The Problem Of Evil

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    The problem of evil has been a huge debate between atheists and theists. The problem of evil is how can evil occur in the world if God, a perfect being, created the world, and why do bad things happen to good people if God is in charge. Used to critique theism, the problem of evil questions God’s perfection and his existence. It questions God’s perfection by saying, “Whoever does not chose the best is lacking in power, or in knowledge, or in goodness” (Leibniz 89). This means that people do not think that God can be all powerful or perfect because they do not think that this world was the best possible choice. The problem of evil also critiques the question of God’s existence by saying, “If there is more evil than

    Read More

  • Augustine and The Problem of Evil

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning, God created the world. He created the earth, air, stars, trees and mortal animals, heaven above, the angels, every spiritual being. God looked at these things and said that they were good. However, if all that God created was good, from where does un-good come? How did evil creep into the universal picture? In Book VII of his Confessions, St. Augustine reflects on the existence of evil and the theological problem it poses. For evil to exist, the Creator God must have granted it existence. This fundamentally contradicts the Christian confession that God is Good. Logically, this leads one to conclude evil does not exist in a created sense. Augustine arrives at the conclusion that evil itself is not a formal thing, but the result of corruption away from the Supreme Good. (Augustine, Confessions 7.12.1.) This shift in understanding offers a solution to the problem of evil, but is not fully defended within Augustine’s text. This essay will illustrate how Augustine’s solution might stand up to other arguments within the context of Christian theology.

    Read More

More about The Problem of Evil

Open Document