Griffin God Power And Evil Analysis

In God, Power, and Evil: A Process Theodicy by Davis Ray Griffin the author attempts to take an unbiased look at this age old question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The author explores different theoretical beliefs in an attempt to answer this question. In most of the resources that I examined the base principle is, above all, a person’s personal belief in God, or lack of, will more than likely dictate how one is able to decipher and understand the logic of evil in the world.

Rather than spending time on trying to figure out why God allows evil to exist, the focus should be aimed at what is within our ability to control or to prevent the existence of evil and understand that without evil; good could not exist.

Griffin (2004) states that “the proper way to meet a practical problem is with a practical solution; that is, the question is not how we explain evil – for by definition it is an absurdity and hence inexplicable – but how we overcome it. In fact, preoccupation with theoretical questions only adds to the evil, since it prevents one from exerting all one’s energy to overcoming evil.” (p.15)

The author suggests that an effort in attempting to figure out “why” evil exists will not provide substantial answers, but more focus on understanding the necessity of evil to allow

It would allow us the intimate control of our own salvation rather than trying to understand something that is outside of our control. We will never know the exact “why” in regards to wanting to know why bad things happen to good people. In my opinion, the authors were not able to provide a definitive answer for “why” bad things happen to good people. They tried their best to explain the foundation for how people try and answer this question based on their personal belief system. I feel that the only answer is to trust in God’s will and to live our lives based on His