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
Existence of Evil In the book Confessions Augustine seeks to find out why and how evil exist in the world and what role god plays in the existence of evil. Not entirely convinced that evil exist or is what Manicheaism provides an explanation for, being that god is incapable of preventing the existence of evil. Augustine investigates the existence of evil by looking at two aspects, being the nature of evil and free will, and with free will the ability to make decisions which cause man to sin. Both of
Evil can be categorized into two forms, moral evil and natural evil. Moral evil is brought about by bad choices that stem from our free will. Natural evil is bad things that happen to people, whether they deserve them or not. The problem with evil is, “Either we must say that God is not wholly good, and that he permits or is even the author of evil. Or we must say that God is not omnipotent, and although he is wholly good and would prevent evil if he could, he is powerless to stop it.” (Fitzgerald
God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, which makes us wonder what kind of morally sufficient reason justifies God to allow evil. We know that evil exists in our world, but so does God, so would God be the source of evil as well as good? We have established that God is the omnipotent and benevolent free creator of the world, but suffering and evil exist. Is God unable to prevent evil? If so, he would not be omnipotent. Is He able to prevent the evil in our world but unwilling? If this
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. In the excerpt from Philosophy of Religion
Irenaeus and Augustine Account of Natural Evil The problem of evil concerns the challenge of how an all-powerful and all-loving God can allow his creation to suffer, without helping then and putting an end to their suffering. This challenge is an often quoted reason for being unable to believe in God for it is argued, either God does not exist or, if he does then he is not a God worthy of out worship. St Augustine (AD354-430) tried to solve this problem and based his arguments on the Bible
The existence of evil is a direct challenge to the existence of God. The Epicurean riddle summarizes this dilemma. A loving, and all powerful God would want and have the capacity to destroy evil. However, we still live in a world riddled with evil, both moral and natural. Thus, the existence of evil would suggest that God is neither loving nor omnipotent, and a God lacking these qualities would not be a God at all. Theodicy is the attempt to reconcile the existence of evil in the world with the existence
Why Evil Exists After the World War II and the Holocaust, many Jewish and Christian people were left wondering why God would let such a thing happen. Many felt estranged, as if God had somehow abandoned them in their most desperate time of need. The world needed an explanation as to why God would let such a thing happen to his so-called "children". This need for an explanation of why evil exists in a world that is supposed to have been created by an all-powerful and all-loving God has plagued
Proved There Is No God? In this book, Warren addresses the “problem of evil”, one of the atheists’ most prominent arguments against the existence of God. This argument is summed up in three main premises: (1) God is omnipotent (2) God is omnibenevolent (3) Evil exists. However, there are some additional premises which must be added in order to show the “logical contradiction” involved in the main three. With the addition of three more premises, the atheist “makes his case” that God cannot exist, because
The problem of evil and suffering presents a real problem to the religious believer because it compels them to accept conflicting claims that are logically impossible to reconcile. Religious followers often question the nature of God and whether or not he is the type of God we are led to believe. St Augustine said that if God cannot stop evil and suffering he is not all powerful if he will not stop evil and suffering then he is not all good. However Augustine did not actually believe this to be true