Why is there evil?

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Dostoevsky: Why is there evil?
This story is about two brothers, Ivan and Alyosha. Alyosha is a monk and Ivan is his brother who doesn’t believe or accept God. Ivan believes that God cannot exist because there is evil. He doesn’t want to try and be convinced otherwise by his brother.
Ivan accepts and believes in God and says that there has to be evil. Evil has to be permitted because without it men would never know the difference between good and evil. This is important because it makes us aware of what could happen in the afterlife.
We should think about if the fact of evil counts against the existence of God. I think that evil and good must be present because the people that are evil and have fun at others expenses will pay after they die, and the people who are good and get persecuted will have a rewarding afterlife.

B.C. Johnson: Why doesn’t God intervene to prevent evil.
Johnson, an atheist, writes about how there cannot be a God because of all the evil that happens. He talks about how innocent babies are killed in fires, and how Hitler was allowed to live. He also says if God exists he would have to be evil.
This story was written to show us that there couldn’t be a God because of the mass amounts of evil that take place. It’s a very one sided argument because he lists all of the bad things and none of the good things in the world. It was also written to see his beliefs in religion or non-beliefs because he is an atheist. He is using all of the evil things to support his atheism.
We should think about the fact that no good things were brought up such as love, friendship, and family. God has to allow evil in the world because if he didn’t, we would never know the difference between good and evil.

Hick: There is a reason why God allows Evil.
Hick writes about how evil has been around forever with the climax being when Jesus was crucified. He asks why an all-powerful God would allow this and says it’s because of the free will given to us. Everything bad happens because this world is not perfect and this is where “soul-making” begins.
This was written to show us that God allows evil because he doesn’t want us to be in a utopia because we will never build our souls.

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