How can evil exist in a world created by a god that is both omnipotent and
omnibenevolent? This is the problem of evil. Most of the traditional incarnations and conceptionsof god are are beings who are all powerful and wholly good. Obviously in each of these cultures where the beliefs are heald there is evil,so the problem arises as to how evil can exist since a wholly good god would not allow evil, and in that case would have the power to stop it. In short the problem challenges not only the powers of God but also the very existence of God. There are many proposed solutions and few of them hold water but they should not be thrown out altogether.
The first of the solutions to be looked at states that perhaps good is not opposed to evil in the traditional sense and doesn't doesn't eliminate evil as much as it can. The opposition to this is A: God can't be intrinsically good on this view and B: that there is a disproportionate amount of evil to good. So who defined evil anyway? That isn't to say that there has to be evil in order to recognize good but rather that, with very few(if any) exception, evil is a matter of perception. Depending on what side of the fence you are on, any given incident can be either good or evil. Sometimes these can be so interchangable as to depend on moods. Take abortion for example. Depending on your perception about when life begins and what the worth of the possibility of life is, abortion is either evil as hell or a pragmatic solution to a problem that solidly beats out the other alternatives. Is either correct? That depends on how you feel, so how can said act be deemed truely evil? Next, why does the human definition of evil have to necessarily be the same as God's? Take Hume's arguement against the Teleological arguement( proof of devinity based on things bearing the mark of a maker)for example. In his arguement, Hume claims that it is incorrect to judge things by our limited perspectives because we see only a small microcosm of the universe and because of this we cannot prove that something is the cause of something else. So if it is not possible to judge anything on observable evidence, which is all we have to base our perceptions on to any degree of certainty, how can we effectively judge something as evil? There is no certain way of knowing whether any event is truely good or evil. It is entirely possible that things are not as cut and dry as humans have assigned them to be. We give names and labels to things but those are just our opinions based on the amount of convenience or inconvenience we experience from them. So it is incorrect to assume that because we see something as wrong it actually is.
This brings us to the idea that evil is a human production and not a divine invention. The arguements tend to go the 'God gave people brains that are capable of percieving and carrying out evil, so He indirectly created it' route, Then questions of free will come into focus. If God gave humans free will, then it would follow that He gave them the capacity to carry out whatever evil things they decide to go ahead with but this doesn't mean that He promotes evil or is responsible for it. If humans were given free will and then God stepped in to fix everything that they screw up fot themselves and each other, then that would hardly be free will. This does not imply a limitation to His power or HIs benevolence, it means merely that He exercises His own will which falls squarly within the realm of omnipotence.
As for why God does not stop such things as natural disasters, once again these events are evil only in the sense that they are incovienent to people. If a place such as a heaven is better than earth(or whatever afterlife whatever religion holds to) then how in the name of al that is holy evil to die in an earthquake? Further, to bring it back to the realm of human misfortune and agony, who is to say that it isn't better for a starving child to go to heaven instead of suffering on the street? Now I realize that I have just pissed everyone off with this last bit and that the gut reaction is to be outraged and proclaim that if God were omnibenevolent then there wouldn't be starving in the streets at all. Right, well what did Darwin say about the evolution and adaptation? What did he say about nature selecting the weakest of the species to die? I guess Natural Selection is evil too. And let's not forget the notion of free choice in all this. Politicians and the upper portion of society line their pockets with the food of children and snort coke on the education of the nation's youth yet we point the finger skyward and blame God. Whatever. Getting back to the main point, what if death is good? What if it is great? Then death could no longer be evil. Furthermore, everyday misfortunes can turn out to be good things afterall. This follows the arguement that the only reason we haven't found a purpose for something(whatever that unexplained something is) is that we simply haven't waited long enough. Perhaps good and evil work the same way. Remember the old and oft invoked saying 'that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger.'
At the end of the day, the lion's share of the solutions to the problem of evil fall on their faces, but there are at least two that are worth considering. Really the existance of evil is as up in the air as the existence of God, if not more so. There is little definitive proof that evil exists which makes it impossible to disprove anything with it. And that, more than anything, is the true problem with evil.
If this has moved you, pissed you off or made you feel anything at all, email me and let me know. Feed back is good.
© 1997 bodhili@hotmail.com
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