Problem with Evil Existence of God

Today the news is fill with coverage on various natural catastrophes and other related causalities that mint face daily. Anyone kindle visit into their lives or even their neighbors and see the presence of misfortune that surrounds our worldly concern. This problem has brought up the write up of theologys dwellence in religious philosophical discussions. For centuries, gentlemany withdraw tried to dismiss the existence of divinity fudge on the basis of the existence of malevolent. Lets consider where perfection has been placed in peoples lives throughout our history.For the Greeks and Romans gods were thought to personify wisdom, war, and other actions that human existencenesss took (Spitzer 5). As knowledge incubated to gird god was thought to live in heaven, beyond the realm of the planets. He was gestated to give up created life thousands of old age ago. Soon as human knowledge progressed even further weve learned about the Big Bang, DNA, and development (Spitz er 14). It depends that the more(prenominal) humans know, the further back graven image gets pushed. Often, it appears as if humans use divinity fudge as a placeholder for the un cognize, that as we learn more, he gets redefined.Philosophers question whether or not at that place shadow be a wholly pricy divinity that would create such(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) a world where hatred exists. This pursuit is known as the problem of cruel. According to the problem of evil, the extent of evils in the world seems to conflict with the existence of an all-knowing, omnibenevolent, and omnipotent matinee idol. Theodicy is a study where theists be able to get unneurotic and make their causes disclosing information on the compatibility amongst God and evil. This seems to be one of the most perplexing problems theists have to face.In todays world, there ar many differing opinions as to whether a God exists or not. This obviously has been an issue of great controversy because many people worship different gods or no god at whole. I will define theodicy discuss the conflict between an omniscient God and the existence of evil, and cor reply on free will and how it plays into natural and moral evil. Theodicy is the branch of theology that defends Gods levelheadedness and justice in the face of the existence of evil (dictionary. com). Theodicy is a term hat comes from the Greek words theos meaning God and dike meaning righteous. The basic form of theodicy involves these assumptions that God is all full and powerful therefore he is all knowing and that the universe was made by God and does it exist in a dependant upon(p) relationship to God. Also the assumption of the existence of evil and why. (Mackie 150) This suggests that if God is all good and powerful he would choose to eliminate such evils. In the fictitious character of God world all good but not all powerful he whitethorn be unable to intervene in the evils of this world.Or if God was just all powerful and not all good one must scratch he has a malicious side to him to seize all this evil. Assuming that God is all these things two powerful and good if the universe doesnt exist in a contingent relationship to God then he has little to do with the evil. With this being said still leaves the question why does evil exist? The basic approaches to theodicy can be said to take three forms discursive/deductive, evidentiary/inductive, and existential. The logical problem of evil is a deductive one.If God is said to be all good, all powerful, and all knowing why should evil exist. Is it rational to believe in the existence of God? This is Mackies look of the problem God exists, is all good, all knowing, and all powerful. Such a being has no limits to its ability. A good being will eer eliminate all the evil that it can. Evil exists, so God must not (Theodicy Overview). You can agree with the first two statements, but one might grapple the third statement by making t he point that a good being will always eliminate all the evil that it can unless it has good modestness to free that evil.Therefore, a modified displacement of Mackies argument looks like this If God exists, then there is no evil, unless there is a reason that would justify Him in permitting it. Evil exists. There is no reason that would justify God to permit evil. So, God does not exist (Theodicy Overview). The intention easy this argument is to show that God is justified in permitting evil. The evidential problem of evil admits that God and the existence of evil argon logically compatible, the concept of good and faulty ar known to go together. Considering the amount or various kinds of evil in the world solve as vidence against the existence of God. This approach argues that because of the large amounts of evil in the world and the existence of unjustified evil the belief in God is not plausible.We assume that God would refuse to allow such evils to exist that fail in app earance to have any good enjoyment. Here be examples of these objections. It seems that God could have eliminated more evil in the world and still accomplished the divine purposes (Matson 145). Is such a God who does things this way worthy of worship, and therefore, plausible (Matson 145)? With little evidence its hard to prove or negate if something exists. Dealing with a being such as God we may not always be able to understand his conclude for allowing such evils and will not always see his greater purpose for his divine moral teachings. The existential approach often referred to as the religious approach to the problem of evil is the concept of why the suffering is happening to a certain individual and why at this clip or place in this individuals life. Theodicy is now seen as practical more concern with providing answers for those who suffer in specific circumstances.It is often that the existential approach turns from asking why God would allow such evils to happen to i nstead how one can go to God in depend for him to servicing relieve them of their problems and find ways to make suffering and evil more tolerable. The focus is on how believers should respond to God during their tribulations for example turning to faith, testimony, and worship. This is an overview on theodicy and introduces some of the main concepts that sets its foundation. in a flash the conflict between an omniscient God and the existence of evil seems to get very complicated.God is referred to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent simultaneously. If God is omnipotent this fashion he has power over anything and everything. If God is omniscient this means he is aw be of all things that go by and if he is omnibenevolent this means he is wholly good. It would seem rational to believe that an omnibenevolent God would be of nature to relieve suffering wherever it is happening (Swinburne 67). An omniscient God would know when people are suffering, how they are suffering, and how that suffering may be relieved. An omnipotent God has the power to alleviate those who are suffering from their sufferings.So why does God allow evil to exist? Maybe God allows evil to exist because it is needed for some greater good. For example, when a parent gives a child bad tasting medicine or has the child undergo painful surgery. From the childs perspective they would feel as if they were being penalize for something or enduring a form of evil. When this isnt the case at all the parent is sole(prenominal) looking out for the childs best interest (Swinburne 100). The child shows ignorance of the parents reasoning for forcing him/her to undergo the temporary pain and so the child finds this treatment unjust when in actuality it isnt.Perhaps we can use the metaphor of the childs perception of his parents action to God and our perception of his creation of evil. For we cannot deny that some good the childs mind cannot even conceive may justify the parents in permittin g the child to suffer. And by analogy, wont the same be true of God in relation to us as his children (Theodicy Overview)? This can conclude that we are sometimes unable to see the bigger picture of Gods purpose when it comes to human suffering. God may be teaching us the secrets behind the moral code. Like what is just and in just.We are being taught moral responsibilities and moral traits to help us reach a greater good that God perchance has in store for our lives. almost still argue that this isnt the case at all. There are still many evils that dont necessarily seem to produce any good or help in the counter-balance between good and evil. One incident that comes to mind is the Holocaust. It was a horrific flow of time in our history where genocide occurred. It is hard to believe that an all-powerful and all-knowing God would befit powerless in preventing the nightmare in Auschwitz.Also if God is omnibenevolent we would ponder on the question how can he let something so mal ice take place on innocent lives? Is it reasonable to believe that all evils can be explained to where they occur to result in a greater good and that we are somehow unable to always make sense of why such and such thing are happening? It is possible that a massacre shooting at a school resulting in the devastation of many young lives may serve to promote a greater good, but it doesnt seem likely. Now there is a distinction between the good parent and the good God.In such cases where a child is undergoing pain which they are incapable of understanding the parent is there to reassure them of their bash and give them useful insight on better understanding their situation and what it is their going through. There are numerous people who go through prolonged suffering who are consciously unaware of Gods presence. Going back to the incidents that occurred in Auschwitz it is unlikely that the majority of prisoners felt Gods mania and reassurance. They most likely felt abandoned and un- loved.Many would have to question where was God during this time and what fibre of parent does this make him. It appears that God acted like a negligent parent with a cold heart. With that being said we can make the assumption that God doesnt exist or the good-parent analogy fails. This argument that God allows evil to exist to show us the greater good seems to be implausible collectable to the particular that such horrendous evils fail to show the greater good they are meant to produce. There are two basic forms of evil which are natural and moral.Natural evil is when the world experiences suffering caused by disease, earthquakes, floods, crashes, and so on. Moral evil is when someone chooses to act ill-mannered based on human will. Now natural evil cant be prevented and is easily misunderstood to why God allows such natural disasters to occur. Where moral evil is based upon each individual and their code of ethics, how they differentiate right from wrong. Some argue that God pu nishes people based on their actions because we have the ability to choose whats good and whats bad.This is where the free-will defense can cover moral evil, but it fails to cover natural evil. It is believed that God created man to possess free-will allowing him the freedom of choice. With the freedom of choice there becomes conflict when you have to make the decision between right and wrong. The fact that we have been taught to know what is right should benefit us when it comes to making the better decision, but that isnt always the case. Due to the various temptations we have in our gild many of us continue to fall short of the moral code. If God has made men such that in their free choices they sometimes prefer what is good and sometimes what is evil, why could he not have made men such that they always freely choose the good (Mackie 164)? It is easy to assume that such a being as God would want his creation to be wholly good like him, but this isnt the case at all. Some argue that if God was to have created us to always freely choose good we wouldnt be entirely entitled to freedom. If we were being forced to choose one way or the other we wouldnt be choosing freely.Without the ability to choose what is wrong we would no longer have to deal about greed, lust, violence, and other evils because they would no longer be a choice of ours. We would be free from temptations and plainly have innocent inclinations, and so could not exemplify the moral value of resisting and overcoming temptations to do wrong (Mackie 165). In conclusion, I do believe in the rationality behind the existence of God. Just because there is a problem with evil and a disagreement to why God would allow such evils to exist I feel there is a greater purpose behind Gods plan.The evils that are apparent in our society today teaches us the value of ethical motive and the importance in having them. We are able to step alfresco ourselves and our heart goes out to those we see suffering fro m deprivation all around the world. The idea of God being omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent while there is an existence of evil seems to be problematic unless you can believe in the fact that it is possible we are incapable of comprehending all it is God is trying to teach us. For God to be opposed to remove the devastation in this world there would have to be good reasoning behind all of this.To believe in God you are exercising your ability to have faith in a higher power. You are choosing to believe in something that has yet to be proven into existence. Faith is known to be very important to God and it is through the trials and tribulations you turn your faith towards God in search of comfort and understanding. I do believe that during the hard times God waits for us to turn to him and aver in him that he has the ability to mitigate all our problems. It is necessary to experience or witness evils in the world because it is a way for us to build our faith and come into a cl oser affiliation with God.By God creating us having free-will this allows us to choose from what is good and what is evil. We are able to establish morals and learn the virtues of life. The great thing about this is that these lessons only come if we choose to learn them. It is our choice what we allow to dictate our lives. I believe if we are ever going to be able to see or comprehend what Gods divine purpose is for allowing such evils to exist we need to become more like him. Abiding by the laws of God is an option , a choice that he has left up to us.