The Problem of Evil
Chapters 14, 15
	B. C. Johnson (1981) & John Hick (1965)
	Introduction to Philosophy
	Professor Doug Olena
The Problem Stated
	If God is perfectly loving, he must wish to abolish evil; and if he is all-powerful, he must be able to abolish evil.
	But evil exists; therefore God cannot be both omnipotent and perfectly loving. 143 Hick
The Problem Stated
	If the bystander who refuses to rescue the small child in the burning building is not considered good, how can an all-powerful God who does nothing for the child be considered good? 138 Johnson
The Problem Stated
	If the evil in the world is considered a method of growing moral goodness and the urgency to moral goodness, would God be justified in setting a certain number of fires, killing innocent children, to maintain a certain level of evil? 140
	Absurd! 141 Johnson
The Problem Explained
	Three Possibilities:
		a. God is more likely to be all evil than he is to be all good
		b. God is less likely to be all evil than he is to be all good.
		c. God is equally likely to be all evil as he is to be all good. 141 Johnson
The Problem Explained
	In case a: It would be admitted that God is unlikely to be all good.
	Case b: Cannot be true at all­as we have seen­the belief that God is all evil can be justified to precisely the same extent as the belief that God is all good. 141 Johnson
The Problem Explained
	Case c: Leaves us with no reasonable excuses for a good God to permit evil. 141
	Š[T]here is no escape from the conclusion that it is unlikely that God is all good. Thus the problem of evil triumphs over the traditional theism. 142 Johnson
Class Response
	Explain the reasons given by John Hick for the existence of evil in the world.
		Moral evil, evil human behavior.
		Natural evil, earthquakes, etc. 144
Human Freedom
	Moral evil is explained by the mystery of human freedom. ³For we can never provide a complete causal explanation of a free act; if we could, it would not be a free act. The origin of moral evil lies forever concealed within the mystery of human freedom.² 145
Explanations
	The various explanations for the irresponsibility of God to permit this evil: 
		First, they accuse God of being impotent, not quite strong enough to prevent evil. This is not God in any sense that would be worth believing in. 140 Johnson, 143 Hick
What is Evil?
	Are evil and good coexistent forces from all eternity?
	A Christian definition of evil from Augustine as well as C.S. Lewis is that evil is a corruption of what was once good, and is hence reliant on good for its existence. 143, 144 Hick
Human Freedom
	By definition, persons as we commonly take them to be are invested with freedom that is paradoxically outside the control of God even as people are made in the image of God.
Human Freedom
	Second, God could have made people without freedom, or with freedom that always chose to do right.
Human Freedom
	Third, could God have made people free from the risks inherent in personal freedom?
Logic
	Answer: that would be logically impossible. It is no limitation on Godıs power that he cannot accomplish the logically impossible.
Human Freedom
	Answer:
		God is able to create beings of any and every conceivable kind; but creatures who lack moral freedom, however superior they might be to human beings in other respects, would not be what we mean by persons. 145 Hick
Natural Evil
	The second issue, natural evil.
	The skepticıs assumption is that man is to be viewed as a completed creation and that Godıs purpose in making the world was to provide a suitable dwelling-place for this fully-formed creature.
False Assumption
	Since God is good and loving, the environment which he has created for human life to inhabit is naturally as pleasant and comfortable as possible. 
	Since our world contains much that contradicts this, it could not have been made by a perfectly benevolent and all-powerful deity. 146 Hick
Soul Making
	Christianity has claimed that there is a second purpose to creating the world, ³soul-making.²
	Irenaeus suggested that this is the second and more difficult part of creation. 146
Negative Theodicy
	Negative theodicy (justification of Godıs goodness in the face of evil) supposes the contrary to prove the current state of affairs. 147
Negative Theodicy
	146 ³It is not possible to show positively that each item of human pain serves the divine purpose of goodŠ²
	So by negative theodicy we construct a world that is opposite the real one.
Negative Theodicy
	Suppose that the world was a hedonistic paradise where no one could be hurt by their own actions or the actions of others, where the laws of nature were easily suspended when they endangered human happiness.
Negative Theodicy
	The world would have to work by special providence, not by general laws of nature.
	There could be no science, no ethical or rational systems. 
	The world would be like a dream. 147
Negative Theodicy
	That world would be ill adapted for the development of the moral qualities of human personality. 
	It would be the worst possible world.
Negative Theodicy
	The real world, in contrast, would be full of opportunities to develop character, knowledge and wisdom, full of trouble of all kinds, conflict and natural danger.
	Our world is not designed for the maximization of human happiness. It is, however, suited for soul-making. 147