Evil and Suffering - Condensed

• The concepts of natural and moral evil

  • Natural evil - caused by nature: hurricanes, floods, tornadoes etc
  • Moral evil - caused by humans: murder, theft, torture etc
  • Moral evil can also refer to inaction
  • Job: suffered natural and moral evil which took him from a righteous path to lonely and poor. He continued to praise God but his friends questioned why he had to endure so much suffering. Job remained loyal to God and he was restored to a righteous and rich path
• The Logical Problem of Evil

  • Epicurus questioned ‘is he willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent
  • JL Mackie: inconsistent triad. It is not possible for evil to exist and God to be omnipotent and omnibenevolent. Deductive a priori argument. The conclusion that Mackie reaches is that God does not exist would also be true
  • Hick soul making theodicy: we need evil for soul making, to achieve perfection
• The Evidential Problem of Evil

  • inductive a posteriori
  • J. S. Mill questions how an all loving God could allow all that suffering. Example of the potato famine
  • Dostoevsky uses the suffering of children as an example of the evidential problem of evil
  • William Rowe says that the intensity, amount and pointlessness of suffering in the world is evidence against the existence of God. Eg natural evil, the death of an animal. Moral evil, the suffering of a child
• Hick’s Vale of Soul Making


  • 2 Stage Creation: we need evil and suffering to become in the likeness of God so evil is justified. Logical and evidential problem
  • King and the Maiden: we must be free to develop and we cannot be forced into finding God. Free will is too valuable to be without it. Logical problem
  • Epistemic distance: distance between humanity and God so we can make free choices. Logical
  • Universal salvation: everyone will go to heaven, justifies our suffering. Evidential problem
• Hick responds / does not respond to the logical problem

  Responds:

  • moral evil occurs when people have free will. True free will is about having true choices
  • Omnipotence of God explained in two stage creation, God allows for evil in an imperfect world

  Does not:

  • does not explain why a benevolent God wants humans to go through such pain
• Hick responds / does not respond to the evidential problem of evil

  Responds:

  • Natural evil exists because pain and suffering is needed to help develop human virtues
  • Universal salvation justifies excessive injustices

  Does not:

  • Contradicts the Bible and the idea of heaven and hell with universal salvation
  • if everyone is saved then Jesus is a mere role model for good behaviour rather than the biblical understanding of Jesus as the son of God
• Strengths of Hick’s theodicy

  • Two stage creation fits in well with modern understandings of Big Bang Theory and evolution theory
  • Many people instinctively agree with Hick that virtue that has been won the hard way is worth more than virtue instantly gained for no cost
  • True virtues like compassion and kindness that lie at heart of being human are truly discovered through pain and suffering
• Weaknesses of Hick’s theodicy

  • Griffin seems to think that millions of years of evolutionary process seems excessive to bring us to the point today where evil is a process to help humanity
  • Hick argues that evil helps us. However evil is sometimes just that; evil
  • Hick justifies too much evil. For example, the Holocaust. God seems to allow catastrophic evil for no other reason than our development. Why should other people suffer just so I can feel better about myself?
• Responses to the problem of evil and suffering: Free Will Defence

  1. Augustine: logical problem is weakened because an all powerful and all loving God did not create evil. Evil is merely an absence of good. Evil does not exist
  2. Hick: evil is needed to help us to develop into the likeness of God
  3. Contradiction argument: Mackie v Plantinga.
  4. Swinburne / Toyworld: the extent of evil is necessary to help us show compassion
• Strengths of FWD


  1. It explains the logical problem of evil and how an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God can allow free will which in turn brings potential for evil
  2. Augustine is a conservative Christian who uses the Bible and Church teaching that for centuries recognises Augustine’s work as authoritative
  3. Hick is a liberal Christian who uses the Bible and the tradition of Iraneaus
• Weaknesses of FWD


  1. Mackie v Plantinga argument. Who has the better argument?
  2. Augustine uses a literal reading of the Bible. It makes no sense to say that Adam and Eve brought sin into the world and as a result we suffer today
  3. Hick doesn’t keep to traditional understanding of Jesus as saviour and ideas of heaven and hell. How can Christians engage with this?