the problem of evil and suffering

• the pointlessness of so much evil that serves no useful purpose example

  Rowe's example of the fawn suffering a slow and agonising death in a forest fire
• the sheer quantity and quality of both natural and moral evil are overwhelming example


  the millions of creatures that were destroyed by natural disasters long before the appearance of humans on the planet
• The evil of blindness


  Blindness in a stone would not be an evil, as a stone is not meant to see, blindness in a human however, is evil
• Aquinas


  claimed that evil is the lack of something of a good that was natural to it. He used the evil of blindness to demonstrate his thinking
• Augustine


  Claimed that the evil is the absence of good like darkness is the absence of light.
• Is God both willing and able to prevent evil?

  then why does evil exist?
• Is God able but not willing to prevent evil?

  Then God is malevolent
• Is God willing but unable to prevent evil?

  Then God is impotent
• NT example of Jesus healing


  when asked on one occasion about a mans blindness, Jesus turned to why he was blind, saying it was a chance for God's power to be seen.
• the OT example of god using natural evil

  The Flood was his punishment for the total corruption of humankind
• Suffering


  the mental/emotional/spiritual/physical pain as a result of moral and natural evil
• Genesis 3

  Adam and Eve disobey God's commands and original sin enters the human experience by the choice of humansGod has Adam and Eve leave the garden, but provides them with garments of clothing to show his continued love and protection in spite of their sinful choice