The problem of evil

• Moral evil


  Evil for which humans are responsible.
• Natural evil


  Evil for which humans are not responsible, evil because of the workings of the natural world.
• The logical form of the problem of evil (Mackie)


  P1: God is omnipotent, supremely good and omniscient.

  P2: An omnipotent being can eliminate evil completely.

  P3: A supremely good being wants to eliminate evil completely.

  P4: An omniscient being knows that evil exists.

  C1: Therefore if God exists, then God will eliminate evil completely.

  P5: Evil exists.

  C2: Therefore a supremely good, omniscient and omnipotent God does not exist.
• The evidential form of the problem of evil (Rowe)


  P1: There is intense suffering in the world which could have been prevented by an omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent God, without loosing some 'greater good'.

  P2: A God with these attributes will prevent pointless, intense suffering.

  C: Therefore such a God does not exist.
• Plantinga's free will defence (part 1)


  P1: A world containing creatures that are significantly free is better than a world containing no free creatures.

  P2: God can create significantly free creatures.

  P3: To be significantly free is to be capable of both moral good and moral evil.
• Plantinga (part 2)

  P4: If significantly free creatures were caused to only do what is right, they would not be significantly free.

  P5: God cannot cause significantly free creatures to only do what is right.

  P6: God cannot create a world containing creatures that are significantly free but which contains no evil.

  C: Therefore God can only eliminate moral evil done by significantly free creatures by eliminating the greater good of significantly free creatures.
• Mackie's response to Plantinga


  P1: It is logically possible for me to choose to do good on any one occasion.

  P2: It is logically possible for me to choose to do good on any occasion.

  P3: It is logically possible for any individual to choose to do good throughout their life.

  P4: God is omnipotent and can create any possible world.

  P5: Therefore God have created a world where we were genuinely free, yet we all chose to do good.

  P6: God did not create such a world.

  C: Therefore either God is not omnipotent or he is not wholly good.
• John Hick's soul-making theodicy


  P1: God aims to create a world that will enable free agents to fully develop and grow morally and spiritually.

  P2: A world in which free agents are imperfect but grow spiritually and ethically is a greater good than a world that is a safe, pleasurable paradise.

  C1: Responding to pain and suffering enables free agents to grow morally and spiritually.

  C2: Therefore it is a greater good for God to create a world with pain and suffering.
• Response to Hick

  • There is too much pointless evil in the world which doesn't aid human development.
• Theodicy


  A response to the problem of evil which reconciles the existence of God with the existence of evil.