Evil and suffering

• genesis 3: the fall

  • how Adam and Eve disobeyed god's command by falling for the serpent's persuasion to eat the forbidden fruit.
  • this resulted in everything turning sour: innocence was lost, the original harmony between humans and animals was lost, childbirth would be painful yet the woman would still succumb to the man's domination, and the man would have a life of fruitless hard labour.
  • Adam and Eve were also driven out of eden.
• what is suffering?


  the mental/emotional/spiritual/physical pain and distress that humans and animals experience as a result of moral and natural evil
• natural evil refers to things such as disease, the suffering of animals that are prey for other animals, and earthquakes. they are the result of things beyond human control, such as genetic mutations or the chance workings of the laws of nature.
• in its most severe forms of expression, natural evil causes unimaginable distress for its victims. many christians find natural evil hard to accept, particularly on a large scale. examples of natural evil are:

  • a small child dying of a disfiguring and agonising cancer
  • the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that killed over 230,000 people in 14 countries
  • animals caught up in a forest fire with no means of escape.
• the Old Testament gives numerous examples of god using the forces of nature to wreak havoc on people (often the enemies of Israel):

  • the flood was his punishment for the total corruption of humankind
  • the plagues were inflicted on the Egyptians to force the pharaoh's hand
  • the exodus resulted in the escape of the Israelites but the drowning of many pursuing Egyptians.
• what are the two types of evil?

  natural and moral.
• moral evils refers to the hurtful and harmful acts that humans as moral agents carry out, or to human inaction when someone is in need.
• as with natural evil, there is a wide range in the amount and intensity of the moral evil perpetrated.
• many christians can probably account to their own satisfaction for small daily acts of unkindness, etc.

  the problem becomes acute when truly horrendous acts of evil are committed, e.g.:

  • the holocaust and the medical experimentation that was carried out
  • the terrible acts of sexual violence carried out on children by paedophiles.
• moral evils raises the question of why god permitted such evils to be carried out.
• what are the two problems of evil?

  logical and evidential.
• what are the three responses to the problem of evil and suffering?

  process theology as presented by griffin, the free will defence and hick's soul-making theodicy.