The problem of evil I...

ARTICLE NAVIGATION: You are presently looking at Part I
NEXT
PART I | PART II | PART III

If God is benevolent, and all-powerful, why does he allow the existence of evil and suffering?

No-one has ever found a universally satisfactory answer to the question. Atheists often point to the lack of an answer as a persuasive argument for atheism. How can we believe in a benevolent, omnipotent God who watches others suffer, and does not intervene?

There is a whole branch of philosophy devoted to examining just this question — theodicy, meaning "the justification of God" — defending the reality of an all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful God in the face of the reality of evil.

"Moral Evil"

A partial answer is found by pointing to free will. We can freely choose to do bad things — "moral evil". To the extent that evil is the consequence of the freely-willed actions of humans, God could only prevent evil by denying us our freedom.

But that's only a partial answer. It's open to two objections.

First, it doesn't explain why God prefers freedom over good. Why doesn't God limit our free will in order to prevent evil?

Secondly, what about all the evil that doesn't result from free human choices? So-called "natural" evil, as opposed to moral evil?

"Natural Evil"

If I drown a baby, that's obviously evil. But what if a baby drowns in a natural disaster, like a tsunami? Is that evil? Is it any different from dying of cancer, or of a car accident, or of extreme old age? Does it become evil if the baby is one of a hundred thousand who drown in the same tsunami?

The tsunami, plainly, is not evil, any more than a ripple on a pond can be evil. It is the consequences of the tsunami — death, destruction, suffering — which we think of as evil. But are they? Is suffering inherently evil, regardless of how it comes about?

It must depend on what we mean by "evil". If we define evil as "whatever is opposed to good", and good as "whatever accords with God's will", is all suffering evil?

God has created a world in which we will foreseeably suffer. Since an omniscient God must know what the consequences of his actions will be, it appears that at least in one sense God must be taken to have willed the existence of suffering.

If that is correct then, given our definition of "good", far from being evil, suffering is good.

But we revolt against this idea. It's a clever logical exercise, but our instinct, our experience and our moral sense tells us that suffering is not good. We cannot believe that God actually wants us to suffer, for the sake of suffering.

The Outcome of Evil

We regard suffering as evil because, if we suffer enough, we can be diminished and ultimately destroyed as human beings. We all know there is a level of suffering which humanity cannot endure, that leads to derangement, hatred, madness and, in the end, the destruction or disintegration of the human self. The destruction of what God has created in his own image cannot be good.

But destruction is not the only possible outcome of suffering. We have choices about how we respond to suffering — both our own suffering, and the suffering of others. Among other things, suffering presents us with opportunities to grow, both as individuals and as a community. We can extend love to others; we can accept love from others. We can learn to love ourselves, which is the same thing as accepting God's love. We can come to know ourselves and others better. We can learn something about values and priorities. We can learn that suffering and love are inextricably tangled. We can, in short, take a step along the long road of becoming who we were destined to be.

So maybe God tolerates suffering and other things we regard as evil (including the consequences of freedom) because they provide us with opportunities to grow that we would not otherwise have, and growing is a greater good than being constantly happy.

To be honest, this is a very limited answer. I'm the first to say that it is no answer for, say, parents who have to watch their child descend into the grip of some debilitating and incurable disease. How in God's name, they will ask, is my child "growing"? He is being destroyed!

ARTICLE NAVIGATION: You are presently looking at Part I
NEXT
PART I | PART II | PART III

Photo Credit: Animation by Brian Coyne. The hands are adapted from artwork by Sieger Köder.

What are your thoughts on this commentary? You can contribute to the discussion in our forum.

Peregrinus can be contacted at: Peregrinus <peregrinus@catholica.com.au>

©2007 Peregrinus

[Peregrinus' Archive]