Therefore, believing God to encompass all of these traits would leave anyone in their right mind wondering how anything bad could ever happen in the world. Some suggest that accepting two of these three qualities allows for the possibility of evil. For example evil could thrive if God were omniscient and omnibenevolent, but not omnipotent. God would then be all-knowing of the evil that takes place. Also, he would crave goodness in the world.
In order to be morally perfect both good and evil must exist outside of God so that he can choose it. The only way for a being to be morally perfect is for an evil to exist that is not chosen. If God destroys all evil, moral perfection becomes impossible because the choice not to do evil will no longer exist. If God is omnipotent, omniscient , and morally perfect he is constrained not to destroy all evil by his own definition of existence. The property or constraint of being morally perfect is as important as omnipotence.
A God who is omniscient would know everyway evil could come into existence and would know how to stop every form of these evils. A God who is omnibenevolent would want to prevent all evils. A God who knows everyway evil can exist, who is able to stop evil from even coming into existence and wants to have no evil in the world, definitely could stop the existence of evil. If such a being exists then evil must not exist in this world. This turns out to be a logical contradiction, as stated previously, evil does exist in this world in many different forms, so this being of which no greater can be conceived must not exist.
The Problem of Evil The Old Testament both raises and attempts to answer the question of how God can be good and all-powerful yet allow evil to exist in the world. Evil is defined as the source or cause of suffering, injury, or destruction. When God finished his creation, he appreciated that “all that he had made was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) However, anyone can clearly see that evil exists in the world. The classic problem of evil comes in the form of a trilemma, a difficult question with three possible answers. Is God unable to end evil and suffering?
Augustine replies back to him which kind of evil is Ev talking about: the evil that men do and the evil that men suffer. Ev responds to him saying, “I want to know about both kinds of evil.” Aug begins to define while conversing with Ev by explaining that God gives justly to the righteous and the wicked what they deserve. The explanation is clear. God gives the righteous their rewards and the wicked he punishes justly, but the way we experience His justice is through suffering. He further explains that the evil deeds that we perform are of our own accord, and that we are punished by God’s justice because they are done out of our own free will.
If God is all knowing and all powerful and all good, therefore god would not want us to suffer and not put evil on earth. I believe that evil and suffering does exist because of the simple fact that we wouldn’t know the difference between good and bad, sad and happiness, love and hate. We wouldn’t know to appreciate god and everything he does for us. God being an all tri-omni god would not put anything on earth that he knew we couldn’t handle. There are two varieties of evil, moral and natural evil.
Sam Harris uses this idea in one of his quotes saying that “Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes or he doesn’t care to or he doesn’t exist. God is either: impotent, evil or imaginary. Take your pick and choose wisely.” This can speak to many of those who don’t believe in God as this shows how even with this earth God didn’t create it perfectly which leads to natural disasters and if he did create this earth then he must be evil to have created it imperfectly and if a perfect being wants to create something imperfect when he can create it perfectly how is this justifiable? Some people also say that if we are a
He speaks of how a world with humans is better than a world without, and because of this it is just does not make sense to have a world without evil. But this could also just lead us back to the original problem, bringing to mind the thought that if God is able to do anything and everything, then he should be able to create a perfect world with no evil. The fifth premise states simply “But, there’s evil.” Laurence distinguishes between the two different kinds of evil when explaining this argument. He says that natural evil can
In the world we live in, it seems that every other person is out for self gain They will step on anyone and do whatever it takes to get what they want, but does that make them purely evil? What if in their final moments they go something good? Or if their evil ways are result’s of circumstances that they can no control over? It’s a hard line to draw and in King Lear Shakespeare explains why through the use of conclusions. The most important conclusion Shakespeare has drawn about the nature of humanity in King Lear is the fact that evil is not something the gods have cursed you with at birth but it is something that you choose for yourselfACt .
Augustine is quick to clarify that God did not make sin. If God is good and all things he created are good then sin can not be created by God, for sin is evil. Augustine believes that sin is humanity's responsibility. Augustine’s view of the original sin is very complex and does not discuss it completely in Confessions, for his point of writing the book is more of a personal reflection on his view of evil in his own life. Simply stated, original sin is the condition that inclines human beings to selfishness and disobedience, even when they may want to act otherwise.