The problem of evil

The problem of evil
I am addressing the Philosophical Problem of Evil: the assertion that it is not logical to believe in a God who is all powerful, all good and yet allows evil to exist. This video DOES NOT attempt to answer the pastoral question “why to bad things happen to good people.”

1. God exists and He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent
2. There is evil

There are three kinds of logical inconsistencies: explicit “it’s raining outside, it is not raining outside”, formal “all men are mortal, Socrates is a man, Socrates is not mortal” and implicit “A is greater than B, B Is greater than C, C is greater than A.” The usually stated problem of evil does not fall into one of these categories.

We are forced to add an additional statement:
3. An omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good being would have no good reason for allowing evil to exist and is obligated to eradicate it.

From here we can offer several suggestions as to why God made choose to allow Evil to exist:

1. the Free Will Defense: God allows evil to exist because it is required by the very nature of free will. If created beings can make decisions than they may eventually choose evil. God by allowing free will to exist must also allow evil to exist.

2. the soul making defense: The point of life is to become a godly person, without suffering in the world no person could come to a full realization of that goal. Virtue develops in adversity. Put another way “iron sharpens iron.” Perhaps God allows suffering so that we will have sufficient opportunities to face evil and develop Godly character.

3. God’s glory: God allows evil to exist so that he can destroy it in the future bringing great glory to himself.