Section 6.2 When Bad Things Happen to Good People

God as Troublemaker

Suppose that in a distant forest, lightning strikes a tree, causes a forest fire, and burns a fawn to death.

How can an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good being allow such unnecessary suffering?

1. There is unnecessary evil in the world.2. If there were an all-powerful, all-knowing,

all-good being, there would be no unnecessary evil in the world.

3. Therefore, there is no all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good being.

A theory that seeks to justify belief in God in the face of all the evil in the world is known as a theodicy.

Many different theodicies have been proposed over the years, and all seek to defend the claim that the evil in the world is necessary.

According to the ontological defense, goodness cannot exist without evil, so it’s impossible for God to make a good world that didn’t contain evil.

Objection: This would be true if goodness were a type of evil, but it isn’t.

Just as redness can exist without other colors, goodness can exist without evil.

According to the knowledge defense, evil must exist in order for us to know good.

Objections:◦ It’s possible to know evil without experiencing it,

for example, Adam and Eve.◦ There is far more evil in the world than is

necessary to give us a knowledge of it.

The forbidden apple contained the knowledge of right and wrong. So before Adam and Eve ate the apple, they couldn’t have known it was wrong to eat the apple.

But if they didn’t know it was wrong, was it right to punish them?

Even if it was right to punish them, was it right to punish all of mankind throughout eternity for what they did?

According to the free will defense, evil is necessary for free will.

Objections:◦ It’s possible to have free will and not choose

evil, e. g., God, Mary, Jesus.◦ The evil caused by humans (moral evil) is only

one sort of evil. There is also evil caused by nature (natural evil).

One of the most poignant examples of natural evil is the tsunami (tidal wave) that occurred in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004, killing more than 200,000 people.

Some see this as evidence of God’s wrath. Would an all-good, all-knowing, all-powerful

being allow 200,000 of his children to die in such a manner just to express his anger or teach people a lesson?

Heaven is supposed to be a place where there is no sin and thus no evil.

But according to the free will defense, there cannot be free will without evil.

So can there be free will in heaven?

According to the ideal-humanity defense, evil is necessary to improve the human race.

Objections:◦ There is little evidence that humanity has

improved.◦ This conflicts with the principle that humans are

infinitely valuable and thus should not be used as means to an end.

According to the soul-building defense, evil is necessary to make us better people.

Objections:◦ Suffering often does not necessarily improve

one’s character.◦ Forcing others to do something against their

will, even if it will benefit them, is a violation of their rights.

◦ There is much more evil than necessary.

According to the law of Karma, whatever evil we do in this life will come back to us in another life.

Hindus claim that Karma can explain natural evil—those who suffer evil at the hands of nature had it coming to them.

Is this a better solution to the problem of evil than those offered by Christians?

According to the finite God defense, evil exists because God lacks one of the traditional properties associated with Him such as being all-powerful or all-good.

Objections:◦ If God is not all-powerful, He cannot perform

miracles.◦ If God is not all-powerful, He may not be worthy

of worship.

American revolutionary patriot Thomas Paine claims that the Bible is so filled with cruel and vindictive acts, “it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon rather than the Word of God.”

Is Paine’s assessment a fair one?