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The Problem of Evil

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Everyone believes that God allows evil to happen. Believers and unbelievers struggle with this concept. The problem with evil is that it’s deeply rooted in us because God gave us free will. Without free will, we would be forced into loving God. He, however, wants us to love him because we choose to. Many unbelievers argue that “the existence of such evil cannot be reconciled with, and so disproves, the existence of such a God. (The Philosophy of Religion, 2008).”

The theology of Hamartiology explains that evil comes in moral and natural ways. The most common that is rooted in us is the moral way. Moral evil is the willful bad acts or decisions of humans against God, others and even themselves. Every day we experience this as a way of life. An example is what we see in our current news. Isis, a terrorist group, choose to murder people for their faith. Natural evil is the “result of any event perceived to be morally negative and that is not caused by the action or inaction of an agent, such as a person. (Chief of Sinners)” An example of this would be if a person chooses to smoke cigarettes, then it is inevitably going to cause them to get lung cancer along with many other harmful diseases which are forms of natural evil.

The question as to why sin exist and bad things happen is often asked, especially by lost souls. If you think about it, if God created a perfect world then none of us would have free will. We would essentially be loving God with no reason other than because we have to. God has a desire though to have a relationship with us. In order to have a relationship though, we must grow and learn to love God freely by our own choice. Therefore, sin exists due to our free will and along with it, bad things will happen based on our sinful choices.

Theodicy is a search to answer the evidential problem of evil.

From personal experience, I strongly believe that evil can affect our relationship with God. We should not, however, use this as an excuse to neglect our relationship with Him. It’s so easy to put our struggles with evil as God’s fault. I know without a doubt, that God always has a purpose behind every evil in this world. If God is all powerful then he can defeat evil. If He is loving and good, He will defeat it. Therefore, evil will be defeated!

Citations:
1. Philosophy of Religion. (2008). The Problem of Evil. Retrieved from: http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/arguments-for-atheism/the-problem-of-evil/
2. Chief of Sinners. (2013). Hamartiology: The Problem of Evil. Retrieved from: http://ronnie-mongold.blogspot.com/2013/01/hamartiology-problem-of-evil.html

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