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Alice Abler
Philosophy 10
Philosophical inquiry #2
Johnston
MW 11:40
Word count: 1355 If there is a philosophical question that will be debated over until the end of time, it will be the existence of god. In debating the existence of god, we must consider all arguments for and against whether or not god exists. The most commonly debated argument when arguing against god is the problem of evil. Evil is defined as the existence of human pain and suffering. If there is a god, and this god is all loving, all knowing, and omnipotent then how can there be evil in the world? How could a god allow human pain and suffering where seemingly none is deserved?
There are many arguments retorting to this, but two stand out. First, God created the best possible world. Evil plays an important role in our world, the world is better off with some evil than it could be with no evil. Second, moral evil on our planet is due to human free will. Since
God gave us freedom, which is a necessity of a perfect world, it is the fault of humans that moral evil exists. It is the combination of these two arguments that prove god and evil can coexist. In disproving the validity of the “problem of evil” we only need to prove the possibility that god could coexist with evil. We should also note that there are two different types of evil; natural evil which includes natural disasters, and moral evil which involves humans causing pain and suffering upon other humans.

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Evil is in the eyes of the beholder. If you are a Theist, you believe that evil is wrong and
God is all powerful and is able to rid the world of its evil. If you view evil as the way David
Hume views evil, then you believe that since there is evil in the world, by evidence then there must not be a God otherwise he would rid the world of the evil and not make people suffer and since he does not then there is no God. To present the problem of evil, you must first know that evil exists. David Hume’s view on the problem of evil is to be understood in the form of the undeserved suffering, perpetrated by man and nature, unchallenged victimization of weak by strong, pestilence, war, famine, and other horrors. In the face of this, God is limited in power, goodness, knowledge, or he does not exist at all; that is, either he is incapable or unwilling to remove evil, or he is unaware of its existence or of the solutions to it. The problem of evil supposes that God would have no reason for permitting evil that is ultimately to outweigh in significance the negative effects of evil. Hume believes in Natural religion which looks at the world from our senses. This gives much background as to why Hume views evil in such a way.
One of the arguments for God is based on the evidence of design in the world. This argument for God is called the teleological argument. The reason that this argument is called the teleological argument is because “it points to the fact that many things and processes in the universe seem as though they were designed to fulfill purposeful ends or goals” (Lawhead 327). I agree with this statement because I think that god created this world to help us fulfill our goals and dreams.
Another argument that agrees with the existence of God is the Greater Goods Defense.
The greater goods definition states, “God allows some evil to exist because it is necessary to the achievement of a greater good” (Lawhead 360). I believe this to be true to the point that I believe

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that there has to be some evil in the world to balance out the good in the universe. Without some evil in the world I don’t think that some people could function. There are many types of evil in the world some that are caused by human influence and others that are cause my mother nature.
One type of evil is moral evil. Moral evil is “bad actions and their unfortunate results for which humans are morally responsible” (Lawhead 354). Why would god create something like moral evil? We have more control of moral evil because it is things like theft and lying. A few days ago someone stole my friends car from a part of town in Eureka and they did this while she was at work. All of her belongings were in her car and she has no clue who stole it. Things like that people are morally responsible for their actions. They know that it’s wrong but they still do it anyway, because it could be where they are from that they think it the right thing to do. Or it could be based on their culture.
Another type of evil is Natural evil. Natural evil is “the suffering to humans and animals resulting from natural causes such as genetic defects, diseases, earthquakes, and tornadoes”(Lawhead 354). We can’t control what happens to us whether it’s the suffering that happens to us as humans, but we can at times help out the suffering that is done to animals because if they are dying we can take them to the vet to end their suffering. Also things like earthquakes, floods, and landslides we don’t have any control over those types of things they just happen. We don’t have any idea when they can occur because they could occur at anytime.
A different side involving the problem of evil is the free will defense. Some philosophers think that god could not create someone who has free will because they are unable to achieve something like evil. The free will defense definition is “the claim that God could not create creatures who have freedom of the will but who are incapable of doing evil”(Lawhead 365). I

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don’t know the exact answer to this but I believe that there is evil against the innocent people in the world. The world would have to be forced to have love and kindness. How would some deal with that? I don’t think someone would understand that moral evil is wrong such as murder and rape if it didn’t exist today. “The free will defense claims that the world is a better one if there is free will, but that the existence of free will necessarily makes possible the existence of evil”(Lawhead 366). I agree and disagree with this statement. I think that it is important to have free will, but I also think that if we have to much of a good thing it results in wrongdoings. For example some people think that it's alright to cause harm to others because it makes them feel good. I don’t think that we world is better off with free will because we can do a lot of things that inflict pain on others whether it is physical or mental. We need to monitor how much freedom we have because having a moderate amount could make the world a better place.
I believe in a way that the problem of evil is a good argument, yet at the same time I don’t. We need both natural and moral evil in the world, and to an extent I believe that an all powerful, all knowing god exists. I don’t know the answer but god could have done a better job creating the world. He could have made it a better place by not having a world that has famine, malnutrition in other countries because it's horrible to see other people starve. But god is just part of the problem of evil. We as humans are the other part. He is our creator and we as humans know that evil is a wrongdoing, but this doesn’t explain why he has chosen to keep evil in the world of the existence of him.

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Bibliography
Lawhead, William F.
The Philosophical Journey: An Interactive Approach
. 6th ed.
Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Pub., 2000. Print.