Is God Evil?
The Problem with a Good God and Suffering
One of the most popular, and as J.L Schellenberg calls it, one of the most powerful, atheistic arguments is called the problem of evil. The general form calls into question how one could reconcile a good, omnipotent, and omniscient God with the observable, undeniable evil in the world.
There are many forms and variations of this argument, we will first look at the logical problem of evil: the assertion that a good God and the existence of evil are logically incompatible and contradictory.
A simplified form of the argument:
If God is good, God would want to prevent evil Evil Exists (ie. is not prevented by God) Therefore Either: 1. God is not good, or 2. God does not exist.
However, there is a third possible conclusion. If you can admit that it is even a slight possibility that God allowed the existence of evil for some greater purpose, then the argument while still convincing is logcially defeated. If it is possible that evil exists for some higher reason beyond our understanding, then a good God and the existence of evil are not truly logical contradictions.
Even so, as the clear majority of us do not approach our day-to-day lives as trained logicians, the problem of evil, in this and various other forms, continues to persuade and resonate with those who are unsettled by the horrors permitted in a world that is claimed to be created of love.
As I see it, there are three main issues. The argument calls into question:
- God’s creation of evil
- God’s failure to prevent evil
- God’s tolerance of existing evil
In finding your own answers to these three issues I believe you can come to a sound conclusion as to whether the problem of evil has retained its popularity due to its truth and intuitiveness, or persisted as a misdirection of logic and emotional appeal. The question here is not whether we should believe in God, but rather if the problem of evil is a sufficient reason not to.
1. Did God Create Evil?
Take a look at this form of the argument called the Ontological Problem of Evil.
1. God is the cause of everything that exists. 2. Evil exists. 3. Therefore God is the cause of evil.
This is a sound, though in my opinion obvious, argument. We would have to all agree on this. In the conception of an omnipotent creator God, he is the cause of all things that are, were, or will be. The reason there is something rather than nothing. You could similarly say “the cause of everything is the cause of this one thing.”
Unfortunately, this argument won’t take us far. Most Christians do not believe that evil itself is a created substance at all. Evil, rather, exists as a force, a choice, or a pre-existing form. However, even if God is not directly the author of evil but evil is just a consequence of God’s good creation, did God not still cause evil? An omniscient God would know the consequence that is evil, yet he still chooses to create the cause. It’s like giving a toddler a lit match in a room full of gasoline and saying “I didn’t start that fire!” amirite?
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things. — Isaiah 45:7
However, it is not that simple. Evil not being a created substance means that evil is not a “thing”: it is possibility, the side effect of free choice. Similarly, you wouldn't say that God created that birdhouse in your backyard. He may have created the necessary conditions and materials, and he may have even known you were going to build it, but one would never claim their weekend DIY project to be the result of divine influence and design.
2. Should God Prevent Evil?
Let’s take a look again at the logical problem of evil and ask ourselves why God would allow evil to continue. What higher cause could possibly be worth all the death, evil, and suffering in the world? Well, some get so caught up in the virtues of peace and the value of positive experience that they overlook the big picture: Free will is as important as any“good” and morality. Even more so, as it is logically prior to any virtue. One cannot be good, abstain from evil, and become virtuous without free will. There can be no morality whatsoever without it.
Evil is a side effect of man kind’s endowment of free will. It is a contradiction to force someone to do something freely. Likewise, God cannot create us with predetermined actions and still create us free. We would not expect the intelligent, lawgiver God to create things such as square circles or unmarried bachelors. Free will cannot exist without evil. If we are incapable of evil, if our choices are restricted by some objective standard, we are not free in our will.
For the Christian evil only exists as a parasite, a state of corruption brought onto the good. The apple was good before it went bad, satan was good before he rebelled, and mankind was good before the fall. Evil cannot exist but as a departure from good.
1. Morality cannot exist without free will
2. Free will cannot exist without evil
3. Therefore, Evil is necessary for morality
If God created a world “without evil” he would create a world without freedom, without justice, and without love. These things can only come to be where there is a choice, and where there is choice there will always be the capacity for evil.
3. Should God Eliminate Evil?
People who say God does not exist or use the popular alternative “God is dead” often cite the amount of evil and genuine atrocities that have occurred in modern history and still today. Why did God not stop the holocaust? or 9/11? surely this is worth a small violation of free will? In this logic lies the problem of proportionality. Does God intervene for every murder or only genocide? Does he stop every rape or just really bad ones? Does he smite only those who commit the worst crimes or shall he equally dispense with liars, adulterers, blasphemers, and everyone married person who’s had a wandering eye? Herein lies the issue of eliminating evil. Evil is a part of the nature of mankind, none of us are without sin. God isn’t one to do things halfway or bend the rules. We are either totally and completely free, even to do unspeakable things, or we are not free at all.
1. All humans have sinned/have capacity for evil
2. If God eliminated all evil he would all human life.
3. Therefore, Evil is Necessary for human life.
Mo Evil, Mo Problems
Can Atheists Know Evil?
The most common response to the various problems of evil is to assert that the atheist has no grounds upon which to label any act, event, or substance as “evil.” If there is no God, then there is no objective morality, no ultimate standard by which to measure. Therefore, morality is simply in the mind of man, essentially an illusion that has no existence beyond our convention. This idea comes from the moral argument for God.
The Evidential Problem of Evil
Most atheists have shifted away from the logical problem of evil and use what is called the evidential problem of evil This argument takes the focus away from evil being a contradiction and asserts that the amount of unnecessary evil could not be justified by a higher good, and is strong evidence against God’s existence. Animal pain is an example of unnecessary evil. While the pain of the morally sensitive human can be explained away, usually through free will (or the sins of a past life if you’re into reincarnation). Animals do not receive moral fortitude or any eternal reward for their suffering.
Moral Evil vs Natural Evil
So far we have discussed moral evil or the evil of man. But what of natural evil? tornadoes, deadly earthquakes, and tsunamis? How can these epochs of death and destruction be justified without a being of free will to blame? Much like evil is considered the corruption of good, death can be considered the corruption of life. We are towards death by virtue of our temporal nature. All that begins, must end. Whether that be your life, the ground beneath you, or that familiar shoreline. Nothing in our reality lasts forever.
Further Reading:
Accepting Yourself: Jean-Paul Sartre & The Burden of Adulthood
