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Responding to Arguments on the Problem of Evil

Responding to Arguments on the Problem of Evil. By H.C. Felder. Roadmap. What is Evil? Where Did Evil Come From? Why Can’t Evil Be Stopped? What is the Purpose of Evil? What About Natural Disasters? Couldn’t God Make a World Without Evil? Evil is Evidence for God’s Existence

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Responding to Arguments on the Problem of Evil

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  1. Responding to Arguments on the Problem of Evil By H.C. Felder

  2. Roadmap • What is Evil? • Where Did Evil Come From? • Why Can’t Evil Be Stopped? • What is the Purpose of Evil? • What About Natural Disasters? • Couldn’t God Make a World Without Evil? • Evil is Evidence for God’s Existence • Christianity Alone Defeats Evil

  3. What is Evil? • Argument • God is the author of everything • Evil is something • Therefore, God is the author of evil

  4. What is Evil? • Response • Evil is not a substance, but the lack of something that should be there • Examples: • Sickness is a lack of health • To be maimed is the lack of a limb • Blindness is a lack of sight

  5. Where Did Evil Come From? • Argument • Every creature God made is perfect • But perfect creatures cannot do what is imperfect • So, every creature God made cannot do what is imperfect

  6. Where Did Evil Come From? • Responses: • God made everything perfect • One of the perfect things God made was free creatures • Free will is the cause of evil • So imperfection, (evil) can arise from perfection (not directly, but indirectly through freedom).

  7. Where Did Evil Come From? • Responses: • To be free we had to have not only the opportunity to choose good, but also the ability to choose evil • God made evil possible, man made evil actual • Imperfection came through the abuse of our moral perfection as free creatures • Satan used his free will to rebel against God causing the first sin • Evil comes from our desire to put our own interest above God’s

  8. Why Can’t Evil Be Stopped? • Argument • If God is all-good, He would destroy evil • If God is all-powerful, He could destroy evil • But evil is not destroyed • Hence, there is no such God

  9. Why Can’t Evil Be Stopped? • Responses: • God cannot destroy evil without destroying freedom • As long as free beings chose evil, God cannot destroy evil without destroying their freedom • But to destroy the freedom God has willed free creatures is not a good but an evil • Some physical suffering is a result of our own free choice (e.g., some sickness) • Some evil results indirectly from own free choice (e.g., poverty from laziness)

  10. What is the Purpose of Evil? • Argument: • There is no good purpose for much suffering • An all-good God must have a good purpose for everything • So, there cannot be an all-good God

  11. What is the Purpose of Evil? • Responses: • Just because we may not know the reason for suffering does not mean that there is no reason • Only an omniscient God could know the reasons for all suffering • Even we know the reason for some suffering • God sometimes uses evil to warn us of greater evils • Pain keeps us from self destruction • Leprosy • Child with fire

  12. What is the Purpose of Evil? • Responses: • God will use evil to bring about his purpose • Slavery-Used to bring salvation to millions of African Americans • Holocaust -Instrumental in Israel reclaiming their homeland • Permitting some evil, prevents other evil • Dentist • Spanking • The Cross

  13. What is the Purpose of Evil? • Responses: • God will use evil to bring about his purpose • Develop spiritual maturity • ‘I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their forefathers did.” (Judges 2:21-23) • “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” (James 1:2-3)

  14. What about Natural Disasters?

  15. What about Natural Disasters? • Argument • Moral evil is explained by free choice • But some natural evil does not result from free choice • Natural evil cannot be explained by free choice of creatures • Hence, God must be responsible for natural evil • But natural evils cause innocent suffering and death • Therefore, God is responsible for innocent suffering and death

  16. What about Natural Disasters? • Responses: • The entire creation is fallen • “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay” (Rom. 8:20-21) • It is not God’s fault that people live in an area prone to famine and severe weather • It is not wrong for God to take life since He gave life

  17. Couldn’t God Make a World Without Evil? • Argument: • God could have chosen alternative worlds that would have been better than this world • Let’s examine the options • God could have created nothing • Response: The things God created were good and it is good to merely exist • God could have created a world without free creatures • Response: A non-moral world is not a good world

  18. Couldn’t God Make a World Without Evil? • Let’s examine the options • God could have created free creatures that would not sin • Response: Not possible • God could have created a world without free creatures • Response: God cannot force anyone to love him. Forced love is rape

  19. Couldn’t God Make a World Without Evil? • This is the best way to the best possible world • Freedom is preserved in that each person makes his own free choice to determine his destiny • Those who choose God will be confirmed in it and sin will cease • Those who reject God are in eternal quarantine and cannot upset the perfect world that has come about

  20. Evil is Evidence for the Existence of God • former Oxford atheist, C. S. Lewis, asked himself, “Just how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.” He adds, “What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust. . . . Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own,” he concludes..,.

  21. Evil is Evidence for the Existence of God • “But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too—for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my private fancies.” Thus, “in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist—in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless—I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality—namely my idea of justice—was full of sense”

  22. Evil is Evidence for the Existence of God • God is the moral standard by which we can judge evil • The Moral Argument Proves the existence of God • Every law has a lawgiver • There is an absolute Moral law • Absolutes are undeniable. (We know right from wrong best by our reactions, not our actions.) • We can’t know in-justice unless we know justice. • We wouldn’t make excuses for doing wrong if there was no Moral Law. • We wouldn’t know the world was getting worse (or better) if there was no Moral Law. • Therefore, there is an absolute Moral Lawgiver

  23. Christianity Alone Defeats Evil • Pantheism • The belief that evil is unreal does not correspond to reality • It does not explain the existence of evil • It is contrary to our experience • Atheism • Believe that evil is real but has no way to deal with it. Evil must be defeated by man • Polytheism • Believe evil is necessary. There no mechanism to get rid of evil

  24. Christianity Alone Defeats Evil • Finite Godism • God is limited in love and/or power so he either can’t or won’t defeat evil • Islam • There is no triumph of good over evil. People in heaven are unregenerate

  25. Christianity Alone Defeats Evil • Christianity • There is coming in the future world where evil is defeated and a greater good achieved • For once men have freely chosen good or evil, it is not a violation of their free choice for God to permanentize what they really willed to do • People are regenerated • Evil will be completely segregated from good (Heaven and Hell) • Evil will be defeated permanently

  26. Summary • What is Evil? • Evil is not a substance, but the lack of something that should be there • Where Did Evil Come From? • Evil is the result of free will • Why Can’t Evil Be Stopped? • Evil can’t be stopped without removing free will • What is the Purpose of Evil? • We don’t always know the purpose but that does not mean that there is no purpose

  27. Summary • What About Natural Disasters? • All creation fell when man fell • Couldn’t God Make a World Without Evil? • Not without taking away free will • Evil is Evidence for God’s Existence • There cannot be evil without good. God is the standard of good • Christianity Alone Defeats Evil • Christianity is the only worldview that defeats evil while maintaining free will

  28. The End

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