THEODICY: WHY GOD ALLOWS EVIL

THEODICY: WHY GOD ALLOWS EVIL Robby Lashua DSCC Oasis Feb. 9th, 2014

HUMAN EVIL

The Soviet Union1917-1989 20,000,000 to 26,000,000 were killed for political reasons

Nazi Germany 10,005 Nazi Concentraion Camps identified. 6,000,000 Jews systematically categorized and killed.

The Rape of NankingDec. 1937 Japanese Army raped, tortured and killed 300,000 in Nanking, China.

The Rape of NankingDec. 1937 “The Rape of Nanking should be remembered not only for the number of people slaughtered but for the cruel manner in which many met their deaths. Chinese men were used for bayonet practice and in decapitation contests. An estimated 20,000–80,000 Chinese women were raped. Many soldiers went beyond rape to disembowel women, slice off their breasts, nail them alive to walls. Fathers were forced to rape their daughters, and sons their mothers, as other family members watched. Not only did live burials, castration, the carving of organs, and the roasting of people become routine, but more diabolical tortures were practiced, such as hanging people by their tongues on iron hooks or burying people to their waists and watching them get torn apart by German shepherds. So sickening was the spectacle that even the Nazis in the city were horrified, one proclaiming the massacre to be the work of ‘bestial machinery.’”- Iris Chang

Communist China 26,000,000 to 30,000,000 have been killed for being “Counterrevolutionaries”

RwandaApril 6th-July 16th, 1994 An estimated 2,000,000 Tutsis and some moderate Hutus were slaughtered in the genocide. That is more than 6 men, women and children being murdered every minute.

America1973-Present 54,559,615 children have been murdered in the name of abortion to fulfill selfishness and convenience.

Paul1st Century A.D. “There is no one who does good, not even one” -Rom. 3:12 “Their throat is an open grave.” -Rom. 3:13 “Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths” –Rom. 3:15-16

Cancer In 2014, it is estimated that 1,665,540 Americans will receive a diagnosis of cancer 585,720 people will die of cancer this year in the U.S.

Natural Disasters 55 people in the U.S. died in tornados in 2013 It is estimated that in 2010, 320,129 people died in earthquakes worldwide In the 2004, the Indian Ocean Tsunami killed 169,752 people

Birth Defects In 2014, 2,000-4,000 children will be born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome 6,000 babies are born with Down Syndrome in the U.S. each year.

God Where is God during all this? Why doesn’t He stop such evil?

THE LOGICAL PROBLEM OF EVIL

David Hume “Is He willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is impotent. Is He able, but not willing? Then He is malevolent. Is He both able and willing? Whence then is evil?”–David Hume

God is either:1. All loving/good (omnibenevolent) but not All powerful (Omnipotent)2. All powerful (Omnipotent), but not All loving/good (Omnibenevolent) and therefore doesn’t care to stop it.3. If he was both Omnipotent and Omnibenevolent, evil would not exist.

God is the Creator of all things Evil is a thing Therefore God created Evil EVIL Logical Problem of Evil

We can point to examples of evil all around us, but what exactly is “Evil” • We need to define it EVIL What is Evil?

Augustine 354-430 A.D. “ And I kept seeking for an answer to that question, Whence is evil?.. Where, then, is evil, and whence does it come and how has it crept in?...Has it no being at all? Why, then, do we fear and shun what has no being?

Augustine 354-430 A.D. Or if we fear it needlessly, then surely that fear is evil by which the heart is unnecessarily stabbed and tortured-and indeed a greater evil since we have nothing real to fear, and yet do fear. Therefore, either that is evil which we fear, or the act of fearing is in itself evil.”

And it was made clear to me that all things are good even if they are corrupted. They could not be corrupted if they were supremely good; but unless they were good they could not be corrupted. If they were supremely good, they would be incorruptible; if they were not good at all, there would be nothing in them to be corrupted. Augustine

For corruption harms; but unless it could diminish goodness, it could not harm… So long as they are, therefore, they are good. Therefore, whatsoever is, is good… There is no sanity in those whom anything in creation displeases… And I asked what wickedness was, and I found that it was no substance, but a perversion of the will bent aside from thee, O God…” Augustine

Augustine made the case that everything that has being is good. • “Evil has no positive nature; but the loss of good has received the name evil.” • Evil is the absence of good/the corruption of good. • Evil can not, then, be chosen, because there is no evil thing to choose. EVIL Augustine on evil

A person can only turn away from the good! (“all we like sheep have gone astray” Isaiah 53:6) • “For when the will abandons what is above itself, and turns to what is lower, it becomes evil-not because that is evil to which it turns, but because the turning itself is wicked.” EVIL Augustine on evil

All things that God created are good. Evil is not good Therefore, Evil was not created by God EVIL Augustine on evil

God created everything God did not create Evil Therefore, Evil is not a thing EVIL Augustine on evil

Evil is the absence of Good. • God is the standard of Good. • The Shadow. • A shadow is the lack of light, evil is the lack of good. EVIL What is Evil?

ANSWERING THE LOGICAL PROBLEM OF EVIL

God’s goal should be to make us happy and not suffer from anything • This is not God’s goal Assumptions

God is either:1. All loving/good (omnibenevolent) but not All powerful (Omnipotent)2. All powerful (Omnipotent), but not All loving/good (Omnibenevolent) and therefore doesn’t care to stop it.3. If he was both Omnipotent and Omnibenevolent, evil would not exist.

God can be both Omnipotent and Omnibenevolent while still allowing evil if He has a good reason to do so. Good reason Assumptions

He wants to take care of what has caused evil, not merely the resulting evil. • By taking care of the cause of evil, He can truly free some of humanity from the clutches of evil for eternity EVIL God’s Goal

TYPES OF EVIL

Moral Evil: Evil that is committed by free moral agents. Types of Evil

Natural Evil: Evil that occurs from the natural order and is not brought about by free moral agents Types of Evil

Evils that can be attributed to human agency • Forrest fires started by humans, some birth defects. Four Types of Natural Evil

2. Disorders caused by genetic malfunction • These do not happen as a result of the parent’s choices. Blindness, deafness, mental retardation. Four Types of Natural Evil

As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. -John 9:1-3 Four Types of Natural Evil

3. Natural disasters not produced by free agents • Fires, earthquakes, droughts, pestilence, famine, tsunamis, etc… Four Types of Natural Evil

4. Diseases that result from bacteria or virus. • Cancer, leukemia, the flu, the bubonic plague, etc… Four Types of Natural Evil

THEODICY: WHY GOD ALLOWS EVIL