Stating the problem

Evil comes in two kinds: moral evil (caused by human choices, e.g. cruelty) and natural evil (suffering from nature, e.g. disease, earthquakes).

• Logical problem (Epicurus, later J. L. Mackie): the inconsistent triad — God is omnipotent, God is omnibenevolent, yet evil exists. These three cannot all be true, so the God of theism cannot exist.
• Evidential problem: even if not a strict contradiction, the sheer amount and apparently pointless distribution of suffering counts as strong evidence against God.

The inconsistent triad

Augustine theodicy

Augustine argues God made a perfect world; God is not the author of evil.

• Evil is not a substance God created but a privation of good (privatio boni) — a falling-short, like blindness is a lack of sight.
• Evil entered through the free will of angels and humans turning away from God (the Fall).
• Because, Augustine says, all humanity was 'seminally present' in Adam, all share in the consequences; natural evil is a fitting result of the disharmony sin introduced.
• God is just to allow suffering, and shows grace by offering redemption through Christ.

Privation

Problems for Augustine

Augustine's theodicy faces serious objections:

• Schleiermacher: it is a logical contradiction for a flawless world to go wrong of itself — if it fell, it was not perfect, which implies God is partly responsible.
• Science: evolution shows suffering and death existed long before humans, so they cannot all be a punishment for the Fall.
• The idea that we were all 'in Adam' and inherit guilt strikes many as unjust.

Augustine or Hick?

Tap an idea, then the theodicy it belongs to.

Hick: the soul-making theodicy

John Hick develops an Irenaean approach. God did not make a finished, perfect world; God made humans immature, to grow into God's likeness.

• God keeps an epistemic distance — God's existence is not obvious — so we can freely choose good and develop genuine virtue.
• A world without hardship would be a 'paradise' with no room for courage, compassion or growth. Evil and suffering are the necessary means of soul-making.
• Hick argues that, for this to be just, God must bring everyone to fulfilment eventually (universal salvation).

Soul-making

The free will defence

Both theodicies lean on free will. The free will defence argues that genuine freedom is a great good, and it necessarily includes the possibility of choosing evil.

• A world of robots who could only do good would lack real love and moral worth.
• So moral evil is the price of the greater good of freedom; God is not to blame for our misuse of it.

Evaluate Hick: critics ask whether the sheer amount of suffering, and animal suffering that makes no one a better soul, are really justified. Is the end worth this cost?

Key terms

Tap a term, then its meaning.

The free will defence

The big ideas to take into the exam

The problem of evil tests every claim about God nature. Press Finish for your score.