Section 1.

7
The Problem of Evil and Suffering
Objectives:
 Identify the problem of evil and suffering for people who believe in God
 Explore how the presence of evil and suffering may cause people to not believe in God
 Differentiate both religious and non-religious responses to evil and suffering

Key Vocabulary:
1. Natural Evil: natural features of the world which cause suffering, which have nothing to do
with human beings
2. Moral Evil: the actions of human beings which cause suffering
3. Omnipotent: the belief that God is all-powerful
4. Omniscient: the belief that God knows everything (past, present and future)
5. Omnibenevolent: the belief that God has goodwill towards all beings

MORAL EVIL
 occurs when humans misuse their free will
 human chooses to do evil; human have a choice to either do something good or bad
 suffering for a person or persons usually results from moral evil
 e.g. the Holocaust during WWII
 millions of Jews were slaughtered because of the actions and choices of a person (Hitler)
 misuse of free will is a moral evil because it was only caused by the actions and choices of a
person
 other examples
 war, rape, murder and burglary
 Christian Understanding
 refer to moral evil as sins; going against God’s wishes
 10 Commandments include: You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery and You
shall not steal
 caused by the choices of humans to do wrong- therefore making them moral evils

NATURAL EVIL
 not been caused by humans
 often results in massive amounts of human suffering
 can take the form of earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, drought, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes
and cancers
 they are caused by the natural world, not by humans
 said to be evil because of the vast amounts of suffering caused by natural disasters

Why do evil and suffering cause people to question the existence of God?
 If he did exist, surely he could prevent the evil happening in the first place.
 Why would a God create a world where natural disasters could happen?
 And why would a God allow people, who would go on to do evil things, to exist?
 put not just God’s existence into question, but also his nature and his personality
 INCONSISTENT TRIAD
 in the Bible God is: omnipotent (all powerful), omnibenevolent (all good) and omniscient
(all knowing)
 main idea: either God does not exist or he exists but is none of these three qualities
Page 1 of 3
 1. A God who was omnipotent would be able to stop evil happening, and this God has
clearly failed at this, he isn’t omnipotent.
2. A God who is omniscient would know every evil that was going to happen, and
therefore along with omnipotence, he would be able to stop such things happening. As
God has not stopped evils happening, he is neither omnipotent nor omniscient.
3. Finally, an omnibenevolent God is all good, and so would not allow or want evil to take
place in his world, and with omnipotence, he would remove this evil before it could take
place.
 Conclusion: either God is not these three things or he doesn’t exist.

What is a theodicy?
 an argument designed to defend the idea that God is still righteous despite the existence of evil
and suffering in the Universe
 Greek words: theos – God and dike - righteousness

One solution is to say that most evil in the world is the fault of humans. We have free will and
make evil choices. Explain this ‘free will defence’ referring to St Augustine.

Augustinian Theodicy (5th century)

 evil and suffering are not the fault of God but the fault of humans themselves, as a result of
humans misusing free will in some way
 God gave us the ability to have free will and choose what we do with it
 therefore the things we do that harm others are because of the choices we humans made
 humans are responsible, it is not God’s fault
 the Fall of the human race in the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve: rebellion against God
 moral evil is our fault, and so God cannot be blamed

Limitations of Augustinian Theodicy:

 If God is the ultimate creator – omnipotent - then surely he had the power to design us like
this. If so, then why didn’t he create us differently, without the ability to do wrong and create
evil and suffering?

Another solution is to say that evil has good consequences and so can have a positive purpose.
Explain this ‘preparation for paradise’ argument referring to St Irenaeus.

Irenaean Theodicy
 in disagreement with the free will response, the so called ‘Fall’ was not a disaster
 it was more like the start of a journey for humans; humans learn to be good
 in order for humans to improve their souls, they need to face evil and suffering to become
loving, generous and courageous
 by removing suffering from the world, God would remove the chance humans have to become
good people
 Christians believe that in heaven, or ‘paradise’, they will be rewarded for their goodness on
earth

Limitations of Irenaean Theodicy:

 it is hard to justify the sheer amount of suffering being at the hands of God
 a truly benevolent God would not cause so much pain for millions of people, there must be
another way for humans to become moral without having to suffer first

Another solution is the ‘best possible world argument’. Explain how this goes.
The Best Possible World Argument
 we have to have natural evil in order for the universe and our earth to exist
 against the idea that all natural disasters are God’s fault, and that he should have ‘created a
better universe’
 the universe we have is the best it could be, and natural disasters are just an unavoidable part
of that
 all the energy in the universe creates, but it also destroys; you cannot have creation without a
possible destruction
 the world could not be any better, natural evil is inevitable, it is not God’s fault

A final solution is the ‘perspective argument’. Explain the idea of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Perspective Argument
 when humans suffer, they lose any idea of perspective in the situation that has happened
 they do not ever think that suffering could or ever will lead to anything good for them or
others affected by the same or similar things
 because God is outside time - he has a much wider perspective that encompasses our past,
present and futures in one
 God may be able to see good that comes out of suffering, and so allows it to take place.
 In the Old Testament Book of Job: there is no answer to this because us humans have such a
narrow perspective

Limitations of Thomas Aquinas’ Argument:

 very often, no good comes out of suffering
 Is it really worth God letting suffering happen to millions of people in the hope that some good
will come out of it for a few people?

Practical Christian responses to the problem of evil and suffering:

• Suffering exists, it is unpleasant. The important thing is to try to alleviate it.
• Christian aid - educate. Tell people about the need, in third world countries etc.
• Short term aid, e.g. for natural disasters and other emergencies.
• Long term aid- agriculture, water, education, sanitation.

Page 3 of 3