Elliot Sober Arguments From Evil

Arguments From Evil: Elliot Sober
I. Introduction The reality of evil existing in our world has been questioned throughout time based on the argument that an all powerful, all knowing, and all good (all-PKG) God cannot coexist with evil. The problem of evil only appears when there is a PKG God because if God is all powerful, all knowing, and all good then how could there still be evil. Therefore, if one of those properties we removed then there would no longer be a problem because then God couldn 't prevent evil from happening. For example, if God was not all powerful then it would be much easier to understand why evil happens because God doesn 't have the power to stop it. There is no doubt that evil exists. However, there is doubt as …show more content…
Theodicy and Sober A theodicy is used to object to the argument of evil because there are some evils that can be considered “soul building.” Theists use this to explain why God allows evil to exist. Sober admits that there are some evils that could help benefit a person this being classified as “soul building.” He goes on to say that while there are some evils that are soul building the majority are not. Sober gives an example of a child who gets bullied but eventually learns to defend themselves. Although the child did get bullied, the benefit is much greater ; this would be an example of a soul building evil. However, Sober does write that some soul building evils have too great of an effect to ever be beneficial. An example of this would be someone getting raped or someone getting tortured, the cost is so great that even if there is a benefit it would never be worth it. Sober adds to this by saying that there are some people who experience soul building from watching other people suffer. He emphasizes the word some because the majority of people don 't get effected by it because their numb to the pain that occurs around them. Sober continues by writing that the large amount of evil that occurs in the world could never be looked at as soul building. He then asks the question, “why couldn 't God give us strong souls?” After all, If mankind had strong souls then there wouldn 't be a need soul building …show more content…
Humans weren 't born with strong souls; every challenge we face makes us stronger. While some challenges are more difficult than others, I believe that the majority challenges make us better people. I believe that God created humans like this so that we could eventually be the people He intended for us to be. If all humans were born good, how can we know what good truly is? In order for someone to know what good is, they have had to have experienced what bad is. I agree with Sober on the fact that there are some soul building evils that are good while the majority aren’t. For example, lets say I never wear my seatbelt and I just experienced a small car accident. Having faced the fact that I could have gotten seriously hurt, I learned that next time I get into a car I should put my seatbelt on. Although I had to go through that experience, the benefit is much greater. However, I wouldn 't consider a child getting hit to learn a lesson something that is soul building. I don 't see how that could ever be beneficial. I therefore refute premise (2) because I believe that an all-PKG God would allow a small amount of evil to