Gottfried Leibniz, a German mathematician and philosopher, offers a theodicy to show that God’s goodness, omniscience, and omnipotence are all consistent with the existence of evil in the universe. His central argument, which will be discussed in detail in the next paragraph, is that we are actually living in the best possible universe. I disagree with his theodicy because it is logically flawed, it says that God is not omnipotent, and evil is not necessary for us to appreciate the good that exists.
The existence of evil in our universe remains to be one of the biggest problems faced by those who believe in God. They wonder why God, an omnipotent and benevolent being, would create a universe in which there is evil? If he is all-good, why …show more content…
This huge decrease in the total amount of good could be caused by many different things that happen regularly in our world. For example, a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, in which many people are killed. This decrease in the level of good from t=1 to t=2 gives a negative slope which is exactly what we see in the real world. People start to criticize and depreciate the world because of the huge decrease in the total amount of good. From t=2 to t=3, the total amount of good in the world increases which gives a positive slope. As the amount of good increases, people appreciate the world because it is not as evil as it used to be. For people to appreciate the good in the world, there needs to be a change in the level of good, but there is no need for the total of amount of good to go into the negatives. There is no need for evil, which is the negative of good, to exist for us to appreciate the good because a lesser good, meaning a smaller, but still positive amount of good, would still create a difference in the total amount of good in the world. As an example, lets consider a hurricane. If instead of killing hundreds of people, the hurricane just injured them, the total amount of good in the world would still decrease, so we would still feel appreciation, but at the same time, no evil would have to exist. This then proves that evil is not necessary for us to appreciate the good that exists because the same effect could have been made if there just existed a lesser good
The existence of evil in our universe remains to be one of the biggest problems faced by those who believe in God. They wonder why God, an omnipotent and benevolent being, would create a universe in which there is evil? If he is all-good, why …show more content…
This huge decrease in the total amount of good could be caused by many different things that happen regularly in our world. For example, a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, in which many people are killed. This decrease in the level of good from t=1 to t=2 gives a negative slope which is exactly what we see in the real world. People start to criticize and depreciate the world because of the huge decrease in the total amount of good. From t=2 to t=3, the total amount of good in the world increases which gives a positive slope. As the amount of good increases, people appreciate the world because it is not as evil as it used to be. For people to appreciate the good in the world, there needs to be a change in the level of good, but there is no need for the total of amount of good to go into the negatives. There is no need for evil, which is the negative of good, to exist for us to appreciate the good because a lesser good, meaning a smaller, but still positive amount of good, would still create a difference in the total amount of good in the world. As an example, lets consider a hurricane. If instead of killing hundreds of people, the hurricane just injured them, the total amount of good in the world would still decrease, so we would still feel appreciation, but at the same time, no evil would have to exist. This then proves that evil is not necessary for us to appreciate the good that exists because the same effect could have been made if there just existed a lesser good