The Problem of Evil in the World
The concept of theodicy emphasizes the fact that the world seems to contain many undesirable realities that would have been stopped by any being that has the ability to do so, hence the “problem of evil” (Ricoeur and Pellauer, 1985). Thus, there is a need for an explanation to reconcile the idea of the problem of evil with the existence of God. If God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good, it is vital to understand how and why that same God allows evil to exist and the reason why bad things happen to good people. This paper evaluates the problem of evil in religious studies and philosophical traditions and attempts to establish reasonable solutions.
The Starting Point
Any strong explanation of evil must necessarily comprise and start with similarly strong explanations of God and creation that focus on the following arguments. First, the word “God” in religion does not simply refer to the highest “thing” in the universe; rather, it is associated with something that is not a “thing” “in” the universe in the first place (Ryan, 2012). On the other hand, God refers to that which is entirely separate from and fundamentally supreme to the cosmos. Any explanation that may try to affirm anything about God tries …show more content…
Many scholars argue that one has to either drop omnipotence and stick to benevolence, or give up benevolence and hold on to omnipotence (Surin, 1982). In other words, you cannot have both at the same time. Suppose, for example; God was both all-good and all-powerful; then, it would be impossible for evil to exist. The fact that evil is present in the world would imply that God is powerful enough to remove it, but decides not to since He is not all-good, or He is not powerful enough even though He is all-good and wants to eliminate
The concept of theodicy emphasizes the fact that the world seems to contain many undesirable realities that would have been stopped by any being that has the ability to do so, hence the “problem of evil” (Ricoeur and Pellauer, 1985). Thus, there is a need for an explanation to reconcile the idea of the problem of evil with the existence of God. If God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good, it is vital to understand how and why that same God allows evil to exist and the reason why bad things happen to good people. This paper evaluates the problem of evil in religious studies and philosophical traditions and attempts to establish reasonable solutions.
The Starting Point
Any strong explanation of evil must necessarily comprise and start with similarly strong explanations of God and creation that focus on the following arguments. First, the word “God” in religion does not simply refer to the highest “thing” in the universe; rather, it is associated with something that is not a “thing” “in” the universe in the first place (Ryan, 2012). On the other hand, God refers to that which is entirely separate from and fundamentally supreme to the cosmos. Any explanation that may try to affirm anything about God tries …show more content…
Many scholars argue that one has to either drop omnipotence and stick to benevolence, or give up benevolence and hold on to omnipotence (Surin, 1982). In other words, you cannot have both at the same time. Suppose, for example; God was both all-good and all-powerful; then, it would be impossible for evil to exist. The fact that evil is present in the world would imply that God is powerful enough to remove it, but decides not to since He is not all-good, or He is not powerful enough even though He is all-good and wants to eliminate