The Problem Of Unnecessary Evil

The presence of unnecessary evil in the world has sparked controversy about the existence of an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient being. The problem of evil, in its most basic sense, claims that the evil in the world is unnecessary and contradictory to the existence of the Abrahamic God. In this essay I will briefly summarize both the logical problem of evil given by Mackie and the evidential problem of evil provided by Rowe. I will then argue that these arguments cannot be made because humans are incredibly limited and cannot even comprehend the thoughts of God. I will then present a critique to my argument which will claim that despite not knowing God’s true intentions humans have defined suffering and as such an all good God would …show more content…
One may argue that while we may not be able to understand fully what God is thinking, we currently know a form of suffering as defined by humans and as such and all-knowing being such as God should be aware of what we determine to be horrendous or gratuitous suffering. Even if we do not know God’s intent or thought, we have been given, in Exodus, the Ten Commandments. One of the most prominent Commandments is written as, “Thou shall not kill”, which should be an indicator that God and us humans have had some form of connection about what is good and what is bad for the world. In a very basic sense humans have an idea of what is good and what is bad, to which it follows that most bad things lead to suffering for at least one person. In regards to the Ten Commandments, it is known that premature death or murder is a form of suffering for the world. As such, if God was a being that is not tied down to the laws of nature he should be able to prevent one, if not all, unnecessary sufferings and deaths of the world. [Furthermore, why then, is it considered that death is a form of reprieve of suffering?] Immediately it should point towards the possibility that there is suffering that must be ended in death and ultimately an all good, all powerful, and all knowing God would have prevented such circumstances. Despite being unknowing of what God thinks, we believe that God knows what we feel and think and as such would not allow us to endure our believed form of suffering. This particular argument engages my critique in that it shows that knowing what God’s thoughts are is irrelevant because there is still suffering in the world. I believe this particular argument to be impactful in that it attacks the main portion of my critique and adequately explains how it is unnecessary for humans to fully understand the thoughts of