Evil Is a Problem in Theists Essay

Theism refers to the belief in the existence of god or deities. The god is believed by the people in the society to be a supreme being and the creator of the universe. Furthermore, he intervenes in the universe as well as maintaining a personal relationship with the creatures in the universe. There are various kinds of theism in the society; the monotheistic, ditheistic and polytheistic religions, among these religions, they tend to describe the classical conception of God which is mainly found in monotheistic religion. However, evil is defined as any behaviors that are contrary to God's character. There are two types of evil; moral evil such as murder and natural evil such as drought and diseases. In philosophy, there is no topic that is more engaging than the problem of evil. This problem has the ability to attract the attention of many audience and philosophers regardless of the philosophical degrees they might be holding. According to research, in the past decades more writings on evil have been done than any other theistic proofs. Therefore, from my point of view, I concur with the statement that "the problem of evil in the society is one of the actual problems for theism" further illustrations of the same are discussed below.

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The evil problem in most cases is regarded as the most powerful weapon used by atheists in attacking other atheistic beliefs. However, this problem comes into the scene when there is a struggle of understanding among the theists on the different concepts of God. It provides a sufficient solution to evil in the society. The problem of evil arises from the beliefs on the God's attributes; God is perfect, omnipresent and omnipotent. Therefore from the above characteristics, God would want to do all He can to prevent evil in the society but still, the evil exists. Nevertheless, free will arguments in which God should allow His creatures to do some evil in other times have been used as a solution to evil. Therefore, in as much as God would want to prevent evil in the society, the argument on free will obstructs him. However, some critics have argued that God could give free will but still stop people from doing evil. This presents the contradiction between reasoning and the attributes of God (Ewing, A. C. 2016).

In addition, evil is stated as the simple case of inconsistency which comes into play because of the God's characteristics which in turn is seen as true. Therefore, the problem of evil stipulates that the characteristics of God; God is all powerful, all knowing and all good cannot be consistently together because evil still exists. The evidential and logical challenge has been used in philosophy to give more illustrations of evil. Evidential challenge claims that the probability of the truth in theism is what counts the presence of evil in the society. According to (Peterson, M. L.2018) he uses an example of a situation whereby there is intense suffering in the society, the individual who is omnipotent and omnipresent could have prevented this suffering thereby preventing the commission of any evil. A logical challenge, on the other hand, would insinuate the following hypothesis: That God is good and would definitely destroy evil. He is also powerful and would destroy evil as well, but at the end, evil is not destroyed, therefore, a powerful and good God cannot exist. Perhaps there is a contradiction which cannot be all correct.

Perhaps because of the evil in the society, it can be deduced that God does not exist or the characteristics that God possess are far different from what we know. This is because in either choice that we make concerning God's characteristics it contradicts on our traditional beliefs of God. On the other hand, the conclusion we arrived at, that we might be wrong about God's characteristics is only true and clearly stated if God doesn't have a sufficient reason for allowing evil in the society. Moreover, free will defense being one of the evil solutions that occur in the society implies that despite God being powerful He does not compromise with the free will of individuals thus they can choose whatever they want to do, they can either be making wrong or right choices. God gave free will to his creation as a gift because human beings are in a position to critically think and reach their desired decisions. Therefore, God could not eliminate the suffering and evil in the society without eliminating the free will he gave humans as well. It can be concluded that God is not the one responsible for the all evils in the society but rather the human beings are the ones at fault because they have free will.

Mackie a philosopher claims that the traditional beliefs in God have concluded that with evil and omnipotence together they cannot work because God possibly cannot exist in the society with so much evil and suffering. This has led to the so-called solutions of evil in the society reach to conclusions that evil is the counterpart of good, The universe is also said to be a better place to be without evil and lastly evil in the society is due to the free will of human beings. Nevertheless, If God made human beings who would make free choices on good and bad then He could have also created human beings who would always choose good and leave evil. Therefore, being all-powerful God could have created a world that is pure and has only good and right choices. In addition to being all-powerful, he is everywhere; therefore, he could have seen the person who makes right choices and wrong choices. In the current contemporary society, it is obvious that such a society with no evil was not created thus contradicting the characteristics of God being all powerful and good.

Moreover, other philosophical critics like Platinga were against Mickie's claims on God's contradictions. Platinga states that the world containing only the moral good could not have been created by God Without also creating a world that has moral evil. Hence, it is possible that God had a good and valid reason for creating a world that has evil. This proposition is true to some point and logical as well. In my own perception, it is good to have a society with free will. God had a reason for creating a world with evil, this is because evil could be used as an element to correct, purify as well as instructing His creation the way a parent instructs a child. God promotes character development and behaviors of his creation such that the man in question is brought into a well spiritual-being and maturity. A man should know the difference between hot and cold they should also undergo emotions of sorrow and happiness in order to distinguish between the two. Therefore, God allows evil and suffering in the society so that at the end the man will be able to accept Christ and be born again (Collier, B. J. 2015).

Conclusion

In conclusion, this problem of evil exists in the society because the man believes in an all knowing and all powerful God. Many philosophers such as Mickie argues that if one refrains themselves from God and His attributes then there is no need for explaining more about evil. In response to the critique of other philosophers like Mickey, Plantinga also justifies that God had a good reason for allowing evil in the society, more so creating a society with free will. The most plausible of all is the free will argument whereby there are no contradictions pertaining to God's attributes. Despite the fact that God is capable of destroying evil in the society, He cannot because of the free will. Perhaps, no one is in a position to understand why God allowed some things to happen, it is beyond our knowledge of reasoning

References

Collier, B. J. (2015). God and fruitless evil: A holistic response to the problem of evil. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Ewing, A. C. (2016). Value and reality: the philosophical case for theism.

Peterson, M. L. (2018). God and Evil: an introduction to the issues. Routledge.