God and evil
From PhiloWiki
How can a loving God allow evil?
Christian views
"How can a loving God allow evil?" may not be the logically first question. The question assumes that evil, and evil of a rather undeniable sort, exists. Moreover, the question assumes that there is a judge of what is or is not evil. Then there is this: the question implies that evil need not exist.
If the question does indeed imply that evil need not exist, then a further assumption is this. The world in which we live, move, and have our being, this world of time and space, this world of change, change that is a necessary condition for evil as well as for good, could have been otherwise; that is, this world need not be a temporal-spatial world, a changing world. In a non-changing world there would be neither good nor evil, unless of course we assert an absolute good that can be known without experience of evil or an absolute evil that can be known without experience of good. Also in a non-changing world neither would we exist, unless of course we assert that neither time nor space are determinants of our existence.
Moreover, a world without change allows for differences between one thing and another but not for differences between one state or condition of a thing and another state or condition of that same thing. What differences, then, are to be judged good or evil? And on what grounds?
Perhaps, then, the first question that needs to be asked is this: Could God have created us without allowing evil or would he have had to create some other kind of being, thus we would not exist?
- Resources are needed. Feel free to find and add resources.
Secular views
- "A related question to suffering is the question of the existence of evil. Kreeft says that the complete elimination of evil would require the elimination of free will and the chance for true love. He also says some evil and suffering is necessary to make us who we are. He says that life is like an old Twilight Zone episode, where a bank robber gets shot and finds himself on a fluffy cloud where he is given anything he wants. But he soon gets bored and would rather go back to Earth, or even hell. But then he finds that he is in hell. Kreeft says, "the point is that a world without suffering appears more like hell than heaven." If Kreeft believes that an Earth without pain and suffering would be like hell, what exactly does Kreeft believe heaven is like? Is there evil in heaven, or no free will and no love? Do Satan, Hitler, Stalin, etc. run around heaven causing random acts of pain and suffering in heaven so that we aren't bored all the time? I think most Christians believe that heaven has no such requirement for pain, suffering and evil. But if so, why would life on Earth have such requirements?"
