Love Of God & Evil

Love of God & Evil

Love of God & Evil

The presence of evil in the world seems to be the most prevalent source of religious doubt and skepticism in our society. The traditional theistic view of God is that he is omni-present, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. However, this presents a conflict with the existence of evil in our world. Alvin Planting a wrote the "Free Will Defense" in response to Mackie's claims of the logical impossibility of theism[1]. In this article he argues that the existence of God is logically compatible with the existence of evil. The argument states that God created human beings with free will, and that we are free moral agents who always have the ability to choose good and evil. If God had created us in such a way that we always chose the good, as Mackie proposed, then our freedom would be violated. According to the Free Will Defense, it is logically possible that God was not able to create a world containing moral good without moral evil[2].

In the actual world, both of these statements cannot be true. (298-299) Therefore, God cannot actualize one of these logically possible worlds. Planting a explains that this does not discount God's omnipotence, because he is bound only by logical reason. Eventually Planting a concludes that God was not able to create a world that contains moral good without the existence of moral evil[3]. It seems to me that this is the most probable explanation. God created us with the ability to make our own choices. It seems very probable that we exist for a higher purpose. If not we are living very finite and meaningless lives. This higher purpose would likely surpass the pain and suffering in the world. Would we even know the true definition ...