THEISM AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL: A CRITICAL STUDY

THE THEORY OF THEISM AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL: A CRITICAL STUDY

ABSTRACT

The presence of evil in a world said to be created by a “Being” who is not only omnipotent, omniscience and perfectly good is problematic. It is a problem that has perturbed man for ages and coupled with various natural disaster still make the concept problematic one. How can there be a loving God, all-powerful and all-knowing God and still face the problem of evil, if really he is perfectly good and created everything then where does evil originated from?

Atheist or agnostics base their case on the lack of evidence for God existence, however atheist have at least one very powerful positive argument for their position that there cannot be a living, all-loving, all-powerful God because there is so much evil and suffering in the world. Atheist raise questions like this: If you were a parent wouldn’t you do everything in your power to prevent your children from needless suffering? Many innocent children suffer from painful diseases, with this kind of problem how can we affirm for a loving and all-powerful God in the world.

In this study, we are going to look through the lenses of philosopher who talk about the problem of evil and God’s existence. Our main focus on this work is theism and the problem of evil which will be dwell on chapter four of this work. Before going to the main work, we will first look at the problem which is evil, the different types of evil and different explanation (philosophical and religious explanation) of evil.

We will talk more on chapter four that deal with the problem Theism and the problem of Evil.

According to Augustine, evil is not a being, it is a result of privation of good, so it was not and cannot be created, evil cannot exist on it’s own. John Hick on his analysis gave some point why there is evil in the world. On his Greater Good Defence: God himself could not achieve certain result without allowing us to struggle against evil and to endure suffering some evil are necessary in achieving certain good end. The good that is achieved outweighs the evil and the same or a greater amount of good could not have been attained by any means that did not involve the presence of those evils.

THE THEORY OF THEISM AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL: A CRITICAL STUDY