Arguments Against God: The Problem of Evil
The Argument from Evil
For the sake of fairness, I have to follow up my discussion of arguments for the existence of God with at least one argument against the existence of God. No doubt you know about the problem of evil already. Here’s one version of the argument for atheism based on “evil” (actually, imperfection):
An omnipotent, perfectly good being would create only the best possible world.
Explanation: a perfectly good being brings about the best outcome it can, and an omnipotent being can bring about the best possible outcome.
This is not the best possible world.
Therefore, this world was not created by an omnipotent, perfectly good being.
Responses
Here are some popular responses to the problem of evil. (Some of them are pretty lame.)
Free Will
Maybe evil is caused by human free will. Free will is so valuable that it outweighs all the bad things that result from it. Free will prevents even an omniscient being from knowing other beings’ future free choices. Hence, (1) is false: an omnipotent, perfectly good being would create other beings with free will, though it then could not guarantee the best possible world, since the goodness of the world would also depend on the other beings’ free choices.
Comments:
Perhaps it is impossible to predict someone’s future free choices with certainty. We can’t claim, however, that it is impossible to predict free choices even with high probability, since even we humans often do that. This might be enough to bring back the problem of evil, since we could wonder why God didn’t arrange it so that bad choices would be highly improbable.
Anyway, this response does poorly with natural “evils”. (N.B., “evil” in this context refers to anything that’s bad.) E.g., natural disasters, disease, aging. Consider especially the vast amounts of suffering endured by animals in nature.
Virtuous Responses
The evils of the world make it possible for people to exhibit moral virtues. E.g., you can exhibit compassion in response to others’ suffering, fortitude in response to your own suffering, courage in response to danger, etc. None of these virtuous responses are possible without something bad to respond to.
Comment: This response doesn’t do very well with non-human animal suffering, which, I assume, does not help develop moral virtue. It’s also not that clear that suffering causes more virtuous than vicious responses.
Satan Did It
Maybe the world’s evils (that aren’t due to human free will) are the work of Satan. It’s his fault, not God’s.
“Evil” = Absence of Good
According to Augustine, evil isn’t a thing in its own right; it is a mere absence of good. Thus, we can’t say that God created evil.
Heaven Is Coming
Sure, there are some problems in this world. But don’t worry, after this we’ll all go to heaven, where things will be perfect.
Who’s to Say What Is ‘Evil’?
No joke, this is the most popular response to the problem of evil among undergraduate students: How do we know what is really ‘evil’ or ‘good’? Maybe what seems evil to us is good to God.
The World Has Infinite Value
Here’s one that philosophers might think of (I don’t know if this is anyone’s actual view): The total value of the universe is infinity (because it extends infinitely in time, and maybe also in space, so there are infinitely many valuable lives, etc.). Therefore, the universe is already as good as it could be. If some finite evil happens, the universe continues to have infinite total value, so it’s no worse.
The Case of the Serial Killer
To illustrate the problem of evil: Say I happen to live near a serial killer, up in the mountains. I see the killer drag unconscious bodies from his van into his house, then later drag the bodies out. I’ve heard about the killings on the news, and I can tell that my neighbor is the one the police are looking for. I’m the only neighbor around, so I’m the only one who knows this. I can easily stop him by picking up the phone and notifying the police. But I never do anything.
Eventually, the police catch up with the killer and arrest him. They then question me:
Cop: Did you know anything about what your neighbor was up to?
Me: Oh yes, I knew everything.
Cop: Didn’t you know that you could stop it?
Me: Of course, I could easily have stopped it.
Cop: So what’s the matter with you? You like seeing people suffer and die?
Me: Oh no, I love all people very much.
On the face of it, this makes no sense. That illustrates the problem. If God exists, He is regularly in a position like me in that example. He knows about many horrible things going on, which He and He alone could easily stop, at no cost to himself. He loves all of us very much. Yet he does nothing.
Now suppose that we continue the dialogue with me giving responses analogous to the above responses to the problem of evil:
Cop: Then why didn’t you do anything to stop your neighbor?
Me: [Select one of the following:]
Well, I didn’t want to interfere with the murderer’s free will.
I thought that when people learned about the murders, some of them would respond compassionately. Also, the police got to exhibit perseverance and industriousness in looking for the killer. Also, maybe the victims exhibited virtue in the midst of their ordeals.
Hey, don’t blame me! It’s the killer who committed all those murders, not me!
Don’t worry, evil is just an absence of good, not a thing that exists in its own right.
All those victims are in heaven now, so it’s all good.
Who’s to say what is really good or evil? Maybe murder is really good.
Well, you see, the universe is infinite, which means its total value is infinity, which means that there is nothing I can do to increase or lower its total value. Hence, I had no reason to prevent the murders.
I hope you agree that these would not be good responses on my part. That is how I feel about most responses to the problem of evil.
Redefining God
I think the most (maybe only?) plausible response to the problem of evil is to reject the traditional “O3 world-creator” definition of God (which there is no basis for to begin with). Perhaps there is a creator who is very powerful, but not all-powerful. If so, the creator has at least about ten thousand billion billion star systems under his purview (perhaps many more, since there might be ‘other universes’). Not surprisingly, you don’t see him around much.