Critically compare the logical and evidential aspects of the
problem of evil as challenges to belief
40 marks
(June 2019 paper)
OCR A-level religious studies
The problem of evil presents a huge challenge to the monotheistic belief in an omnipotent and
omnibenevolent God; the existence of evil is incompatible with the belief in a Christian God, or at
least a God worthy of worship, While Irenaeus, Hick and Augustine present convincing arguments to
support the belief in this God, there are many problems with these theodicies and no empirical
proof of their truth, and therefore the problem of evil presents a prevailing challenge to these
beliefs.
The world is full of evil, evident through natural disasters and the suffering of innocent people,
however this is inconsistent with the belief in an omnibenevolent, omniscient and omnipotent God;
an all-loving God would not want his creation to suffer, an all-knowing God would know of all the evil
problem of evil as challenges to belief
40 marks
(June 2019 paper)
OCR A-level religious studies
The problem of evil presents a huge challenge to the monotheistic belief in an omnipotent and
omnibenevolent God; the existence of evil is incompatible with the belief in a Christian God, or at
least a God worthy of worship, While Irenaeus, Hick and Augustine present convincing arguments to
support the belief in this God, there are many problems with these theodicies and no empirical
proof of their truth, and therefore the problem of evil presents a prevailing challenge to these
beliefs.
The world is full of evil, evident through natural disasters and the suffering of innocent people,
however this is inconsistent with the belief in an omnibenevolent, omniscient and omnipotent God;
an all-loving God would not want his creation to suffer, an all-knowing God would know of all the evil
