Problem of Evil
Contents:
• What is the Logical Problem of Evil
• Epicurus’s Argument
• Mackie’s Reformation
• Responses to the Logical Problem
• Higher Order Good Theodicy
• Greater Good Theodicy
• Response to Greater Good Theodicy
• Limits to God’s Omnipotence
• Hick’s Vail of Soul Making
• Evaluation of Hick’s Theodicy
• The Free Will Defence
• Mackie - Black and White Fallacy
• Response - Logically Impossible
• Objection - Natural Evil
• Leibniz Best Possible World
• Reply - Heaven Criticism
• The Evidential Problem of Evil - William L. Rowe
• Stephen Wykstra - Condition of Reasonable Epistemic Access
• Evaluation of Evidential Problem
• God could be Evil
• Stephen Law (2010) The Evil-God Challenge
• Does Evil ‘exist’
• If anything, Prob of Evil shows that doubt in Gods existence is rational
Context
• As old as philosophy of religion.
• Comes in two forms: logical problem and evidential problem.
• Sometimes suffering is the reason that people are attracted to religion, but the
existence of suffering is also one reason why people doubt the likelihood of a
omnibenevolent God.
Logical Problem of Evil
Briefly - What is the Logical Problem?
• The argument made from the logical problem of evil, is one that argues that there is
a logical contradiction between the concept of God (his properties e.g.
benevolent, omnipotent, omniscient) and the existence of evil.
, Epicurus’s Argument
• The first known to discuss this issue was Greek philosopher Epicurus. In
Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Hume considers Epicurus’
argument:
• When considering why God allows the existence of evil Epicurus states:
1) Is God willing, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
2) Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
3)Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
4) Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God.
• Here, the problem is that an omnipotent being should be able to stop evil from
existing, and a benevolent being should want to stop evil from existing, yet
since evil still exists: there seems to be a contradiction.
Mackie Reformulation
• Supporting this, Mackie reformulated the argument into the ‘Inconsistent Triad’
in which he claims the statements:
1) God is benevolent,
2) God is omnipotent, and
3) Evil exists, cannot logically all be true at the same time without leading to a
contradiction.
• He argued that a good thing always eliminated evil as far as it can, there are no
limits to what an omnipotent thing can do, so a good omnipotent thing would
eliminate evil completely, therefore the proposition that a good omnipotent
thing exists, and evil exist is contradictory. Mackie concludes that if God is willing
to rid of evil because he benevolent and God is able to rid of evil because he is
omnipotent, and yet evil still exists, then the logical conclusion is that God does
not exist.
• In order to undermine this argument and show that it is unsound, many have argued
that one of its premises are false. For instance, some argue that if God is a non-
personal God, like in Deism, God doesn’t have traits like omnibenevolence like
in premise one, and therefore is not at odds with evil existing.
Contents:
• What is the Logical Problem of Evil
• Epicurus’s Argument
• Mackie’s Reformation
• Responses to the Logical Problem
• Higher Order Good Theodicy
• Greater Good Theodicy
• Response to Greater Good Theodicy
• Limits to God’s Omnipotence
• Hick’s Vail of Soul Making
• Evaluation of Hick’s Theodicy
• The Free Will Defence
• Mackie - Black and White Fallacy
• Response - Logically Impossible
• Objection - Natural Evil
• Leibniz Best Possible World
• Reply - Heaven Criticism
• The Evidential Problem of Evil - William L. Rowe
• Stephen Wykstra - Condition of Reasonable Epistemic Access
• Evaluation of Evidential Problem
• God could be Evil
• Stephen Law (2010) The Evil-God Challenge
• Does Evil ‘exist’
• If anything, Prob of Evil shows that doubt in Gods existence is rational
Context
• As old as philosophy of religion.
• Comes in two forms: logical problem and evidential problem.
• Sometimes suffering is the reason that people are attracted to religion, but the
existence of suffering is also one reason why people doubt the likelihood of a
omnibenevolent God.
Logical Problem of Evil
Briefly - What is the Logical Problem?
• The argument made from the logical problem of evil, is one that argues that there is
a logical contradiction between the concept of God (his properties e.g.
benevolent, omnipotent, omniscient) and the existence of evil.
, Epicurus’s Argument
• The first known to discuss this issue was Greek philosopher Epicurus. In
Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Hume considers Epicurus’
argument:
• When considering why God allows the existence of evil Epicurus states:
1) Is God willing, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
2) Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
3)Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
4) Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God.
• Here, the problem is that an omnipotent being should be able to stop evil from
existing, and a benevolent being should want to stop evil from existing, yet
since evil still exists: there seems to be a contradiction.
Mackie Reformulation
• Supporting this, Mackie reformulated the argument into the ‘Inconsistent Triad’
in which he claims the statements:
1) God is benevolent,
2) God is omnipotent, and
3) Evil exists, cannot logically all be true at the same time without leading to a
contradiction.
• He argued that a good thing always eliminated evil as far as it can, there are no
limits to what an omnipotent thing can do, so a good omnipotent thing would
eliminate evil completely, therefore the proposition that a good omnipotent
thing exists, and evil exist is contradictory. Mackie concludes that if God is willing
to rid of evil because he benevolent and God is able to rid of evil because he is
omnipotent, and yet evil still exists, then the logical conclusion is that God does
not exist.
• In order to undermine this argument and show that it is unsound, many have argued
that one of its premises are false. For instance, some argue that if God is a non-
personal God, like in Deism, God doesn’t have traits like omnibenevolence like
in premise one, and therefore is not at odds with evil existing.
