The Existence of Evil and God

The Existence of Evil and God

In this paper I will argue that the existence of evil does not prove that a God does not exist. For many people the existence of evil and suffering is their number one objection to the existence of God. At times the evil that we see is so pointless. The evil in our world is of such an unspeakable nature that it is difficult at times to fathom what possible purpose could it serve. It is difficult for us to understand why God would allow some things to happen, simply because we find it difficult to imagine the many reasons that God have for permitting different types of evil. Many argue that the existence of a God is questionable due to the amount of evil which we see in the world around us. Sometimes it is communicated in terms of a denial of God's existence. In order to deal with these issues we must first view the logical problem of evil and human free will.

According to the logical problem of evil, it states that evil is logically incompatible with God's existence. This means it is impossible for God and evil to co-exist. If God exists, then evil cannot exist. If evil exists then God cannot exist. Since evil exists, it follows that God does not exist. This seems quite plausible because a natural equivalence would suggest that light cannot exist without dark or cold cannot exist without heat. You might call this the rule of opposites. Unfortunately there are faults that can be found with this argument. For instance, the equivalent of good could be the absence of good, but this does not necessarily have to evil. There could be degrees of good that could even be seen as neutral and then there would be no evil. Therefore this argument fails.

Next, I will set out to state that evil is the necessary counterpart to good. Suffering yields up more believers in God for their spiritual well-being then it should not at all seem uncertain that God would permit evil. Moreover, the presence of evil may actually have a spiritually therapeutic effect. As a result, God may use evil as a way to advance someone's ability to do good. There are times when eliminating evil can bring about a greater evil. Would you amputate your knee because you scraped it? Most people wouldn't. Why? We are aware that wounds heal. Unfortunately, this argument fails because we can live in a world in which a causally linked chain of events does not