The Problem of Evil

Definition

The philosophical and existential challenge that the existence of suffering and evil poses to belief in an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good God. If God is all these things, why does evil exist?

Two Forms

• Logical problem: It is logically impossible for God and evil to both exist
• Evidential problem: Even if not logically impossible, the amount and distribution of suffering makes God’s existence unlikely

Main Responses

Free Will Defense

God created beings capable of genuine love, which required creating beings capable of genuine refusal. Moral evil (evil caused by human choices) is the cost of freedom. A world of free creatures who can choose evil is better than a world of automatons who can only do good. See: The Problem of Pain, Mere Christianity, The Brothers Karamazov

Soul-Making Theodicy (Irenaeus/Hick)

The world is not a paradise but a vale of soul-making — a place where character is developed through struggle. A world without suffering would not develop courage, compassion, or perseverance. See: The Problem of Pain

Dostoevsky’s Response

Ivan Karamazov’s rebellion is the most honest artistic expression of the problem: even if a harmonious future justifies all suffering, he refuses the ticket if it costs one child’s tear. Alyosha’s response is not an argument but a person — Christ’s kiss in answer to the Grand Inquisitor. See: The Brothers Karamazov

Augustine’s Response

Evil is not a substance but an absence — the privation of good. God did not create evil; evil is what good becomes when it turns away from its source. See: Confessions

Key Tension

The philosophical responses to the problem of evil can feel cold when confronting actual suffering. C.S. Lewis noted that The Problem of Pain was easy to write; A Grief Observed — written after his wife’s death — was far harder. The intellectual response and the existential response are both necessary.

Related Concepts

• Free Will — the primary building block of the free will defense
• Virtue Ethics — suffering as the context in which virtue is developed
• Human Dignity — the weight of the problem depends on taking human suffering seriously
• Discipleship — suffering is part of the curriculum of following Jesus

Key Books

• The Problem of Pain — Lewis’s systematic philosophical response
• The Brothers Karamazov — the artistic presentation of both the challenge and the response
• Confessions — Augustine’s personal wrestling with evil and the privation theory
• Surprised by Joy — Lewis’s personal journey through atheism, shaped partly by the problem of evil