THE PRESENCE OF EVIL IN THE WORLD

The presence of evil in the world is compatible with the existence of God

Introduction

Contemporary news coverage bombards us with stories about enormous casualties and prodigious sufferings that occur in the world. Anyone can simply look to their neighbor or their own lives and see the presence of misfortune running rampant in one manifestation or another. This problem has impinged upon the issue of God's existence in religious philosophical discussions. Philosophers question whether or not there can be a wholly good God that would create such a world where evil exists. Thus arguments against the existence of God generally surface in two ways. Either the existence of God is logically incompatible with the evil in the world or the existence of God is improbable with respect to the amount of evil in the world. For centuries, many have tried to dismiss the existence of God on the basis of the existence of evil. This particular pursuit is appropriately known as the problem of evil because of the implications produced by its presence. Theists who have disputed such arguments are said to be engaged in a theodicy, which is a scheme designed to disclose the compatibility between God and evil. There is no doubt that this is one of the most perplexing problems theists have to face. Therefore, I shall defend the contention that evil is not logically incompatible or improbable with God's existence.

Discussion

The non-theist suspects that given the presence of evil (a fact none of us tend to deny) then God willfully permits evil, unwillingly permits evil, or woefully permits evil with some sort of capricious tendencies in mind. But God is supposed to be Omni benevolent. Thus we would expect God would create a world in which evil did not exist. If God ...