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5 “Solutions” to the Problem of Evil
5 “Solutions” to the Problem of Evil
There is one area in which theists and atheists agree – there is an abundance of pain and suffering in this world.
There are a few options on how atheists and theists must deal with this agreed upon problematic reality:
1. Suffering exists despite God is good.
2. Suffering exists because there is no god.
3. Suffering exists because god is evil.
4. Suffering exists because there are multiple gods who are fighting over what happens in this world. This is polytheism and dualism.
5. Suffering exists because even though God is omnibenevolent (i.e., God is love) , he isn’t omnipotent or omniscient or omnipresent. This is called the “Epicurean Paradox”.
Let’s address these going from 5 to 1.
5. Either we accept the God of the Bible or we don’t. It is better to admit failure and not totally solve the problem of evil, than to solve it through changing by diminishing the Divine.
4. Polytheism and dualism is not a heavy player in America when dealing with the problem of evil. I don’t know of any polytheists who became atheists due to pain and suffering.
3. In ancient paganism, many “gods”were evil. However today, I’ve never met an atheist who was willing to conclude there is a god but he or she is evil and that this divine sadist causes the suffering. The pain began by creating this world filled with catastrophic events just morbid, twisted pleasure. This is a logical choice in some ways because it answers the cosmological issue that something can’t come from nothing, that life can’t come from nonlife. But logical doesn’t necessarily equate true.
2. I sympathize with those who hurt so deeply that they stop believing in God. Ultimately though, one hope that they seek they cannot find. What is missing in their worldview is an ultimate, final, justice. Evil exists and its practitioners get away with it.
1. I don’t believe there is an easy answer to life’s painful realities. I wouldn’t insult the intelligence of atheists or theists by saying there is. However, theism, and specifically the belief in the God revealed in the Bible, has one advantage over all the above solutions to the problem of evil. Jesus sits on a throne of justice. Evil here will be dealt with by God in the end.
2 Corinthians 5:10 (CSB) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Don’t let this world’s crime, abuse, manmade diseases, catastrophic events, death, and sadness turn your heart cold to God.
There is a resurrection.
There is a new heavens and new earth.
There is a judgment day.
There is a time when all the evil will be answered by good.
And the paradox of it all is God conquers evil permanently by allowing evil to overcome the only good person to walk this earth. That evil cross is overcome by the resurrection.
Are you ready to believe in the ultimate triumph of good?
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