Preview

Theology 202 Essay 1

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
505 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Theology 202 Essay 1
Short Essay on the Problem of Evil

The question of evil is a common hot button topic among atheists and non-Christians who attempt to disprove Christianity. They argue that an omnipotent and omniscient God cannot exist in a world with so much evil. The argument is used by them to try to prove that Christianity is “internally self-contradictory and thereby to be rejected.” Many claim that a benevolent and caring God would certainly not create evil or allow it to flourish in the world that He created. So, the problem of evil is how to explain that there can be a perfect, all-powerful, and all-loving God that exists in a world with so much moral and natural evil. First, natural and moral evil need to be distinguished from one another. Natural evil is defined as “evil which occurs in the process of the functioning of the natural order.” People are not responsible for these happenings; they are simply the victims and no one is to blame. The devastation that resulted from Hurricane Sandy is a perfect example of such evil, along with other problems such as cancer and earthquakes. Moral evil, on the other hand, is defined as “evil produced by activities of moral agents.” This evil stems from intentional action, such as murder, stealing, and adultery. Natural evil is part of the consequences of moral evil that resulted from the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. The vast amount of evil that exists in the world is not because God created it, but because man allowed it. Man was not was not created by God with a built in evil nature; he was created with a free will that was exercised to purposefully sin. God gave Adam a choice whether to do right or wrong and he failed. The moment Adam chose to sin in the Garden of Eden the rest of the human race would be born in sin, too. God did not force this choice on Adam but allowed him to have complete free will. God is wholly benevolent and did not create evil; man brought it into the world by his sinful actions. Adam’s



Bibliography: Gerstner, J. H.. “Evil.” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. E. Walter A Elwell. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001. 384-385. Print.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    That ultimate authority in all matters of faith and practice resides in the congregation of each local church.…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evil, how did it happen and why is it still here on this earth? There is this belief that the Christian God is good and all-powerful. He has the power to create worlds and beings, yet there is still evil in the world. Both Pierre Bayle and Voltaire address these questions in their works “Paulicians” and Candide (respectively). They both believe the Manichean philosophy as a more rational thought process than the contemporaneous Christian view. This belief is that there is not one, but two gods in the world; a god of good and a god of evil. I myself believe in a world of balance and like the two authors listed above, accept this as more rational thought than a single omnipotent god. My reasoning is that without evil, there is no concept of good,…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evil comes in as the obstacle coarse in the way of the ultimate prize. After all, with such a great goal, it shouldn't be easy. Though this doesn't really answer the question of where evil came from, or why God allows it. Irenaeus believes that we chose it when humanity fell in Creation. That justifies moral evil. But what of natural evil? Why did God want this journey to take place in such a hazardous environment, with earthquakes and pestilence, and in such frail form, which is susceptible to such dangers? Hick's response is that moral and spiritual development does not take place in a static environment but comes as the result of challenge and struggle and…

    • 935 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Natural evil came from the loss of order in nature, moral evil came from the knowledge of good and evil that humanity had discovered through disobedience because they choose the lesser good. Those who follow God will live an eternal life however those who reject God would suffer eternal torment.…

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Evil can be used in two ways- when someone has done evil and when someone has suffered evil. Since God is good, God does no moral evil; however, because God is just, God punishes the wicked and thus causes the evil of punishment. People are the cause of their own evildoing. Furthermore, because learning is good a thing, we do not learn evil. It is people’s inordinate desires that drive their evildoings.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    theology 201

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Jesus was human, a man. There are times when this fact is overlooked and it shouldn’t be. “His humanity is taken for granted in the Synoptic Gospels, as if could not possibly occur to anyone to question it.”(Elwell) There are many references to Christ’s humanity. Luke 2:40 “As the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom,and the grace of God was on Him.” The Bible declares that Jesus would be born of the seed of a woman. Galatians 4:4 says “ But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law.” John 1:4 also says “ In Him was life,and that life was the light of all mankind.” There is no denying the humanity of Jesus.…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The problem of evil refers to the question of how to reconcile the existence of evil with an omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent God.…

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Religious folk claim that God is all-benevolent. If this is the case, then why is evil permitted to exist? When faced with this question, believers state that evil exists to promote “the greater good”. The greater good is the idea that some pain and suffering must exist in the world for us as humans to access our second and third level “good” platforms. These levels consist of human qualities such as courageousness, charity and sacrifice. Believers claim that life would not be as good, or as whole, without knowing these feelings, however, I argue that if we never knew any of the “higher level” qualities, then we wouldn’t miss them. If, from the beginning, we only knew the first level good, and knew no pain and suffering, then we wouldn’t know any different. Could it not be a better life, a better world, with absolutely no pain, suffering or evil? So, the question remains, if God is wholly good then how does evil exist? It is possible that God is not completely good, it may be that He permits some evil to exist so we can reach our “greater goods.” On the opposing side of that theory, is it actually that there may not be a God and that evil is a product of our human nature, as well as the good in the world.…

    • 690 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There exist two types of evils: moral evils and natural evils. Moral evils are terrible events within human’s control. The terrorists’ slaughter in Paris, for example, is a moral evil. The terrorists could have chosen not to shoot innocent people. Natural evils, on the other hand, are terrible events happen outside human beings’ control. Earthquake for example, is a natural evil. There’s no way we can let it happen or not.…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    theology paper

    • 907 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It is fair for Elie Wiesel to question God’s goodness because the horrible events during the Holocaust led many Jews to understandably question God and their doubt faith in him. Elie Wiesel, one of those many Jews expressed his doubt in God in his work Night. Wiesel does an amazing job of describing the horrendous incidents that took place during the Holocaust. Elie goes from being very religious to being very angry and doubtful because of the things he endures. Some of the experiences that caused Elie’s faith in God to falter were the witnessing of the babies getting thrown into the fire when he first arrived Auschwitz and the death of the young pipel. These occurrences show the reader how Elie’s faith is slowly diminishing throughout the novel.…

    • 907 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To present the topic of “the problem with evil,” without acknowledging there is a God can be confusing. I think one of the best questions that you could ask is, why does God allow evil being a perfect and loving God (Elwell, pg 413…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First, some atheist arguments that may be brought up in the beginning is as follows: God is omnibenevolent and would thus desire to eliminate evil, and God is omnipotent and thus could eliminate evil. Evil exists in the world, thus God does not exist since evil exists. This is a common argument that may come up about the existence of evil in the world. Most of the evil in the world only occurs because we choose to create it. When God created the world he gave each individual free will instead of creating people who could not make choices of their own. The consequence of this is that some individuals may choose to abuse their freedom, but this price is worth having to pay so that human beings can have genuine freedom. Ultimately, God has his own good reasons for allowing suffering and evil to exist…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Theodicy Dilemma: Why doesn't God Prevent Evil? The problem of reconciling an omnipotent, perfectly just, perfectly benevolent god with a world full of evil and suffering has plagued Christians since the beginning of religious thought. Atheists often site this paradox in order to demonstrate that such a god cannot exist and, therefore, that theism is an invalid position. Theodicy is a branch of philosophy that seeks to defend religion by reconciling the supposed existence of an omnipotent, perfectly just God with the presence of evil and suffering in the world. In fact, the word “theodicy” consists of the Greek words 'theos,' or God, and 'dike,' or justice.…

    • 1833 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evil is an act that distorts moral order, which is contrary to the character of God. Just ask yourself this claim such as; “There cannot be good without evil” This is a metaphysical idea about the structure of reality. Part of that idea is that everything in existence must co-exist in a sort of balance or symmetry. Evil likes to reminds me of abortion, deliberate termination of a pregnancy by surgical or medical means.…

    • 3340 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The argument of evil is one of the most contradicting arguments in the philosophy of religion. This argument states that if evil exists how and why can God exist as well? The traditional theist believes that the definition of God is some superior being who is omnibenevolent, omnipotent and omniscient. This sums up to a being who is all good, loving, powerful and knowing, a being of such greatness is also known as God. Although this definition does create much problems to the argument of evil, which rises to the inconsistent facts of the world we today live in and lacks traditional support to theists. With having such an Omni God present, how do we explain the severity of evils that exists in our world. Many atheists would disagree in such the existence of God. They would argue that if an all loving or good, powerful and knowing being does exists there would be no evil because this being would prevent any evil from occurring but evil does exist so God must not. There are two kinds of evils that exist, atheists and theists also believe this. First kind of evil, is one of morally created evils, these evils are made by human beings themselves and the second kind of evil is, natural evils, that human beings have no absolute control upon whatsoever. Morally created evils are that humans inflict upon one another such as murder, rape, theft and so on. Natural evils are evils beyond our control such as earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and so on.…

    • 1523 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays