The Problem of Evil

My claim that we have evil in this world because of our libertarian freedom does not fully answer the notion of “the problem of evil”. Saying we have evil in this world is just like saying we have bad decisions in this world. Bad decisions just like evil do not have a form. Every decision that God makes is a good decision therefore God cannot do evil. Human beings initiated evil. In fact, the first human beings (Adam and Eve) gave ongoing birth to evil because everyone ultimately came from them. So everyone after Adam and Eve is inherently evil. This idea is evident in our lives because every human being has committed evil. The ultimate problem is not how an all-powerful God can exist while evil exist, the ultimate dilemma is how a holy God can accept human beings that are not holy. Stephen T. Davis in “Free Will and Evil” writes, “All the moral evil that exists in the world is due to the choices of free moral agents whom God created” (Davis). Davis argues that free will is the answer to the problem of evil. This is consistent with my view that evil exists because of our libertarian freedom. Unlike Hick, Davis is consistent with my answer for evil and he is also consistent with how evil is solved in regards to heaven and hell. Davis states, “I do believe hell exists, but I do not hold that it is a place where protesting people are led against their will to be tortured vengefully. I believe that the people who will end up separated from God freely choose hell and would be unhappy in God’s presence. Having lived their lives apart from God, they will choose eternally—to go on doing so. So it is not a bad thing that they do not spend eternity in the presence of God. People who will prove to be incorrigibly evil will never come to th...

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...us’s life of no evil! With this you get complete forgiveness, covered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and when God looks at you when you meet death, He sees the cross and when he looks at you he sees Christ. This is how anyone is able to get to heaven and this is how evil is ultimately overcome.

Works Cited

Davis, Stephen T., and John B. Cobb. "Free Will and Evil." Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy. Atlanta: J. Knox, 1981. 74-89. Print.

Hick, John. "The Irenaean Theodicy." Classical and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Religion. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970. N. pag. Print.

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. Canberra: Bible Society in Australia, 1993. Print.

Murray, Michael J. "Heaven and Hell." Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide. By William Lane. Craig. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2002. N. pag. Print.