The Problem of Evil

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The problem of evil is a big topic in today’s society and will continue to be for forever. The problem is that so many bad things happen in the world that Gods existence is debatable and if he is real, it is questionable that he is as powerful as the bible portrays him to be. In this case, we ask the question, how can such a good and powerful God not prevent evil in the world? The argument at hand is that if a perfect God exists, there would be no evil in the world and since evil exists, there is no God. In this paper, I will examine both sides to the problem. I will discuss views on why God is in existence and allows evil, as well as views on why God is not in existence based on the fact that there is evil in the world. After that I will take my stance on the issue and justify why I think that way. Many people say that God does exist even know there is unnecessary evil in the world. There are many reasons to why people believe God is real, for starters, they believe that without the bad, there is no good. In other words, if bad things didn’t happen in the world then we wouldn’t know that good things existed. Another way people justify evil in the world is by stating that if there was no evil and God prevented all bad things, there would be no virtues. In “Why doesn’t God intervene to prevent evil?” the author points out the fact that “without the suffering there would be no occasion for the production of such virtues as courage, sympathy, and the like” (Johnson 122). Take for example an alcoholic parent who throws their 5 year old child out on the street to fend for itself and the child ends up getting hit by a car. Some people would say that God didn’t help the child because he wanted someone to gain courage from the situatio... ... middle of paper ... ... charge. I know that when a killer gets off free of charges it shows us the bad in life and when a killer gets put away it shows us the good, but why couldn’t God find another way to show us the difference between good and bad? On the other side of the argument, the point about God not wanting us to become dependent on him doesn’t quite make sense to me. I think we should be able to be dependent on God that he is not going to let disasters happen. People say that disasters happen for a reason, but no one can honestly say that the Holocaust or other things like that happened for a reason. Hopefully one day I can decide if I believe in God or not, but for now I am settling on the fact that God may or may not exist. I would like to believe that such a powerful God exists, but I can’t wrap my head around him letting so much evil happen in the world if he does exist.

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