The Problem of Evil: Why So Much Evil?

In the first three parts of this series, I presented a Christian theological framework for making sense of the problem of evil.  First, God did not create evil; evil exists as a result of the free human choice to rebel against God at the Fall.  Second, on the cross, God Himself was willing to humble and humiliate Himself and enter into the deepest depths of human suffering, Godforsakenness, and death, suffering and dying with us and for us, so that we could be freed from the power of evil and be with Him forever; this gives us the assurance that God truly loves us and is truly with us, no matter what we are going through.  Third, the powers of sin, suffering, and death have already been defeated through the death and resurrection of Christ; when Jesus comes again, He will fully consummate His victory over the powers of evil, ridding God’s good Creation from every taint of evil and bringing it to the perfection that God originally intended for it.  

If we analyze the problem of evil from the perspective of an abstract theism, it seems quite difficult to explain the existence of evil within the creation of a good, omnipotent God.  A Christian theological framework, on the other hand, allows us to analyze the problem of evil within the context of a dynamic narrative of God’s relationship with His creation.  This allows us to begin to make sense of why evil might temporarily exist within the creation of a good, omnipotent God.  However, by itself this still does not answer all of our questions about the problem of evil.  We still must address the question, “Why does God allow so much evil?”^[1]This question is sometimes referred to as the evidential problem of evil, in distinction from the logical problem of evil (which argues that the existence of any amount of evil disproves the … Continue reading

Evil Choices and Evil Effects

Previously in this series, I argued that evil is a result of free human choice, that free will is an intrinsic part of human nature that God cannot simply remove, and that in order to respect the integrity of His creation, God allows our choices to stand, even if they are wrong.  An objection to this free will defense runs as follows: “Given that God must allow us to make evil choices, why can’t He just miraculously intervene to prevent the evil effects of our choices?  For example, if He’s omnipotent, He could just miraculously make the bullet disappear every time a murderer shoots someone.”

Yes, theoretically, God could always miraculously intervene to prevent the harmful effects of our evil choices.  But this would not be what is best for us.  If we were never to see the evil effects of our evil choices, then we would never be able to understand how truly evil our evil choices are.  If God always miraculously intervened to prevent the effects of someone’s murderous intent, then we would never be able to understand how horrible the wickedness of murder is.  If we were never to see the harmful effects of our evil choices, we would never be able to see how problematic our separation from God is and how much we need to be saved by Him.  If God allowed us to be content in our separation from Him, then this would be to our ultimate detriment, and to the detriment of all of God’s creation.  Furthermore, if God constantly miraculously intervened 100% of the time an evil choice was made, then we would find the world to be fundamentally chaotic and inconsistent.  There would be no consistency or predictability to what effects our actions have in the world.  Consequently, our choices, and our lives, would lose all meaning.  In order for our lives to have meaning, our choices must have real consequences in the real world, even if those consequences are terrible.  God respects the integrity of His creation, and so He allows the harmful effects of our evil choices to stand.^[2]Of course, God does sometimes miraculously intervene to prevent the harmful effects of people’s evil choices.  But these are the exceptions, rather than the rule.  And the purpose of … Continue reading

The Amount of Evil

Many people acknowledge that there might be good reasons God would some allow evil to exist within His creation, but argue that the amount of evil in the world provides proof that a perfectly good, omnipotent God does not exist.  There are many individual instances of human beings experiencing deep suffering and death from disease, accident, or violence.  But these seem to pale in comparison to the suffering and death caused by plagues, natural disasters, wars, and genocides.  Why would a good God allow these things to happen?

First, regarding the evils of murder, war, and genocide, these are things that human beings have freely chosen to perpetrate.  It is not really fair for us to blame God for them.  As I have argued above, in order for our choices to be meaningful, God must allow them to have real consequences, even if the results are evil.

Secondly, regarding the massive numbers of deaths that result from plagues and natural disasters, we must remember that every human being experiences death.  The only question is how and when they will face it.  God grants each of us a lifetime on this earth; it is not something we have earned or deserve, and there are no guarantees it will last a particular length of time.  The massive numbers of deaths that occur as a result of plagues and natural disasters may be shocking, but they are not fundamentally different from the deaths that all human beings experience universally.  

The argument that there is too much evil in the world to be compatible with the existence of a perfectly good, omnipotent God is problematic.  First, how do we measure the amount of evil in the world?  Secondly, even if we could measure the amount of evil in the world, how do we know how much is too much?  Since God is infinitely Good, the contrast between His Goodness and any finite amount of evil, great or small, is the same.  Thus, it is illogical to acknowledge that God and some amount of evil might coexist, while at the same time arguing that the existence of a certain greater amount of evil disproves the existence of God.

There is much evil in the world, but there is also much goodness.  In reality, evil has no existence in and of itself; it is a distortion or corruption of God’s creation, which is fundamentally good.  The fact is, there is more good than evil in the world, and things go right more often than they go wrong.  We have a tendency to fixate on bad things and to take the good for granted, and this is because, more often than not, we experience goodness rather than evil.  

Furthermore, if we are separated by the Fall from God, the source of all life, then in reality we should expect nothing for ourselves except eternal death.  Yet, we are frequently able to live our lives and experience joy, pleasure, and goodness.  This is because of God’s grace, freely given.  God is good to us, even though we often experience the consequences of living in a Fallen world in separation from Him.  When we ask,”Why doesn’t God intervene to lessen the amount of evil in the world?,” how do we know that He is not already doing this?  For all we know, God does intervene to prevent enormous natural evils which would otherwise befall us, and we are not aware of this because they never happen.  Perhaps this world would naturally be a much more dangerous and evil place, but God graciously protects us from much of the world’s evil.

Good From Evil

Even though we often may not understand why God allows many instances of evil, there are many cases in which we can see how God can actually bring good out of evil.  Joseph’s unjust enslavement by his brothers gave him the opportunity to lead Egypt through a famine and to save many lives (Gen 5:20).  From David’s adulterous relationship with Bathsheba, Solomon was born, who was the ancestor of Jesus Christ.  Most notably, the suffering and death that Jesus experienced during his unjust execution on the cross provided the way for the salvation of the world.  

But we don’t need to look in the Bible to see examples of God bringing good out of evil.  We can see this even in our daily lives.  Sometimes, we go through an experience of suffering, and this prevents us from going down a path that would have brought even greater harm upon us, or others. The sufferings we experience often give us the ability to grow in virtue.  When our foolish actions bring harm on ourselves, we are able to learn from our mistakes and to grow in wisdom.  Experiences of suffering can allow us to grow in patience and courage, so that we will be able to face greater challenges ahead.  If we have experienced suffering, it can allow us to better empathize with people who have similar experiences and to know how to help them.  Nothing brings people together like a shared experience of tragedy.

Perhaps more importantly, our experiences of suffering can lead us to see our need for God and to turn to Him.  God wants what is best for us, and that means He does not want us to feel content in our separation from Him.  There might actually be a positive purpose to massive instances of evil like plagues and other natural disasters.  When we see large numbers of people quickly perish from such events, we are shocked out of our complacency.  We are reminded that we are not really in control of things, that we live every day by God’s grace without any guarantee that we will see the next one, and that we all must consider our death and what lies beyond it.  This can lead us to seek God and to turn to Him, receiving eternal life.

The Personal Problem of Evil

For many people, the problem of evil is not an abstract dilemma (“Why would a good God allow bad things to happen?”); it is a personal question: “Why has God allowed this to happen to me?”  We may be able to explain why God would allow some evil in the abstract, but often we simply do not know why God allows certain instances of evil to happen.  But this should not surprise us.  From our limited perspective, we can’t possibly expect to understand the mind of an infinite God and how everything fits into His plans and purposes.  “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD.  ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and your thoughts than my thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).  It is only natural that we should often fail to understand why God allows certain things to happen.  But, because of the cross and resurrection of Christ, we can know that God is truly with us, that God truly loves us, and that God is at work to eliminate all evil from His creation.  This is what can give us comfort and the strength to carry on in the midst of life’s evils and tragedies.  Even if we do not understand why He allows certain evils to happen to us, we can still trust in Him.

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