More evil

Critics of theism rightly ask, “Couldn’t God have created a world in which there was less evil and suffering?” Contrary to the assertion, this is not the best of all possible worlds God could have created. A world in which there was one more good angel or one more good person serving other people would certainly make the world better, wouldn’t it? Better yet, what if God interceded in the affairs of everyday life to eliminate or at least reduce the world’s suffering? That sounds great, but how would that work, exactly?

God performing millions and millions of miracles every second, interceding constantly into people’s lives so that no evil touches them. That really wouldn’t be a world of free-willed beings, would it? Sounds more like the making of a cartoon to me. Instead, the natural laws that govern the world must be allowed to work if 1) our actions are going to have any meaning and 2) if God’s divine hiddenness is to be preserved. Even so, who knows just how much evil God does protect human beings from each day?

On the other hand, as Clay Jones argues, the suffering of a loved one is heart-wrenching, especially the suffering of a child, any child. But in reality, it is not just our own child that should not suffer, right? No child should suffer. But it is not just the children; our teenagers really should not suffer either.

And it is not just our teenagers but also young mothers who should not suffer either. But it is not just the young mothers; young fathers should not suffer either, etc., and so on. At the end of the day, we think almost no one should suffer, and so we are full circle back to the beginning: all things considered, could God have created a world of freewilled beings in which there was less evil and suffering?

While we understand that moral evil is the evil that results from the free actions of significantly free beings choosing to do wrong, we have not mentioned the natural evil of hurricanes, tornados, floods, and diseases like cancer. Critic of Christianity Bart Erhman (we met him during our defense of the historical resurrection of Jesus) disagrees with the Free Will Defense and theodicy in general because he believes even if the Free Will Defense can explain moral evil in the world, what about all the suffering that is not covered by humans acting upon evil impulses?

What about tsunamis, earthquakes, and mold? These evil things (natural evil) cause enormous suffering in the world. Who is responsible? The exercise of human free will cannot cause it. Nonetheless, all the same questions apply: if God is all-knowing, and all-powerful, and benevolent toward mankind, why does He allow these things to wreak havoc on man? Christians often respond with the words of the apostle Paul, who writes that Satan is “the god” of this world (cf 2 Cor 4:4), that he is “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph 2:2-4), and the “ruler of darkness of this world” (Eph 6:12).

The early Christian theologian Augustine, working from these passages deduced that Satan and his cohorts, having rebelled against God and having “fallen,” have been multiplying natural evil ever since. Oddly enough, however, we can say that all natural evil and the suffering caused by it is the byproduct of freewilled beings as well. In other words, natural evil is the result of the free-willed actions of Satan and the evil spiritual beings who bow down to him. Think of Job. All that befell Job and his family came about in the form of natural evil only through the hand of Satan.

Formally, the Free Will Defense conclusion states, “God is omniscient, omnipotent, and morally perfect: God has created the world; all the evil in the world is broadly moral evil [which includes natural evil]; and there is no possible world God could have created that contains a better balance of broadly moral good with respect to broadly moral evil.” It was Alvin Plantinga who crafted The Free Will Defense in 1974.

Since then, most philosophers, both Christian and atheistic, agree that the argument is solid and the conclusion that the presence of evil in the world means that the claim that there is no God is false. Stated another way: There is no contradiction between the existence of an all-powerful God and suffering in the world. Today, only those lacking in information and perspective attempt to dispute The Free Will Defense. Going further into theodicy, there seem to be several reasons why God has morally sufficient reasons for allowing evil. Join us next week as we begin to investigate those reasons in God’s own words.

Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife, Vicki, are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore, OK. You can contact him at [email protected].