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Subscribe to the newsletter of the Center for the Foundations of Ethics at HCU ×R E S O U R C E S / S PE A K I N G / N EWS L E T T E R / PR E S S / D O N AT E
God, Evil, and the Human Good
October 13, 2014 / Jonathan Pruitt
Introduction
A theodicy is an explanation of how God and evil can co-exist in the world. In order to build a
theodicy, we will first see why there is such a thing as “the problem of evil.” Then we will see
how Plantinga’s response to this problem provides useful guideposts in constructing a
theodicy. With these guideposts in place, I will argue that one reason for supposedly gratuitous
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evils is that they are required to realize the human good.
The Logical Problem of Evil
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One powerful way to show that a worldview is false is to show that it contains internal
contradictions. If, for example, we could show that Buddhism teaches that there are no such
things as unified, human selves, but we can show that a real and unified human self is Articles RSS
everywhere presupposed by Buddhist teaching, this counts as an internal contradiction.
Buddhists are committed to two beliefs that cannot be reconciled together. This is the kind of
challenge that the problem of evil poses to Christian theism.
Let us call the person pressing the objection to the Christian the “atheologian.” Now, the first
the step the atheologian needs to take to show a contradiction within Christianity is say what
two beliefs are supposed to contradict one another. The two beliefs in question are the
orthodox view of God and the existence of evil. The next step is to spell out how exactly these
,beliefs contradict each other. The orthodox view of God is that he is maximally great. That is,
he possesses all great-making properties to the greatest degree possible. Among these great
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making properties are omnipotence and omnibenevolence. By omnipotence, we mean that God
has the power to do anything that is possible to be done. Being omnipotent does not mean that
God can do what is logically impossible, like make a married bachelor.[1] By omnibenevolence,
we mean that God’s nature is fundamentally characterized by love and goodness. As the
Apostle John wrote, “God is love.”[2] Richard Swinburne says that God is “morally perfectly
good… he always does the morally best action (when there is one), and no morally bad
action.”[3] To say that God is omnibenevolent entails some important things about God.
Atheist J. L. Mackie writes that “good is opposed to evil in such a way that a good thing always
eliminates evil as far as it can.”[4] God, being maximally good, will be necessarily committed
to following this principle. However, God is also omnipotent. This means that God, being
willing and able, should eliminate all cases of evil. But our everyday experience makes it plain
to us that evil exists. Therefore, the Christian is faced with a problem. The dilemma is well The Ichabod Letters:
expressed by David Hume. Concerning God, Hume writes, “Is he willing to prevent evil, but
Epistles from a Junior
Demon (Audiobook)
not able? Then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then is he malevolent. Is he both
able and willing? Whence then is evil?”[5] So the atheologian thinks he has shown that
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Christianity has an internal contradiction. God and evil cannot coexist, yet Christian teaching
says they do. Therefore, Christians must be wrong about their view of God.
Certainly, if we Christians were to tweak our view of God, we could easily make this problem of
evil go away. We can get rid of either omnipotence or omnibenevolence and escape the Most popular
atheologian’s argument. If God is not omnibenevolent, then he will not always remove evil
every chance he gets. But this solution fails. First, it contradicts clear biblical teaching. Second,
a God who is not omnibenevolent is not worthy of worship. So, perhaps, we can get rid of
omnipotence. This has been a more popular option among theologians. For example, Rabbi
Harold Kushner says, “I would rather worship a God who is completely good but not totally
powerful than a God who is completely powerful but not completely good.”[6] Some Christians
could also be accused of making a similar move. The Open Theist movement takes a view of
God as less powerful. Specifically, they say God (in at least some cases) could not know neither
in advance nor for certain whether some particular evil would occur. Evil is out of his control
in a way it is not on other views of God’s foreknowledge.[7] This solution fails, too. If God lacks
omnipotence, then God is not maximally great. If not maximally great, then he could not
, properly be called “God.” So the Christian must find a way to preserve both God’s
omnibenevolence and his omnipotence in the face of the existence of evil. Fortunately, Alvin
Plantinga has provided a way out.
Plantinga’s Free Will Defense
Plantinga’s defense begins with this central insight: If an agent is free in the libertarian sense,
then not even God could determine what she would do.[8] That is, it is logically impossible for
God to determine what an agent does and for the agent’s actions to be self-determined.[9] This
is not a threat to God’s omnipotence because, as mentioned earlier, being omnipotent just
The Case That Our Moral Knowledge
means being able to do whatever is logically possible. Given that this is the case, perhaps the Points Toward God: Part 1
reason that God and evil exist together has to do with human freedom. At least some humans Zach Breitenbach · Philosophy
chose to use their freedom for evil instead of good. Add to this thought about free will the idea
that humans having free agency is an intrinsically valuable state of affairs. It is better for
humans to be free and not automatons. In fact, human freedom has the kind of value that God
would consider worth the risk of realizing even if it means some humans might do evil. Thus,
this is at least possibly the source of evil in the world. This insight, by itself, does not get the
Christian completely out of trouble with the atheologian’s argument. For one, the atheologian
might argue that God could have created both free will and a world without evil. But this might
not be possible. Perhaps, as Plantinga suggests, all humans (including all non-actual humans)
suffer from trans-world depravity.[10] If a being is trans-world depraved, it means there is no
possible world in which he does not commit at least one act of evil. Thus, possibly, there is no
possible world in which free creatures exist and there is no evil. If this is even possibly right,
then the Christian has escaped the logical problem of evil.
Guideposts for a Theodicy Communion Meditation: The
Assurance of Hope
Elton Higgs · Theology
One important aspect of Plantinga’s argument here is that it is a defense, not a theodicy. All he
aims to do is show how, possibly, God and evil might co-exist.[11] Plantinga is not arguing that
his view is true, only that it is possibly true. If what he said about free will and the kind of
restrictions it places on the worlds God could actualize is even possibly true, this means that
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