If God, Why Evil?

The False Dilemma of the Problem of Evil

The problem of evil is often considered the most serious challenge to belief in God, or at least belief in the Judeo-Christian conception of God as all-knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent), and all-good (morally perfect). In his classic 1955 paper “Evil and Omnipotence,” J. L. Mackie claims that the presence of evil in the world (evil construed broadly enough to include any instance of suffering) shows that belief in God is irrational. After all, Mackie reasons, if God was all-good, he would want to stop all evil, and if he was all-powerful, he could stop it. But evil and suffering do exist, he continues; therefore, God doesn’t. To believe that both God and evil exist, then, is to believe incompatible claims.

The problem might be posed as a dilemma for the believer: either accept the existence of God and deny evil or accept the existence of evil and deny God.

The Fallacy Exposed

But this is a false dilemma —a fallacy in which it is said that there are only two available options when in fact there are more. Rather than choosing between denying belief in God, a tenet central to Judeo-Christian theism, or denying evil and suffering, a painfully obvious reality in our world, the believer need only show that holding beliefs in both God and the reality of evil is consistent.

Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga has done just that. In response to Mackie, Plantinga explains that a morally perfect, omnipotent being can allow evil to exist if, inhis perfect omniscience he has a morally sufficient reason for doing so —that is, a reason that would justify permitting the evil. Plantinga further suggests a possible reason: that God deemed human free will to be something of great value, even though the existence of free will makes possible the existence of evil. Thus, there is a third option: God might allow evil for good reasons.

But why might God value free will? The Bible tells us that God is a real being who loves his human creatures and wants real relationships with them. This is why he endowed them with free will, even though free will entails the possibility that they might choose evil; relationships grounded in real love are not possible unless both parties enter into them willingly.

Plantinga’s response has taken hold, and philosophers of religion now tend to agree that it is not inconsistent to believe in both the existence of God and the existence of evil. Even Mackie conceded that Plantinga’s refutation of his argument is successful.

Even so, the objection to belief in God based on evil hasn’t gone away. Since Plantinga, some philosophers have proposed other arguments attempting to show that the existence of evil makes God’s existence less likely. While I think Christians have good answers to these arguments, one thing is sure: the existence of evil doesn’t demonstrate the nonexistence of God.

Christianity: The Solution

But suppose Christians could defeat any philosophical case against God based on the existence of evil. This wouldn’t mitigate the difficulty of processing evil and suffering on an emotional level. We are often left speechless when confronted with the tremendous evil we see, and deep suffering we experience, in the world.

This is where the Gospel meets us at a critical point of need. In the face of evil and suffering, Christianity provides an ultimate solution to the real problem: Jesus Christ, God the Son, became incarnate, experienced the pain of being human, was crucified for human sins once and for all, and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven to take his place alongside the Father. This, the Bible tells us, is how God demonstrated his love for us. One day, he will return as judge of all. On that day, for those who are in Christ, suffering and evil will be no more.