Florida State University - PHI 2010Can evil and God coexist

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Can evil and an all-good, all-powerful God co-exist? The Problem of Evil argument against the existence of God states that God cannot exist because if God is all good (benevolent) and all powerful (... omnipotent), evil should not exist in our world. The thought process behind this idea is that if we assume that God is all good, God would not want evil things to happen and if God is all powerful, God would prevent these evil deeds from happening in the first place. If God is both willing and able to prevent evil from happening in the world then the fact that there is evil should be enough to prove that God does not exist. Evil in this case refers to anything bad that happens to the life on Earth (humans, animals, plants, etc…). Evil could be someone developing cancer, someone being murdered or harmed by another person or animal, or a natural disaster such as a fire or a flash-flood. Greek philosopher Epicurus raises an important point to consider while thinking about the problem of evil. “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” According to Epicurus, in order to object to this argument, you must be willing to admit that God is either not omnipotent or God is not benevolent. Mackey has a similar thought process to negate the existence of God. “… a good thing always eliminates evil as far as it can, and that there are no limits to what an omnipotent being can do” (Mackey, 3). This argument is an example of an ontological argument against God because it takes the features used to describe God’s character and it explains why the two features cannot coexist. [Show More]

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