While John Hicks makes a number of great arguments for soul-making and why God let evil exist, I disagree with his point of good having no point if evil does not exist. Starting on page 177 of the reading, John Hicks provides an argument that boils down to evil must exist in order for good to exist, since nothing can be comparatively good if no evil exists. Specifically, Hicks argues that if God prevents all evils, then nothing we do would be considered evil, thus defeating the whole purpose of defining what’s good. There would also be no way to benefit others, since no one would ever be in need of help.
However, I find this argument to be inadequate because if God prevented all evils, then situations described by Hicks would not exist in