The existence of God has been a popular topic throughout the world, and those who deny his existence typically use the argument known as the Problem of Evil. The argument focuses on the theory that if there is a God that exists that is omnipotent, meaning all powerful, omniscient, meaning all knowing, perfectly good, and capable of everything, then the concept of evil should not exist. The problem is, our world is plagued with forces that do us harm, whether it be due to human fault, intentional or accidental, or nature, these events cause humans to suffer. If these things exist, then that would mean that there couldn’t be a God, because someone that is all powerful and perfectly good would not allow evil to exist. The Problem of Evil has been discussed by many philosophers for a while, and there are some that argue that there is more to the Problem of Evil. A theodicy is a philosopher’s attempt to answer the question of why God, who is supposedly all powerful and perfectly good, allows the manifestation of evil. Philosophers typically try to solve this problem by reconciling the traits that are associated with God, with the occurrence of evil in the world. The first theodicy, which is known as the Augustinian theodicy, is based on the writings of Augustine of Hippo, who was a Christian philosopher. He argues that the problem isn’t with God, but lies within the people that inhabit the planet. He claims that in the beginning, God created a perfect world where no evil or suffering existed, and that due to the disobedience of Adam and Eve that evil exists as a punishment for their sins. While Augustinian theodicy’s purpose was to pin the blame on humans rather than God, it presents a less persuasive and flawed argument.
The strongest objection to the Augustinian theodicy lies within the problematic notion of the free will of humans. Augustine argues that the humans are at fault when it comes to the evil that takes place in the world, however there is a flaw in his argument that ultimately leads back to God. If God really is an all perfect, all powerful being, then the humans that he created should be perfect as well. But perfect beings shouldn’t malfunction, and therefore could not be the cause of the evil and suffering that takes place in the world, and even if these so called “perfect” beings did malfunction, God supposedly created a perfect world, therefore again evil should not exist. Another objection would be that even if God did not create perfect beings in the beginning, he should still be able to correct his mistake. Let’s say for example that God isn’t as perfect as everyone originally thought he was, and that he made a mistake while creating humans, which led to the existence of evil. As an all-powerful and all good being, God should still be able to correct the problem of evil even though humans are flawed.
Moving away from the problem of humans, nature still presents a problem. Evil can be defined as something created to do us harm. The Earth experiences extreme weather phenomenon such as tornadoes, floods, earthquakes and blizzards that cause a great deal of harm and suffering to humans. If God really was all powerful and perfect, he should be able to prevent these conditions from happening, yet he allows millions of people to lose their lives to the occurrences. This makes you ponder whether God really is as powerful and good as he is made out to be, or if this is another form of punishment for human sin. In Conclusion, The Problems of Evil entails that if there was a God that was all powerful, all knowing, and perfectly good, then evil should not exist. Overall, this problems puts into to question the existence of God, and if there is, are the powers he posses limited.