The Problem of Evil
בַּ֭חֵיק יוּטַ֣ל אֶת־ הַגּוֹרָ֑ל וּ֝מֵיְהוָ֗ה כָּל־ מִשְׁפָּטֽוֹ
The lot is cast in the lap, but it’s every decision is from the Lord. (Prov 16.33)
(Θεος) Πάντας ἀνθρώπους θέλει σωθῆναι.
God wills all people to be saved. (1 Tim 2.4.)
One of the most serious objections to belief in God is the problem of the existence of evil. As Hume summarized it: “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 from whence comes evil?”(1)
Of course an obvious solution to this problem for a materialist is that evil does not need an explanation since evil itself is a concept derived from religious language. The paradox of this argument is that to generate the word evil itself is to give reality a moral charge that atheism happens to deny it, and thus the problem of evil is by itself a strangely theological issue.
But it is a problem nonetheless. For many Christian apologists the way out is often to offer the solution of free will, that in the narrative of the fall God gives humans choice, Adam eats the apple and so sin is brought into the world and we continue to choose it, and so on. Yet…
