12/14/11 9:16 AMIs Evil a Problem Only for Christianity? | Ratio Christi

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Is Evil a Problem Only for Christianity?by Josh Welsh (RC Member & Student at Ohio University)

One of the arguments atheists most frequently raise against the existence of God is theproblem of evil. What they dont realize is that evil is a bigger problem for atheism thanfor theism.

Simply stated, the problem of evil is as follows:

1. If God exists, then he is all-powerful and perfectly good2. A perfectly good God would want to put an end to evil3. An all-powerful God could put an end to evil4. Evil exists5. Therefore, a God who is both all-powerful and perfectly good does not exist

The argument hinges upon showing a logical contradiction between Gods characterand the existence of evil. However, the two do not necessarily contradict. One plausibleway of reconciling the two relates to the idea of free will.

God wanted to create creatures that would freely choose to love him and each other, buthe could not create creatures which were truly free without creating the possibility ofevil. When some of the creatures chose to commit evil acts, God allowed evil to exist be-cause he valued the freedom of the creatures.The argument from evil carries a great deal of emotional and rhetorical force because ofthe numerous clear examples of evil in the world; everyone understands evil and feelsits cold touch. But few people realize the implications of the simple observation that evilexists. In fact, this observation presents a significant problem for atheism. On an atheis-tic view of the world, where did the concept of evil come from in the first place?In a uni-verse without God, there is no evilonly molecules in motion.

Some would argue that we evolved a sense of empathy to minimize harmful behaviorand ensure the survival of the species. However, this account fails to explain the fullrange of our moral experience. An evolved herd instinct would account for an irra-tional feeling of guilt and an aversion to certain behaviors, but not a deep-seated belief

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that some things are actually, objectively evil.To see this, ask the following question:Would the holocaust still be wrong if we lacked a herd instinct? Suppose that at somepoint in our future evolution we were to grow beyond our herd instinct. Would murder,rape, and genocide still be wrong? The answer is obviously yes. So an evolutionary ex-planation cannot account for our moral experience.

When confronted with this train of reasoning, most atheists see the difficulty and at-tempt to deny the existence of absolute morals. But there are two big problems with thisresponse. First, this entire discussion began with the proposition that evil exists. Theforce of the problem of evil lies in the very clear fact that evil actually does exist. If youclaim that evil does not exist, the problem of evil simply evaporates. Some try to rehabil-itate the problem of evil by rephrasing the argument like this: An omnipotent, om-nibenevolent Godwould put an end to gratuitous suffering. The world contains muchgratuitous suffering. Therefore, an omnipotent, omnibenevolent God does not exist. Inthis way, the argument does not assume the existence of evil, but only the existence ofgratuitous suffering. But this is nothing more than a linguistic dodge. The phrase gra-tuitous suffering implies comparison with a standard that determines how much suf-fering is too much. And too much suffering is clearly evil.

Second, the denial of the existence of evil leads to statements which are clearly absurd.Consider this: If evil does not exist, then the holocaust was not evil. Rape, slavery, andhate crimes are not evil. And so on. No one can honestly claim to believe suchstatements. We all know these things are evil.And now we have come full circle. By using evil to attack the existence of God, we havedeveloped a powerful argument for the existence of God. The argument can be stated asfollows:

1. We know that evil exists2. Because evil exists, there exists an objective moral standard of good and evila

moral law3. The existence of a moral law requires the existence of a moral law giver4. Therefore a moral law giver exists

To summarize, atheists often attempt to use the existence of evil to show that God doesnot exist. But the existence of evil poses a bigger problem for atheists, because atheists

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cannot explain where the notion of evil comes from in the first place.