Believing in God
Evil and suffering
Free will- the idea that human beings are free to mak etheir own choices.
Moral evil- actions done by humans which cause suffering.
Natrual evil- things which cause suffering but have nothing to do with humans.
1. Moral evil
Evil caused by humans misusing their free will. It is always possible to choose to do something good or evil, choosing to do something evil makes moral evil, e.g. murder, ****, burglary.
Christians often call acts of moral evil sins.
Suffering that has not been caused by humans, e.g. earthquakes, flods, volcanoes, drought, tsunamis, hurricans, tornadis abd cancers which result in massive amounts of human suffering.
How evil and suffering cause people to question or reject belief in God
Some people cannot believe that a good God would gave designed the world with natraul evil in it.
Some people cannot believe in a God who allows humans to cause so much evil and suffering when he could stop it.
Philosophers express the problem in this way
- If God is omnipotent(all-powerfull), he must be able to remove evil and suffering from the world.
- If God is omni-benevolent(all good), he must want to remove evil and suffering from the world because they cause so…