The Problem of Evil

By Ian Clary

We discussed the problem of evil in Sunday School today. It was pointed out that the problem of evil is not a problem for the Christian, rather it is a problem for the unbeliever. Any worldview that does not presuppose the God of the Bible cannot account for evil, and any attempt to do so winds up presupposing that which it is seeking to destroy, namely Christianity.

The supposed problem:
God is a) omnipotent (all powerful) b) omnibenevolent (all good), but evil exists. Therefore, God is a) not all powerful, otherwise He would do away with evil, or b) He is not all good because He doesn't want to do away with evil. This points to a logical inconsistency within the Christian worldview.

Yet, does this problem paint the whole picture of the Christian worldview? No, it doesn't. Conventiently the unbeliever misses a crucial point in the construct and that is c) God has a morally sufficient reason for allowing evil. When this is placed within the problem, there are no logical inconsistencies.

The real problem:
If one assumes a naturalistic intepretation of the world, evil cannot be properly accounted for. If humans are a product of natural selection and biological processes, evil is merely a part of the process - a necessary one at that. If one piece of matter (say, Adolph Hitler) terminates another piece of matter (say, six million Jews) who really cares in an unbelieving worldview? This is merely natural selection and part of nature.

Often unbelievers will argue that evil is determined by convention. Evil is defined by what brings the most amount of displeasure to the largest group of people. This, of course, is absurd. Nobody consistently determines laws by convention. If a large group of people believe that it is okay to abuse children, is that objectively good or bad? We don't determine other laws by convention, such as the law of gravity, so why do so when it comes to ethical laws?

Whenever an unbeliever takes evil seriously and argues that it is bad, they are by necessity presupposing God's Word that is the determiner of good and evil.

Some articles that I have found helpful in the past on the so-called problem of evil are:
Greg Bahnsen - The Problem of Evil
Doug Erlandson - A New Perspective on the Problem of Evil
John Frame - The Bible on the Problem of Evil