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Topic: Free will and the problem of evil

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Free will

Logical and evidential arguments from evil

Evil

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	[No title]
		The free will defense to the problem of evil states that suffering is the result of the free actions of humans, and thus God could not have created a world with free creatures who would be guaranteed to do only good.
		This problem derives from the free will defense and as such may be called the eschatological problem of free will.
		The free will defense attempts to reconcile the existence of God with the presence of evil by attributing at least human-caused suffering to the willful acts of free creatures.
	www.utm.edu /staff/jfieser/vita/research/evil.htm (3673 words)

	World Religions: Comparative Analysis
		These ambiguous solutions to the problem of evil in Hindu mythology are caused by the fact that the gods cannot be at the same time sovereign, and in tune with karma.
		Evil is the perpetuation of illusion by the factors that fuel the chain of dependent origination (paticca-samuppada).
		Therefore, evil is not created by God, but is a perversion of his creation, a result of using free will against the very purpose it was created for, against free-willed obedience to God in a communion relation based on love.
	www.comparativereligion.com /evil.html (4085 words)

	Free Will and the Problem of Evil
		A universe that had free will, and in which there was no undeserved suffering, would be a fundamentally chaotic and unpredictable place, because it would require constant "miracles" to prevent the innocent from being harmed.
		Free will means that moral evil is bound to exist, because some people are going to choose to do evil, and the innocent will often be the targets.
		While God does not will or desire that evil exist, God allows it because it is the inescapable consequence of living in a universe that has predictable natural laws, and in which people are free to make choices about their actions.
	alumnus.caltech.edu /~teneyck/essays/theodicy.html (1908 words)

	Philosophy of Religion .info - Arguments for Atheism - The Problem of Evil
		The problem of evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of the evil in the world with the existence of an omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful) and perfectly good God.
		The evil in the world thus appears to be at least strong and perhaps even conclusive evidence that at least one of these central claims of Christianity is false.
		This discussion will distinguish between four different forms of the argument from evil: the argument from imperfection, the argument from natural evil, the argument from moral evil, and the argument from unbelief.
	www.philosophyofreligion.info /problemofevil.html (805 words)

	Theodicy
		Leibniz argued that God is benevolent and that evil reflects the necessarily limited nature of the material world; moreover, God allows evils to exist that ultimately serve a greater good (although humans, being limited, may not know what this ultimate good is).
		This theodicy reflects the Rabbinic notion that human evil is essentially selfishness, and a necessary precondition for such useful human activities such as marriage, sexual reproduction and, commerce.
		Some schools of the Kabbalah argue that the creation of the universe required a self-limitation on the part of God, and that evil is a consequence of God's self-imposed exile from the universe He created.
	www.ebroadcast.com.au /lookup/encyclopedia/th/Theodicy.html (549 words)

	: ASP : CURIOUS : PHILOSOPHY : MAFTAB : PROBLEM OF EVIL - Islamherald.com (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		One version of the free will defense is to compare the current state of the world with a world in which all actions were good and no evil was possible.
		The free will defense (FWD) theorist points out that in order for man to be in a position to do ‘moral good’ he must be ‘significantly free.’ That is, he must be in a position to make a choice between making a morally good or evil action.
		The lack of intense debate on the problem of evil maybe because the problem was not formulated at the time, or that Muslim thinkers were preoccupied by other issues.
	www.islamherald.com /asp/curious/philosophy/maftab/problem_of_evil.asp (1829 words)

	The Problem of Evil
		This is the problem of evil approached from the standpoint of the skeptic who challenges the possibility or probability that a God exists who would allow such suffering.
		This is the problem of evil approached from the standpoint of the believer whose faith in God is severely tested by trial.
		When the skeptic challenges belief in God on the basis of the logical problem of evil, he is suggesting that it is irrational or logically impossible to believe in the existence of both a good and all powerful God and in the reality of evil and suffering.
	www.leaderu.com /orgs/probe/docs/evil.html (2934 words)

	The Problem of Evil
		A third part of the solution to the problem of evil is the most important part: how to resolve the problem in practice, not just in theory; in life, not just in thought.
		Although evil is a serious problem for thought (for it seems to disprove the existence of God), it is even more of a problem in life (for it is the real exclusion of God).
		There, the greatest evil that ever happened, both the greatest spiritual evil and the greatest physical evil, both the greatest sin (deicide) and the greatest suffering (perfect love hated and crucified), is revealed as his wise and loving plan to bring about the greatest good, the salvation of the world from sin and suffering eternally.
	www.catholiceducation.org /articles/religion/re0019.html (1832 words)

	The Problem of Evil
		In its least ambitious form, the argument cites the evil and suffering we find in the world as compelling evidence that the world is not under the control of an omnipotent Deity, while allowing that the evidence is not decisive.
		Intuitively, the human evils are the evils we inflict upon one another; the natural evils are the evils we suffer at the hands of nature, independently of our own collective agency.
		The problem of evil as it is standardly presented concerns both sorts of evil.
	www.princeton.edu /~grosen/puc/phi203/evil.html (2754 words)

	Evil (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		Any attempt to give answers for the problem of evil through dethroning God of his sovereign power, limiting God's knowledge, or questioning God's goodness, should be refuted as biblical impossibilities.
		Bosnia, Rape and the Problem of Evil by Gregory Koukl
		If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them.
	www.monergism.com /thethreshold/articles/topic/evil.html (1110 words)

	[No title]
		According to the Bible, the evil we encounter in this world is the direct result of choice on the part of free moral agents.
		Evil and suffering are therefore the result of choice on the part of God’s creatures.
		On the problem of evil, that’s the CRI perspective.
	www.equip.org /free/CP0104.htm (437 words)

	Theodicy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Maltheism asserts that the "problem of evil" is not a problem at all—the initial question has a simple answer, there is no way that a benevolent omnipotent God would allow evil in the world.
		Evil is the consequence of God giving people free will, or God may intend evil and suffering as a test for humanity.
		There is no problem of evil in the example with the father, and arguably no evil in the sense of moral failing, because his actions serve a greater good.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Theodicy (7748 words)

	The Problem of Evil
		The evils are not as absolute as we think, and they serve deeper purposes than we know.
		Free will and creativity imply that brand new things and ideas and expressions are and always will be springing into existence, for that is the purpose of all existence.
		The medieval idea of omnipotence is also incorrect and incompatible with free will and creativity.
	members.aol.com /Miletus1/evil3.htm (729 words)

	The Problem of Evil
		As stated above, the standard Christian solution to the problem of evil involves arguing that the nature of this world is compatible with the existence of an all-knowing, all powerful, completely good God, since all of the evil in this world is necessary for a greater good.
		It is better that humans have free will and natural evil and moral evil, than that God created humans without free will in a world without evil.
		Free will is thought to have such value that the new types of experience and value it makes possible outweigh all the evil that was brought into the world through the introduction of free will.
	www.anselm.edu /homepage/dbanach/evil.htm (1222 words)

	The Problem of Evil (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		The problem of evil, briefly stated, involves the conflict between ourexperience of evil in the world and the traditional notion of an all-good,all-knowing, all-powerful God.
		This problem is taken seriously by mostbelievers as presenting an intense challenge to their beliefs, and is theusual grounds offered by atheists for their atheism.
		There are traditionalists and modernists who will move to the natureand attributes of God in their attempts to deal with this problem.
	webserver.lemoyne.edu /~kagan/PROBEVHT.HTM (674 words)

	Ephilosopher :: View topic - The Problem of Evil and Free Will Defenses (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		The arguments from the problem of evil are generally divided into two types, the evidential and the logical, of which here I will focus wholly on the latter.
		The logical problem of evil maintains that the existence of God and the existence of evil are incompatible.
		That is, the free will defense has not shown that the existence of God is compatible with the existence of evil.
	www.ephilosopher.com /bb-topic-126.html (6196 words)

	The Problem of Evil
		The Problem of Evil attempts to show that there is a tension between God (at least on a certain conception) and the presence of evil in the world.
		The proponent of the PoE claims that these examples of natural disasters (whether we call them "evil" or not) seem to be in tension with the idea that an all-powerful, all-knowing and all-caring God is in charge.
		Hitler had a chance to express his free will, and the choices he made were really, really nasty.
	www.unc.edu /~theis/uncg/evil.html (1559 words)

	Difficult Question: Don't Good and Evil Both Come from God?
		This page is a partial answer to an extended letter on another page, Difficult Questions: Free Will and the Problem of Evil The reader may wish to refer to that page for a better understanding of the background of this one.
		I have a problem with the notion that "good" and "evil" are both from God.
		The problem with this is that there is no justification to punish those who do not agree to our rules--the rules are entirely arbitrary, based on our own preferences.
	www.mjyoung.net /bible/letter05f.htm (891 words)

	The Problem Of Evil (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		It would be impossible or illogical for God, who is an all- powerful, omnipotent being, to have created a world in which he controlled the evilness or freeness, for this would remove the gift of free will that he had given to man. The existence of free will without evil is an illogical impossibility.
		Qualities such as love, and courage would not make sense in a world without evil, because the world would be nothing more than a "play pen paradise." The existence of Evil is necessary in order to build character development of man into the likeness of God.
		It is the price of free actions that evil will exist The existence of evil is compatible with the existence of God and God's choice to create creatures with free will.
	members.aol.com /plweiss1/probevil.htm (525 words)

	The Problem of Evil (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		This problem is not a new one, it was set forth by the Greek philosopher Epicurus, more than 2,000 years ago.
		First of all, it should be noted that when a person raises the question of "evil," he is inadvertenly appealing to some universal system of justice, which evil allegedly violates.
		In times of war, amny are killed as a consequence of the evil decisions of a few leaders.
	www.seekyefirst.us /s/problem_of_evil.html (933 words)

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