Ex-Voto Publishing

Why God Allows Evil and Suffering

A Solution to the Problem of Evil Based on the Prerequisites of Relational Love

The problem of evil has been debated for thousands of years, yet theists have never been able to offer anything more than partial answers to explain why an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God would accept the occurrence of the often horrendous evil and suffering experienced by humans and other creatures. Scientific discoveries since the Enlightenment, particularly the discovery of evolution via the cruelly indifferent process of natural selection, have made the problem of evil even more challenging.

why god allows evil, the problem of pain, the problem of evil
why god allows evil, the problem of pain, the problem of evil

In the wake of Darwin’s work and that of his successors, those wanting to solve the problem of evil in a manner that is consistent with the Bible have been confronted with a seemingly impossible task: reconciling the narrative of direct creation in Genesis with the multi-billion-year record of fossil evidence supporting the scientific theory of evolution. This sole piece of the problem of evil provides a singularly powerful argument against the existence of the Christian God, but it is hardly the only aspect of the problem that has confounded believers. Jesus’s insistence on the existence of an eternal hell seems to completely contradict the biblical claim that God is both wholly loving and all-powerful.

For an answer to the problem of evil to stand up to scrutiny, it must fully address these issues and more in a manner that is consistent with both the Bible and the lived experiences of all creatures, at all points in history. As explained by A. M. Weisberger in Suffering Belief: Evil and the Anglo-American Defense of Theism, theism’s failure to provide a truly comprehensive answer to the problem of evil is a failure that casts doubt on the credibility of core Christian assertions regarding the nature and character of God: “Any proposed solution to the problem of evil which does not account for all kinds of evil in the world, both moral and natural, is deficient in some way, since evil is then not shown to be necessary. And if some evil is not necessary, God’s goodness and/or power is called into question.”

If God’s goodness or power is called into question, Christianity itself is too.

Starting with the assumption that love is the principal purpose of creation, Why God Allows Evil and Suffering identifies and examines the prerequisites of relational love in order to explain why God’s pursuit of a timeless loving relationship with mankind necessitated that he create the very conditions that allow for the possibility of evil and pain. Building on this foundation, the book then examines the biblical narrative of man’s creation as a timeless loving being, his fall to a time-based state of existence upon committing an unloving act, and his return to supra-temporal existence following death. This analysis answers every major facet of the problem of evil in a manner that fully aligns with Christian orthodoxy, while simultaneously addressing the most rigorous scientific and philosophical challenges that have emerged on this issue to date.

To provide prospective readers with an idea of the unique apologetics that appear in this book, a summary of the argument reconciling Genesis with the scientific theory of evolution is given on the Science & Direct Creation page. A summary of the argument reconciling the existence of hell with the assertion that God is all-loving is provided on the Hell & a Loving God page.

For those interested in learning more about the history of Western responses to the problem of evil, the Philosophers & Theologians page contains blog posts summarizing prominent philosophical, theological, and literary works on the problem of evil, organized into categories based on the genres of the works and the different eras in which they were written. Links to these categories and posts are listed at the bottom half of this page.

The posts grouped under the Theology of Why God Allows Evil and Suffering category offer brief solutions to different subcomponents of the problem of evil, including answers to the problem of divine hiddenness, the problem of natural evil, and the problem of hell. Also included in this category are overviews of several important assumptions that underpin the arguments in the book, including a short analysis of the assertion that God is all-loving, a review of studies on human well-being supporting the assumption that love is the purpose of life, and a summary of the reason why God made man with an eternal soulOther posts in this category include an answer to why faith, not reason, is the exclusive form of decision-making that enables man to reach God; an explanation of why it is impossible for man to escape faith-based reasoning; an examination of the nature of existence above time; and an analysis of the scale of systemic change to the material order that occurred at the moment of the Fall, which included the advent of time itself.

These are just some of the many novel arguments that appear in Why God Allows Evil and Suffering. By far the most important theological development in this book, however, is the identification and analysis of the prerequisites of love. This insight, more than any other, is key to answering the problem of evil.

Paperback and eBook copies of Why God Allows Evil and Suffering are available on Amazon.com. The eBook version of the title is available for free for those with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.

 

. . . the problem of pain is unsolvable when one approaches it unmindful of the fact that love cannot occur without the presence of certain prerequisites.

Survey of Philosophy, Theology, & Literature on the Problem of Evil

Survey of Philosophy, Theology, & Literature on the Problem of Evil

A sampling of written works on the problem of evil by Western thinkers appears at the following links:

 

CATEGORIES:

 

Greek Philosophers

Roman Philosophers & Theologians

Early Christian Writers

Medieval Era Writers

Protestant Reformation

Renaissance Era Writers

Enlightenment Era Writers

19th Century Thinkers

20th Century Thinkers

21st Century Thinkers

Statements of the Problem of Evil & the Problem of Pain

The Evidential Problem of Evil

The Existential Problem of Evil

The Logical Problem of Evil

The Problem of Natural Evil

The Religious Problem of Evil

Hell and the Problem of Evil

The Problem of Evil in Judaism

The Problem of Evil in the Bible

Responses to the Problem of Evil & the Problem of Pain

Stoic & Epicurean Responses to Evil

Writings on Evil by Doctors of the Church

Openness Theodicy

Process Theodicy

Theology of Why God Allows Evil & Suffering

 

AUTHORS/TITLES:

 

Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

Alvin Plantinga, “Does the Theist Contradict Himself?”

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, On the Consolation of Philosophy

Anselm of Canterbury, On the Fall of the Devil

Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation

Augustine of Hippo, City of God

Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

Bruce R. Reichenbach, “Evil, Omnipotence, & Process Thought”

C. S. Lewis“Animal Pain”

Carl Jung, Aion

Charles Darwin, Letter to Asa Gray

David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

David Ray Griffin, God, Power, and Evil: A Process Theodicy

Dorothee Sölle, Suffering

Emmanuel Levinas“Useless Suffering”

Epictetus, The Encheiridion

Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling“Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom”

Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Rebellion”

Genesis 1—3 (ESV)

Geoffrey Chaucer“The Pardoner’s Tale”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel“The Philosophical History of the World”

Gerard Hopkins, “Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord”

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Theodicy

Hermann Cohen, Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism

Immanuel Kant“On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy”

Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies

J. L. Mackie, “Evil and Omnipotence”

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Letter to Mr. de Voltaire

Jerry Walls, Hell: The Logic of Damnation

Job (NIV)

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

John Hick“The ‘Vale of Soul-Making’ Theodicy”

John Keats, Letters to George and Georgiana Keats

John Milton, Paradise Lost

John S. Feinberg, “The Religious Problem of Evil”

John Sanders, “God, Evil, and Relational Risk”

John Stuart Mill, An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy, and of The Principal Philosophical Questions Discussed in his Writings

Josiah Royce“The Problem of Job”

Julian of Norwich, Showings

Karl Barth“God and Nothingness”

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, “On Providence”

Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius, On the Anger of God

Marilyn McCord Adams, “Redemptive Suffering”

Martin Luther, Preface to the Book of Job

Michael L. Peterson, “The Evidential Argument from Evil”

Michael Ruse, “Naturalism, Evil, and God”

Moses Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed

Nicolas Malebranche, Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion

Paul Helm, “God’s Providence Takes No Risks”

Peter van Inwagen, “The Global Argument from Evil”

Pierre Bayle, Historical and Critical Dictionary

Plato, Timaeus

Pseudo-Dionysius, On the Divine Names

Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe

Sextus Empiricus, “God”

Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion

Simone Weil“The Love of God and Affliction”

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

Thomas Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

Thomas of Celano, Dies Irae

Thomas Robert Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population

Titus Lucretius Carus, On the Nature of Things

Voltaire, “Poem on the Lisbon Disaster”

William Hasker, “On Regretting the Evils of This World”

William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience

William L. Rowe, “Evil Is Evidence against Theistic Belief