New Atheism and the Problem of Evil
A Christian Response to the Deductive
Argument
Posted by Clark Bates
February 19, 2016
February 19, 2016
The
basic premise of this intellectual argument against theism is that the
Christian attributes of God cannot logically co-exist with the presence of
evil. Therefore, since it is ludicrous
to suggest that evil does not exist, what must be demonstrated is that the
Christian God, in all His divine attributes, can logically co-exist with evil.
Christian doctrine teaches that while
God did not create evil, in His act of divine creation He allowed for the free
will of sentient beings (angels and humans) wherewith they might choose to
enter into accord with Him, but also might choose to turn away. In so doing, God created the possibility of
evil for the greater benefit of eternal relationship (Gen. 2.15-16). The Bible teaches that mankind's original
descendants, Adam and Eve, chose to act selfishly and, in so doing, brought
evil into the world God created (Gen. 3). As a result of mankind's fall, both
moral and natural evil persist and exist as part of God's greater plan of
redemption; both of mankind and the world.
On this basis, a simple reworking of the
syllogism above resolves the perceived logical contradiction contained within
the deductive problem of evil. According
to Alvin Plantinga, "A good God will
eliminate evil as far as he can without either losing a greater good or
bringing about a greater evil."[1]
This quote in syllogistic form would look thusly:
1.
An omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God created the world.
2. God created a good world in which evil was
possible and became actual and had a good reason for doing so.
3. Therefore, the world contains evil.
By phrasing the defense to the deductive problem in this
way, it becomes logically possible for God and evil to co-exist, thereby
eliminating the claim of contradiction within the Christian faith.
In accordance with the Genesis account,
all that God created is "good".
While sentient beings were created with the freedom of will to choose
God or oppose God, their creation and character at the point of initial
creation was good. For the Christian
then, evil is a privation. It exists,
not as a direct creation of God, but comes about through human mismanagement of
people and their environment.
"Nevertheless, some moral goods are impossible apart from
responding to particular evils."[3]
Examples
for this exist in the realm of both natural and moral evils. The admirable trait of courage cannot exist
without danger or risk of life; sacrificial love cannot be understood without the pain of
emotional loss. In the realm of natural
disasters, drowning exists only because the necessity of water upon the earth's
surface, which does not exist as the primary residence for mankind. Likewise, while the tragedy of lives lost in
earthquakes all over the world causes us to weep and cry out for emotional
remuneration, such seismic activity is necessary for planet Earth to maintain
the delicate balances of atmospheric conditions mandatory for the existence of
human life.[4] With these considerations, there can be no
logical objection to the Christian belief in the simultaneous existence of both
God and evil.
In
the Last Part of this Series a we'll approach a Christian response to the inductive
problem of evil. . .
[1] Alvin
Plantinga, God, Freedom, and Evil
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 19.
[2] William Lane
Craig, "The Problem of Evil," Reasonable Faith, http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-problem-of-evil#ixzz3I54NzzjD (accessed November 3, 2014).
[3] Douglas
Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive
Case for Biblical Faith (Downer's Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 637.
[4] Sandra
Dimas, "Are Earthquakes God's Fault?," Reasons to Believe, http://www.reasons.org/blogs/take-two/are-earthquakes-god-s-fault,
(accessed November 6, 2014).
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