If God Is Good, Why Does Evil Exist?

Imagine you had the power to stop a child from being hurt — and you knew it was about to happen — but you chose to do nothing. Most people would say you did something wrong. Now scale that up: if an all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good God exists, why does terrible suffering happen at all? This question has troubled philosophers, theologians, and ordinary people for thousands of years. It is called the problem of evil — and today you will wrestle with it yourself.

**Setting up the problem** Many major world religions — including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism — teach that God is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnibenevolent (perfectly good). The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341–270 BCE) captured the logical tension in a famous argument sometimes called the Epicurean trilemma: • If God is willing to stop evil but unable to, God is not omnipotent. • If God is able to stop evil but unwilling to, God is not omnibenevolent. • If God is both willing and able, why does evil exist at all? This argument was sharpened into what philosophers call the logical problem of evil: evil and an all-powerful, all-good God cannot both exist at the same time. **Two types of evil** Evil is usually divided into two categories. Moral evil is suffering caused by human choices — war, cruelty, and crime are examples. Natural evil is suffering caused by the natural world with no human cause — earthquakes, tsunamis, and disease are examples. The distinction matters because a response that works for one type may not work for the other. **Response 1 — The Free Will Defence** The philosopher Alvin Plantinga (born 1932) and many theologians argue that God gave humans free will — the genuine ability to choose good or evil. A world with free creatures who can choose love and goodness is more valuable than a world of robots who always do 'good' because they are programmed to. Moral evil is the tragic cost of that freedom. God does not cause evil; humans do. Strength: It explains moral evil and fits religious ideas of human responsibility. Weakness: It does not explain natural evil. Earthquakes are not caused by human choices. **Response 2 — Soul-Making (Irenaeus / Hick)** Early theologian Irenaeus (c. 130–202 CE) and later philosopher John Hick (1922–2012) argued that humans are not created perfect — we are created with the potential to grow. Suffering and challenge are necessary for moral and spiritual development, just as muscles only grow when they are worked. A world without hardship would produce no courage, compassion, or wisdom. Evil is the difficult environment in which souls are 'made'. Strength: It accounts for both moral and natural evil as tools of growth. Weakness: Critics ask whether an all-powerful God could not have found a less painful way to help people grow. **Response 3 — Sceptical Theism** Some thinkers argue that humans simply cannot understand God's reasons from our limited perspective. Just as a young child cannot understand why a doctor gives a painful injection, we cannot see the full picture of why God permits suffering. This view is called sceptical theism. Strength: It is logically consistent — the absence of a visible reason is not proof there is no reason. Weakness: Critics say it makes God's goodness impossible to evaluate, which weakens religious ethics.