Why Does God Allow Evil?

One of the strongest objections to believe in the Judeo-Christian God has to do with the amount and types of suffering and evil that exist in our world. Philosophers and theologians refer to this as the problem of evil. The problem of evil for belief in God is this: If God is perfectly good, all-knowing, and all powerful, then why does evil exist? Those who believe in God have offered a wide variety of responses to this question, some of them better than others.

Before we consider some of these responses, it will be helpful to make a distinction between two different categories of evil. First, moral evil refers to the evil and suffering that occurs because of the actions (or inactions) of human beings. This is the evil that we are morally responsible for, including theft, murder, torture, many forms of lying, oppression, and so on. Natural evil refers to the suffering caused by the natural order, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and disease. This distinction is important to keep in mind, as some responses to the problem of evil only apply to one of these two categories.

Several of the responses to the problem of evil have the same structure, as they look for reasons that might justify God allowing evil and suffering. They are analogous in some ways to choices that we humans make. For example, there are times when a good person is justified in allowing or even causing suffering. When a parent takes his or her child to get vaccinated, this is a case of allowing suffering. The physician is causing suffering when she injects the child, since this is painful. However, there is a greater good which justifies this, namely, the prevention of disease. Similarly, then, some have argued that there is often a greater good in play which justifies God in allowing evil and suffering.

Response #1: Suffering is necessary for some types of moral and spiritual growth.

Ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; medieval thinkers like Thomas Aquinas; and many contemporary philosophers have and do hold the view that genuine happiness, in the sense of deep fulfillment and true human flourishing, requires one to have a good moral and intellectual character. Given this idea, some philosophers and theologians have argued that the nature of moral growth requires that we face some evil and suffering. For example, in order to develop courage, one must face adversity. To develop compassion, suffering must be present in the world. To become generous, there must be lack in the world. So one reason God has for allowing evil and suffering is that it is required for certain kinds of moral growth.

Response #2: Genuine love requires genuine freedom, and this freedom opens up the possibility for moral evil.

If God is forming a community of people who freely enter into loving relationships with one another and the Trinity (using a Christian understanding of God) in which such people work with God forever to create and enjoy goodness, truth, and beauty, this requires that we have freedom of the will. Authentic love is, in some sense, chosen; it is not coerced. But granting us this freedom entails a risk of rejection, and of humans misusing our freedom. And this is what we so often do; we use our freedom not for good and loving purposes, but for evil ones.

Response #3: Our experience of evil can lead us to God.

Contemporary philosopher Eleonore Stump offers another response to the problem of evil. She claims that a world full of evil and suffering can lead us to receive and live out the grace of God.

She writes,

Natural evil—the pain of disease, the intermittent and unpredictable destruction of natural disasters, the decay of old age, the imminence of death—takes away a person's satisfaction with himself. It tends to humble him, show him his frailty, make him reflect on the transience of temporal goods, and turn his affections towards other-worldly things, away from the things of this world. No amount of moral or natural evil, of course, can guarantee that a man will [place his faith in God].... But evil of this sort is the best hope, I think, and maybe the only effective means, for bringing men to such a state.

If our greatest good is to know and love God, then it is plausible to think that this is another reason God might have for allowing natural evil. The film Shadowlands explores this idea in the thought and life of C.S. Lewis.

The existence of evil and suffering is a philosophical and existential problem for those who believe in God. In the next post, I'll consider some other responses that have been given to this objection to theistic belief.

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