Argument from Evil 101
An introduction to the problem of evil.
This is for all you kids still lost in the prisons of religion. I've decided to post a weekly or so update containing common atheist arguments and breaking them down into simple terms. We'll start with the Argument from Evil.
1. There is a God, and he is all-powerful.
2. There is a God, and he is all-loving.
3. There is a God, and he is all-knowing.
4. There is evil and suffering.
Study these four statements. Together, you have a contradiction. All three statements cannot be true.
If God is all-powerful and all-loving, God would have the power and the desire to end human suffering. Therefore, evil would not exist. So premise three could not be true. However, we know from experience, word of mouth, or at least the news that premise 3 is true. So let's assume that either premise 1 or 2 is not true. If God is all powerful, but not all loving, then evil exists and God just doesn't care to remedy it. Unfortunately, this belief is incompatible with any mainstream religion I know of, and even if it is true...who wants to worship an evil God? So let's say that 1 isn't true. But if God isn't all powerful, is it really God? And if God isn't all powerful, this flies in the face of our world religions as well. So what is premise 3 isn't true, and God isn't all-knowing. God simply doesn't know that all this evil exists. If that's God, I'm a worried about his powers of perception, for one, though it's worth noting that any all-powerful God is also all-knowing (he has the power to know everything). No matter what, either evil doesn't exist (which we know it does) or we begin taking away God's powers...in which case, is there really a God anymore? Face it folks. All three premises cannot be true.
So where does that leave us? It leaves us with a God who's weak, stupid, or evil. Maybe some combination of all three. Of course, the argument doesn't end here.
Some argue that God may have alterior motives. This is known as the free will defense. God treasures our ability to choose over our well-being. It's a trade-off; either you have your free will, or you'll inevitably run into some suffering.
This is the part where Keegan stops talking in an objective, removed tone and gets into the argument. Brace yourselves.
The free will defense amazes me on so many levels. How can people be so fucking stupid?! You'd think that a being as intelligent, powerful and potent as God could remedy the situation, giving us free will and the ability to be happy. Why does our free will have to infringe on our happiness? Okay, point taken: there is that guy who might decide to rape and murder you in his free will which detracts from your happiness. I get that. But if God designed humans, the guy who wants to do that seems to have a design flaw. Why design humans to have the total free will to do that? God could just have easily given humans enough free will to choose moral actions only, or perhaps designed humans such that they only choose the 'right' choice.
Consider the following. You've been designed by God such that you only choose moral actions. Is your free will being infringed on? If God designed you so that your desire will never be to rape and murder someone, then what's the problem? If you don't have that desire, it's not inherent in you, then God's not taking anything away from you. You don't feel unfulfilled because you're unable to rape and murder someone. I'm sure that God, in his infinite wisdom and power, could do so. Free will and happiness are not mutually exclusive. Besides, even if you argue that this is somehow an infringement on your free will (which I think I've shown it isn't), you still have free will. Paper or plastic? Do you want to play football or soccer? Do you want to play sports at all? Do you like pizza? What kind of clothes will I wear today? Where do I want to go to college? Which career is right for me? These aren't titanic moral desicions. You can still live a fulfilled, individual and unique life, full of choices without ever having to choose whether or not to be "good" or "evil", if we accept the banality of such concepts. God could have kept plenty of our free will, enough for us to pursue happiness, each in our own special way, and still have eliminated suffering.
But he didn't? Why not? It's inexplicable - and this isn't the only job that God botched. The free will defense has no explanation when it comes to natural disasters. What about hurricanes (we've seen a lot of those recently), earthquakes, buildings collapsing unexpectedly, fires, floods, hail damage, car accidents, tsunamis, meteors, solar flares, and zombie pandemics? These disasters and examples of human suffering seem to occur without human choice ever entering the equation. And if God is in control of the cosmos, the only one who is pulling the strings...is...well...God. Why would God do such a thing?
"The Lord works in mysterious ways." If you live in America, you've probably heard Christians repeat this tired, ridiculous axiom. Sadly, this explanation falls utterly short of an explanation, and can be amounted to a mask for uncertainty. If God cures John, who had cancer, but lets Bill, who also has cancer, die, what possible explanation could God have? Did he want Bill to die and his family to suffer? Let's take it up a notch. Why does God let thousands be murdered by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, leaving fields full of bodies, all killed by being stabbed to death and impaled on sharpened bamboo (to save money on bullets, of course), when millions of other Europeans and Americans were living happily at the time? Does God like Americans better? Well, despite what Bill O'Reilly might tell you, this idea is incompatible with God.
If God kills or lets suffer one over the other, this means that God is either not all-loving, all-powerful, or all-knowing. A God that loves you and lets such things happen is not all-loving, even if he likes John or Americans better then Bill or Cambodians. Imagine what one would think if a father did the same thing. He watched idly while his children fight one another, allowing them the free will to choose whether or not they stab one another to death. And then, as one of his children gets the upper hand and is about to stab the other, he allows it to happen, because he likes him more. Such a father would be imprisoned for life. The idea that God might let someone die or suffer to punish them, or because he doesn't like them is not an argument - it's absurd when you're considering God. But what if God kills or essentially tortures because of a greater good or plan? Tell me, please...what is this greater plan? Better yet, what could it possibly be? Why could God possibly want someone to suffer as part of his plan? HE'S GOD. He shouldn't have a "plan" in the first place - how could an all-powerful, all-knowing being want or need anything that could be accomplished with a plan? And what's more, why would such a plan, if it did indeed exist, include the death and torture of his children, who he loves eternally? It doesn't make any sense.
These mysterious ways aren't just mysterious...they're downright insane. Those who would argue that we can't possibly understand the ways of God are trapping themselves. If we can't understand the ways of God, what he is, his plan, or what his attributes are, then where does that leave us?
It leaves us as abject zombies unwaveringly serving a being working towards cause that we can't know or possibly understand, and all on faith. And the plan, what little we know of it, happens to include massive human suffering, death and torture. Additionally, this being we serve doesn't seem to really care, or maybe doesn't even know that this is going on. I don't think I want a part in this plan.
This is for all you kids still lost in the prisons of religion. I've decided to post a weekly or so update containing common atheist arguments and breaking them down into simple terms. We'll start with the Argument from Evil.
1. There is a God, and he is all-powerful.
2. There is a God, and he is all-loving.
3. There is a God, and he is all-knowing.
4. There is evil and suffering.
Study these four statements. Together, you have a contradiction. All three statements cannot be true.
If God is all-powerful and all-loving, God would have the power and the desire to end human suffering. Therefore, evil would not exist. So premise three could not be true. However, we know from experience, word of mouth, or at least the news that premise 3 is true. So let's assume that either premise 1 or 2 is not true. If God is all powerful, but not all loving, then evil exists and God just doesn't care to remedy it. Unfortunately, this belief is incompatible with any mainstream religion I know of, and even if it is true...who wants to worship an evil God? So let's say that 1 isn't true. But if God isn't all powerful, is it really God? And if God isn't all powerful, this flies in the face of our world religions as well. So what is premise 3 isn't true, and God isn't all-knowing. God simply doesn't know that all this evil exists. If that's God, I'm a worried about his powers of perception, for one, though it's worth noting that any all-powerful God is also all-knowing (he has the power to know everything). No matter what, either evil doesn't exist (which we know it does) or we begin taking away God's powers...in which case, is there really a God anymore? Face it folks. All three premises cannot be true.
So where does that leave us? It leaves us with a God who's weak, stupid, or evil. Maybe some combination of all three. Of course, the argument doesn't end here.
Some argue that God may have alterior motives. This is known as the free will defense. God treasures our ability to choose over our well-being. It's a trade-off; either you have your free will, or you'll inevitably run into some suffering.
This is the part where Keegan stops talking in an objective, removed tone and gets into the argument. Brace yourselves.
The free will defense amazes me on so many levels. How can people be so fucking stupid?! You'd think that a being as intelligent, powerful and potent as God could remedy the situation, giving us free will and the ability to be happy. Why does our free will have to infringe on our happiness? Okay, point taken: there is that guy who might decide to rape and murder you in his free will which detracts from your happiness. I get that. But if God designed humans, the guy who wants to do that seems to have a design flaw. Why design humans to have the total free will to do that? God could just have easily given humans enough free will to choose moral actions only, or perhaps designed humans such that they only choose the 'right' choice.
Consider the following. You've been designed by God such that you only choose moral actions. Is your free will being infringed on? If God designed you so that your desire will never be to rape and murder someone, then what's the problem? If you don't have that desire, it's not inherent in you, then God's not taking anything away from you. You don't feel unfulfilled because you're unable to rape and murder someone. I'm sure that God, in his infinite wisdom and power, could do so. Free will and happiness are not mutually exclusive. Besides, even if you argue that this is somehow an infringement on your free will (which I think I've shown it isn't), you still have free will. Paper or plastic? Do you want to play football or soccer? Do you want to play sports at all? Do you like pizza? What kind of clothes will I wear today? Where do I want to go to college? Which career is right for me? These aren't titanic moral desicions. You can still live a fulfilled, individual and unique life, full of choices without ever having to choose whether or not to be "good" or "evil", if we accept the banality of such concepts. God could have kept plenty of our free will, enough for us to pursue happiness, each in our own special way, and still have eliminated suffering.
But he didn't? Why not? It's inexplicable - and this isn't the only job that God botched. The free will defense has no explanation when it comes to natural disasters. What about hurricanes (we've seen a lot of those recently), earthquakes, buildings collapsing unexpectedly, fires, floods, hail damage, car accidents, tsunamis, meteors, solar flares, and zombie pandemics? These disasters and examples of human suffering seem to occur without human choice ever entering the equation. And if God is in control of the cosmos, the only one who is pulling the strings...is...well...God. Why would God do such a thing?
"The Lord works in mysterious ways." If you live in America, you've probably heard Christians repeat this tired, ridiculous axiom. Sadly, this explanation falls utterly short of an explanation, and can be amounted to a mask for uncertainty. If God cures John, who had cancer, but lets Bill, who also has cancer, die, what possible explanation could God have? Did he want Bill to die and his family to suffer? Let's take it up a notch. Why does God let thousands be murdered by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, leaving fields full of bodies, all killed by being stabbed to death and impaled on sharpened bamboo (to save money on bullets, of course), when millions of other Europeans and Americans were living happily at the time? Does God like Americans better? Well, despite what Bill O'Reilly might tell you, this idea is incompatible with God.
If God kills or lets suffer one over the other, this means that God is either not all-loving, all-powerful, or all-knowing. A God that loves you and lets such things happen is not all-loving, even if he likes John or Americans better then Bill or Cambodians. Imagine what one would think if a father did the same thing. He watched idly while his children fight one another, allowing them the free will to choose whether or not they stab one another to death. And then, as one of his children gets the upper hand and is about to stab the other, he allows it to happen, because he likes him more. Such a father would be imprisoned for life. The idea that God might let someone die or suffer to punish them, or because he doesn't like them is not an argument - it's absurd when you're considering God. But what if God kills or essentially tortures because of a greater good or plan? Tell me, please...what is this greater plan? Better yet, what could it possibly be? Why could God possibly want someone to suffer as part of his plan? HE'S GOD. He shouldn't have a "plan" in the first place - how could an all-powerful, all-knowing being want or need anything that could be accomplished with a plan? And what's more, why would such a plan, if it did indeed exist, include the death and torture of his children, who he loves eternally? It doesn't make any sense.
These mysterious ways aren't just mysterious...they're downright insane. Those who would argue that we can't possibly understand the ways of God are trapping themselves. If we can't understand the ways of God, what he is, his plan, or what his attributes are, then where does that leave us?
It leaves us as abject zombies unwaveringly serving a being working towards cause that we can't know or possibly understand, and all on faith. And the plan, what little we know of it, happens to include massive human suffering, death and torture. Additionally, this being we serve doesn't seem to really care, or maybe doesn't even know that this is going on. I don't think I want a part in this plan.