moderated to 100%; argued down by 20%
by wikipedia on 2005-03-26 05:30:47
The problem of evil [en.wikipedia.org] (or theodicy) in general, and the logical and evidential arguments from evil in particular contest the existence of a god who is both omnipotent and omnibenevolent by arguing that such a god would not permit the existence of evil, which can easily be shown to exist.
moderated to 100%; argued down by 0%
by anonymous on 2005-09-28 00:50:47
I've never necessarily heard God described as omnibenovolent, but omniscient. In any case, The existance of evil, while contradictory at first glance, is not a problem at all. If you assume as the Bible notes that God gave us free will, there must be some control in which to decide if a decision is positive or negative. Without that control-case ('evil', as it were), there is no 'good', since these are subjective modifiers. A free-willed person cannot exist where there is only good, nor could one exist where there is only evil, because by logical definition these cases cannot exist.
Further, how can you easily show that evil exists? It can easily be argued that even all 'evil' acts have their uttermost good in the long view, because those events may have prevented or caused a domino effect that leads to a greater good.