Exploring Christianity's Theistic Response to the Problem of Evil

This essay delves into the philosophical problem of evil and presents a theistic response, primarily through the lens of Christianity. It begins by defining the problem of evil, which questions the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good God in light of the presence of suffering and evil in the world. The essay then explores the logical problem of evil, outlining the contradictions that arise from these seemingly incompatible attributes. Subsequently, it examines Christianity's response to this challenge, highlighting key concepts such as the nature of God, the role of free will, and the concept of sin. The essay discusses how Christians reconcile the existence of evil with their belief in a benevolent God, often emphasizing the idea that evil is a consequence of human choices and the fallen nature of the world. The essay concludes by summarizing the core arguments and beliefs presented, emphasizing the Christian perspective on the relationship between God, evil, and human suffering.

One theistic response to the
problem of evil.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
One theistic response of the Problem of Evil. ............................................................................2
Logical problem of evil: .............................................................................................................2
Christianity's response to the Problem of Evil............................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Problem of evil is all about the philosophy of religion where the people have different
perceptions regarding the concept of evil. This present study will focus on One theistic response
of the Problem of Evil. In addition to this, Philosophy of Christian religion and Philosophy will
also be discussed in detail. Furthermore, Christianity's response to the Problem of Evil will also
be determined in brief.
MAIN BODY
Philosophy of religion is all about the interface between the theology on the one hand and
different studies on religions on the other. In Christianity the religion has begun with Jesus, who
got born before many years ago. People who follow this religion believes in Jesus and his
teachings that sayings that are given under different books and sections. After the death of Jesus
people who followed him as started knowing as a different community within the Judaism. The
Jesus of Nazareth has taken a teaching ministry where he has made people taught about the
kingdom of God. In starting of the religion the Christians practices where different for people
and it differs from town to town. But Gradually the Christianity has got inspired from different
art, music and peace. Different universities has got established and people are taught about the
religion and its aspects. After this Christians started believing that they can buy the forgiveness
of God (Colli, 2017). There are majorly two kinds of groups are divided among Christians,
which are named as Catholics and Protestants. Both of these share many common interests and
believes in their religious believes and practices (Cocker, 2018) People here worship and pray to
a monotheistic god where it is being believed that all humans are sinners, who are saved from
their Sin and it has been possible due to the god's grace through Jesus.
Christians also believes in vocation which says that human beings serve god by doing
their daily tasks. It has been believed by them that if any work where the good of people or
serving them will be done than it will be considered as serving to god. So in order to do the same
the person should serve to others and always do charity so that it can be counted in good Sin. SO
the idea of Vocation for Christianity is that any good work will serve God directly. So one
should try to be good ans serve friends, relatives and neighbours. This will be equally to serving
God and that will come back to them in good way in the future.
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Christians believes that every person can have a personal relationship with god which
they can enjoy and get a satisfaction. Here the people can maintain this relationship and it is a
mystery for every human being. Catholics are more stressed towards the god's immanence more
than Protestants. Even people who follow this religion of Christianity believes that Jesus are find
out in documents and different historical things. It is being believed by people that Jesus is an
ideal human being and they also respect the mother of Jesus who gave birth to Jesus. Other than
this, people also believes in the religion by way of that God saves them from eternal life and also
save people from their all the sins.
One theistic response of the Problem of Evil.
People always have a thinking that if suffering is happening in any way and that comes as
a challenge for every human being. So it makes tough for people about the existence of perfect
god. It has been understood that if God knows everything before its happening than why don't
they stop it from occurrence (Peterson, 2018). As there are many sufferings for people where evil
and sufferings are happening and they have to deal with the same. Like an earthquake kills many
people than why god do not stop it when it is already known before that it will happen and
people get affected by the same. It is been claimed by many people that it is not acceptable that
god let this happen and how can god let this happen even (Thompson, 2017). Whereas, some
believe that god has the power of eliminating all the evil and on the other hand, it has been said
that god let the evil happen so that people can be prevented from big evils.
Logical problem of evil:
Author says that there are many concepts and perception regarding the problem of Evil. All the
things can not be considered same at single point of time so the major logic behind the problem
is understood by this way.
 God is omnipotent (that is, all-powerful).
 God is omniscient (that is, all-knowing).
 God is absolutely good.
 Evil exists
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All the above sayings are contradicted to each other as it can not be said that all the facts are
correct.
If the god is all knowing means omniscient, then he must knowing before only about the
evils and what people have to suffer than God has done something to prevent people from it. But
evil happens and human being have to suffer from it ( Logical problem of evil, 2017). Whereas,
if God is very powerful and said to be omnipotent than he must have prevented all the people
from the powers that they have. But even if God is powerful people have to bear the sufferings
and think the reason behind the same. If god is all good than he will not let happen or exist the
evil or if does than he had prevented people from the same (Meister, 2018). But it is contradicted
sentence because God is good still evil happens and let the people suffer. So from above three
saying it has been determined, which is discussed below in detail.
 God knows about all the evils and the people who are suffering from the same and god is
also powerful enough at the same time to stop the evils from happening but he does not
do the same (Russell, 2018). So it can be determined that he must not be perfectly good
for people who are suffering from evils.
 Other than this, it can be said that God knows and experience about all the things that are
happening but do not stop it means maybe he is not more powerful than the evil to finish
it.
 At last from the above contradictions it can also be determined that evil exist but god let
it happen due to the Sins of people (Davis, 2017). Human beings are themselves
responsible for their Sins and that is the reason they suffer from evils in the future.
Christianity's response to the Problem of Evil
For Christians it has been believed by them that God and evil can not co exist. So for that
it is really important to understand the meaning of God and evil. The meaning of God for
Christians is very easy and simple but on the other hand, Evil is defined as a big concept where it
has been identified that everything which gives pain to people is termed as evil (Yousif, 2018).
In addition to this, Christianity also defines the pain as deed of human being that is against the
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god's moral will. There are majorly three concepts in which Christians explains the most
important concepts which are being believed by the followers of the religion. In this the first
concept that is defined is that God is not the creator of evil and he can not go against his own
will. So it can be said that God is not the creator of Evil. In the second concept it has been said
that Evil exists but that is because of the sins of people and they get suffer for the same. When a
person does not follow the right path and chooses to reject the will of Good then they get trapped
in evil. So in the last concept it has been defined that God is not liable or responsible for the Evil
rather human beings themselves are accountable for the same.
It can be said that it is very tough to understand the concept as people are responsible for
their own sins. The major reason behind this is that god and evil can not exist both ways
together. So it is important to know the major problem behind the evil that why it is happening to
someone and for the same they should understand the logic behind it. People just blame god and
says that he is not doing this right rather than they should focus on the things that are doing
(McBrayer, 2018). A person should always do that which is morally correct and does not harm
anybody. God knows everything before its happening than why don't they stop it from
occurrence (Peterson, 2018). As there are many sufferings for people where evil and sufferings
are happening and they have to deal with the same. Christians also believes that person should be
good and to avoid evil they should serve human beings by doing their daily activities for others.
It has been believed by them that if any work where the good of people or serving them will be
done than it will be considered as serving to god. So in order to do the same the person should
serve to others and always do donation so that it can be counted in good Sin (Christianity's
response to the Problem of Evil, 2018) It can be said that this will be a path to Good sin and
avoiding evil in the future. Other than this, it has been said that by the religion and authors that it
depends upon the person that they want to suffer in the future by evils or avoid them by doing
good sins in the present. Both the things are connected with each other and one definitely gets
the result of their bad sins in the future in the form of Evils. It can be said that God knows
everything and is powerful to avoid the situations but it is not in their hand because humans have
to face what they have done in their past. So person should always do that which is morally
correct and does not hurt anybody in any way.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been summarised that Christians believes that every person
can have a personal relationship with god which they can enjoy and get a satisfaction. Other than
this, Evil exists but that is because of the sins of people and they get suffer for the same. When a
person does not follow the right path and chooses to reject the will of Good then they get trapped
in evil. In addition to this, God is not liable for the evil even he is very powerful and well known
about the evil. Furthermore, every human being should be good with others and be helpful to
every person they meet so that good things will happen with them in the future.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Colli, A., 2017. Meister Eckhart: Philosopher of Christianity. By Kurt Flasch. Translated by
Anne Schindel and Aaron Vanides.
Cocker, B.F., 2018. Christianity and Greek Philosophy. BoD–Books on Demand.
Peterson, M.L., 2018. God and Evil: an introduction to the issues. Routledge.
Russell, B., 2018. The Problem of Evil and Replies to Some Important Responses.
McBrayer, J., 2018. Skeptical theism: an historical view. In The History of Evil from the Mid-
Twentieth Century to Today (pp. 55-71). Routledge.
Thompson, B., 2017. The Problem of Evil, Daniel Speak, Polity, 2015, pp., pb£ 15.99. Reviews
in Religion & Theology, 24(3), pp.572-574.
Meister, C.V., 2018. Evil: a Guide for the Perplexed. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Yousif, A., 2018. The Undeniable Reality of Evil: a Response to WJ Mander. Sophia, 57(3),
pp.515-519.
Davis, S.T., 2017. The problem of evil. In The Palgrave Handbook of the Afterlife (pp. 371-389).
Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Online:
Logical problem of evil. 2017. [Online]. Accessed through: <https://www.iep.utm.edu/evil-
log/>.
Christianity's response to the Problem of Evil. 2018. [Online]. Accessed through:
<https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/centers/boisi/pdf/bc_papers/BCP-
Christianity.pdf>.
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