Some people claim that the problem of evil is devastating to the claims of Christianity. The problem of evil is often presented in this way.
- God is all powerful.
- God is all good.
- Evil exists in the world.
- Therefore, God does not exist.
The problem is that there is this tension between God being all good and all powerful. Harold Kushner wrestles with this tension in a moving way in his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. In that book, Kushner concludes that God is all good but he is not all powerful. God would like to remove evil and suffering but he is unable to.
But that is not the only way to look at the problem. What happens if we present it this way?
- God is all powerful.
- God is all good.
- God is not all controlling.
- Therefore, evil exists.
I realize that there are Christians who believe that God controls everything and that it is God who chooses the colour socks you wore today as well as determining the man who raped a woman. I do not hold to that position and I don’t believe that is what the Bible teaches.
I see not a two-way tension between God’s goodness and power but a three-way tension between God’s goodness, power and control. The suffering we see in the world is not a critique of God’s power or goodness, it is a reflection of God not being willing to take control over our choices.
Some will say that this may explain moral evil but not natural evil. Our choices don’t affect diseases or disasters. I would disagree. While we can’t choose to remove all suffering, human choices make the suffering from diseases and disasters much worse than they need to be.
We have enough food to feed everyone. We have the technology to effectively treat most diseases and to build infrastructure to protect from most disasters. If not for human greed and selfishness, there could be a heaven on earth.
We may disagree with God’s choice to give us choice, but this aspect of the problem of evil needs to be taken into account.
