Evil, the Problem of [addendum]
The problem of evil concerns whether the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, perfectly good creator is rendered unlikely (or less likely than it would otherwise be) given the horrendous evils that afflict the world. John Hick's soul-making theodicy is perhaps the best known of the attempts to provide a plausible account of the role that evils may play in the divine plan for human life. Two other important theodicies are due to Marilyn Adams and Richard Swinburne.
In "The Problem of Hell: A Problem of Evil for Christians" (1993), Marilyn Adams discusses the problem of evil from the perspective of Christian theism, acknowledging the distinctive values of Christian theism as well its dark side, "the postmortem evil of hell, in which the omnipotent creator turns effectively and finally against a creature's good" (p. 302). As a Christian philosopher, her own view is that God's goodness to the creatures he creates is such that he will provide to each person a life that is a great good to that person on the whole. Accordingly, she rejects the traditional doctrine of an eternal hell in favor of universal salvation. In developing her view Adams carefully discusses the alternative view that some creatures so misuse their free will that God has no choice but to condemn them to an eternal life in hell, a place of constant torment whose inhabitants would be better off had they not been born.
Adams's view is that a careful look at how some people exist in the world—such as kids brought up in crack houses, or the abused—makes it simply unrealistic to suppose that each person freely chooses an evil life or a good life. She insists on seeing God as the loving, forgiving father, rather than as the vengeful lord bent on punishing those who disobey his rules. To the objection that withdrawing the threat of eternal punishment leads to moral and religious laxity, she replies that her pastoral experience as an Anglican priest suggests otherwise: "the disproportionate threat of hell produces despair that masquerades as skepticism, rebellion, and unbelief. If your father threatens to kill you if you disobey him, you may cower in terrorized submission, but you may also (reasonably) run away from home" (Adams 1999, p. 325). Because it is abundantly clear that the majority of humankind fail in this life to grow into true children of God, Adams must suppose that there are postmortem lives in which the slow progression in growth continues until all become true children of God. She also must suppose that undergoing suffering is somehow an important step to fully entering into a life with a God.
In "Some Major Strands of Theodicy" (1996) Swinburne cites certain good states of affairs—for example, enjoyment and pleasure owing to the satisfaction of desires—that God may bring about; he cogently argues that sometimes these good states of affairs cannot be brought about without certain evils occurring or its being in the power of some created beings to produce those evils. For example, Swinburne notes that compassion is a good state that requires the existence of the bad state of suffering. Moreover, the unique goodness of compassion may justify God's permission of some degree of suffering in the world. But may it reasonably be thought that the compassion of others for the victims of the Holocaust justifies a loving being's permission of that human tragedy?
Swinburne is aware of this common objection to his theodicy. His critics may agree with him that certain good states require the existence of bad states. They may also agree with him that one should not neglect the intrinsic value of being of help to those who suffer, as well as the intrinsic value of experiencing being helped and comforted. What his critics reject is the idea that these goods require God to permit the extraordinary amount of horrendous suffering that is known to exist in the world. Swinburne's response, "Yet it must be stressed that each evil or possible evil removed takes away one more actual good" (1996, p. 44), may strike many readers as doubtful. Surely, they may say, not every fawn's death by fire serves the good of teaching other deer to avoid fires. And would many great goods have been lost if only four million—rather than six million—perished in the Holocaust? The connections between evils and goods do not appear to be as fine-tuned as Swinburne takes them to be. In response, Swinburne suggests that the world his critics think God must bring about is a kind of "toy world" where every evil is clearly seen by everyone to directly result in some outweighing good.
Evil; Heaven and Hell, Doctrines Of.
Bibliography
Adams, Marilyn. Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Adams, Marilyn. "The Problem of Hell: A Problem of Evil for Christians." In Reasoned Faith: Essays in Philosophical Theology in Honor of Norman Kretzmann, edited by Eleonore Stump. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
Howard-Snyder, Daniel, ed. The Evidential Problem of Evil. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1996.
Rowe, William ed. God and the Problem of Evil. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001.
Swinburne, Richard. Providence and the Problem of Evil. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
Swinburne, Richard. "Some Major Strands of Theodicy." In The Evidential Argument from Evil, edited by D. Howard Snyder. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1996.
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