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Spiritual Speculation Space

The Problem of Evil

June 13, 2024

Discussion Questions

These questions are just to help get the discussion going. They do not need to be discussed in order and conversation outside of the bounds of these questions is welcome. 

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  1. How do you define evil? Are you aware of definitions that differ from your own?

  2. How do you define suffering?

  3. Many people reject religions, or any worldview that proposes something beyond a meaningless, mechanistic universe because of the problem of evil (or the problem of suffering). Can you relate to this rejection? Have you struggled with this problem yourself?

  4. If you are a monotheistic person of faith, how do you square the goodness of a powerful God with the existence of evil?

  5. Is God limited or omnipotent?

  6. What is the relationship between the idea of free will and your definition of evil?

  7. What do you make of the following three arguments often used to justify the existence of evil, in a world governed by God (paraphrased from the book overview below):

  • God's ways are not our ways. They are beyond us and we simply can't understand.

  • The existence of free will necessitates the existence of evil, as freedom must allow people to reject goodness and/or obedience to God.

  • God created the best possible world, and "the best of all possible worlds contains evils as logically indispensable constituents” *

8.   What are your thoughts on the quotes below (or the overview or books below if you've read any of them)?

9.   How should persons of faith respond to those who've rejected faith because of horrendously evil experiences?

10. Can we be deeply angry with God and still experience a meaningful faith journey?

Discussion Background Materials

Material listed here is intended  to enhance discussion. The inclusion of these materials is not an endorsement of their authors or the organizations publishing them. We encourage you to fact check any claims made in these materials. 

 

The Problem of Evil Wikipedia Page
Quotes from this article:

"The problem of evil possibly originates from the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341–270 BCE). Hume summarizes Epicurus's version of the problem as follows: "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then from whence comes evil?""

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"Cruciform theodicy is not a full theodical system in the same manner that Soul-making theodicy and Process theodicy are, so it does not address all the questions of "the origin, nature, problem, reason and end of evil." It is, instead, a thematic trajectory. Historically, it has been and remains the primary Christian response to the problem of evil. 

In cruciform theodicy, God is not a distant deity. In the person of Jesus, James Cone states that a suffering individual will find that God identifies himself "with the suffering of the world".

This theodicy sees incarnation as the "culmination of a series of things Divine love does to unite itself with material creation" to first share in that suffering and demonstrate empathy with it, and second to recognize its value and cost by redeeming it. This view asserts that an ontological change in the underlying structure of existence has taken place through the life and death of Jesus, with its immersion in human suffering, thereby transforming suffering itself. Philosopher and Christian priest Marilyn McCord Adams offers this as a theodicy of "redemptive suffering" in which personal suffering becomes an aspect of Christ's "transformative power of redemption" in the world. In this way, personal suffering does not only have value for one's self, it becomes an aspect of redeeming others." 

 

 

Marilyn McCord Adams Quotes from "Horrendous Evils and Goodness of God."

“(Horrendous Evil's) destructive power reaches . . . into the deep structure of the person’s frameworks of meaning-making, seemingly to defeat the individual’s value as a person, to degrade him/her to subhuman status”.

“what makes horrendous evils so pernicious is their life-ruining potential, their power prima facie to degrade the individual by devouring the possibility of positive personal meaning in one swift gulp.”

 

"Many (though not all) participants  in horrors, sooner or later, not at every stage but eventually, over and over, raise questions of meaning: of why God allowed it, of whether and how God could redeem it, of whether or how their lives could now be worth living, of what reason there is to go on? They demand of us, their friends and counsellors, not only that we sit shiva with them, but also that we help them try to make sense of their experience.”​

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Book Overviews and Recommendations:

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Short Review / Overview of Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God

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* Horrendous Evils and Goodness of God - Marilyn McCord Adams

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Christ and Horrors -Marilyn McCord Adams

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Free online access may be possible here via a library membership

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