The Problems of Evil and the Philosophers Solutions, Research Paper Example

In the perspective of theological and the philosophical-theological discussion, the issue of evil is generally clarified. It is portrayed as the problem of clarifying the reasons behind the consent of the omnipotent and omnibenevolent God for the evils of the world to manifest among humans. It deals with the explanation of “how come there is evil around if God is really in existence?” The presence of evil and the manifestation of pain and suffering are issues always being argued upon against the reality that there is God. Philosophers, theologians and even atheists have been discussing arguments such as (1) If God loves us, then, He must wish to abolish evil; (2) If He is all powerful, He must be able to eliminate evil; (3) But evil exists therefore, an all-powerful, loving God does not exist. Christian Religion also says that (1) God is love; (2) God loves each of us as if there were only one of us; and (3) Every individual is special and unique in His own way.

Nevertheless, the sentiments discussed above are definitely in conflict with the realities that we highly believe in. If there is really a God, then He must not have an attachment to humans. If he is present in the universe, then how can he purposely bring upon a kind of world that provides people inequality and injustice? Do God whom people really believe to be the creator of heaven and earth care if there are hundreds of thousands of lives are lost due to natural disasters, or the tens of millions that have been killed in wars, or those millions of people who have succumbed to AIDS? This clearly is the issue people deal with concerning the Evil. The conflict between God’s presence and the existence of Evil among people is clearly visible (The Problem of Evil & the Platonic Model of God, par. 9). The Problem of Evil has been one of the major subject matters that are evident in the arguments of our Medieval Philosophers. Different points of view were explained and exposed based on logic, human reasoning and still some by faith. Medieval theorists have developed very accurate concepts of God and what He has done for people to believe in Him. For instance, people know the He is omnipotent or all-powerful, omniscient or all-knowing, and omnibenevolent or all-good. Christians also believe that God is eternal and He is omnipresent or everywhere as well as having the knowledge to foresee the future. These are attributes that people highly believed God possesses and these are the same issues that they deal with when they are trying to understand why despite of all these attributes, conflicts and misunderstanding He still rules the world.

Augustinian Solution to the Problem of Evil

St. Augustine (Fieser, par. 10) was the first famous medieval philosopher who gave emphasis on the importance of achieving education through celestial enlightenment and moral goodness accomplished by a loving God. To effectively come up with a resolution regarding this conflict, Augustine suggested that the people should understand that God does not have a direct role in the sufferings. For the philosopher, God’s goodness refers to the fact that He does nothing evil. But, people believe in the concept that there is a reward for good and punishment for evil. Therefore, could it be that God allows sufferings to punish but there is no way that He has anything to do with the cause evil actions? According to Augustine, the cause of evil is based on human will; therefore the blame is on the human beings and should not be put on God. When people do evil, it is because they have willed themselves to turn from God. Even the sufferings that we now believed as punishments are our own doings. This is because punishment can be deemed simply as nature doing its course.

The first answer that Augustine had come up with about the problem of evil was that humans are the ones who cause evil and provide the reason for celestial punishment. The second solution in relation to the first answer was that people willingly create evil because they are deprived of goodness. But the third solution provided by the medieval philosopher was that the obvious imperfection of any aspect of creation fades away when it is taken within the general perfection. Augustine explained this by stressing out on the common belief that God causes suffering to every young child who dies with no apparent reason. He also stressed that faith is practiced and sympathy is tried when the children’s sufferings melt down the parents’ hardness. There is no clear explanation on what God has reserved for the young children that are taken away from humanity (Fieser, par. 28).

Augustine stressed out that unfortunate events like children’s sufferings are just a small portion of a much larger explanation of how things happen in the world; even the events are somehow significant for the good of human life. If people can effectively grasp the whole concept of creation, they would realize that every single thing that happens do contribute for the total perfection. One of the problems that surround God’s attributes is the apprehension between God and evil. Another problem that Augustine considered is the conflict between the foreknowledge of God and human free will. If God has early knowledge of what a person will do at a later time, then that person will do that no matter what because it was “written”, so where human free will comes in? The problem can be further explained as (1) If God anticipates every event, then every event happens as per the causal and fixed order; (2) If every event takes place as per a causal or fixed order, then nothing will be based on people and there will be nothing as free will; (3) God processes every event, thus there is no such thing known as free will.

It was suggested that to get into a solution there should be distinction between two separate things about future decision that God must concentrate on. On the other hand, God might concentrate and look into the future, wherein obviously, a person’s action is already written on a timeline. Alternately, God might also concentrate head on and foresee the choices of a person. Since God can foresee choices, He is then concentrating on a free will choice that is left to the person for future use. Therefore it can be said that God’s early knowledge of the person’s action is highly based on choices and not on actions. He further stressed that God can see the future and foreknow people’s will which is exactly what will come up.

Platonic Approach to the Problem of Evil

Considering Plato’s philosophy, spiritual development is the process of making the mind open by getting rid of dogma and tradition and learning how to sensibly provide resolutions for the challenges people face. For example, what is the distinction between a good and bad carpenter? According to Plato it is the carpentry skill. But how does dogma relate to such skill? In essence, Dogma is the exact opposite of skill. It is a belief on how carpentry must be done, and not the smartest evaluation of the best possible implementation. In ideology, people are slaves of Dogma because even if it highly goes in direct contrast with what they believe, people still fear its existence. Plato then emphasized that the distinction of a spiritually evolved man is his capacity to come up with the best decisions. Plato’s ideas are still as radical today as when he was still alive (Fieser, par. 10).

The explanation of Plato to the Problem of Evil is radical. Plato saw God as considerably detached from humanity with His concerns concentrated in evolutionary idealism. This is in contrast with the idea that God whom people know is a loving shepherd who takes care of His herd. For Plato people are not born with free will but rather they are born to be slaves. People do not evolve into servitude but rather they should evolve into gaining freedom. Plato also believed in reincarnation rather than believing that people can only live once. For him, human life is not sacred and there is no meaning to death. People simply evolved when Back death happened.

It is to be expected for Christians to object to these assumptions presented by Plato, but if people will try to completely analyze the concept, they can see that love is not missing. For instance, a mother and a father both care for their child. The mother nurtures her child while the father concentrates on how the child will evolve. It is the mother that worries first every time the child gets hurt and it is the father who encourages the child to stand and take risks. A mother is always very happy caring for the family baby who really needs some pampering. The father on the other hand, is closer to the older child whom he believed is really for challenges and risks. Plato’s Divinity is like taking that male principle to infinity. To the female point of view this extreme male viewpoint lacks compassion therefore can only be seen as a sign of tyranny and pure evil. And from the male point of view the feminine viewpoint requires idealism and purely materialism, and so it is pure evil (The Problem of Evil & the Platonic Model of God, par. 26).

Plotinus and his Solutions to the Problem of Evil

Plotinus was a major philosopher of the ancient world. In his system of theory he had three principles including the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. Plotinus associates the One with the Good. Similar to Plato’s Forms, which are most real and the source of the existence of physical things, the One is the supreme good that includes all things, the root of everything. Plotinus illustrated the One as the sun, which unfolds its warmth and light without lessening itself. In the same way, multiplicity emanates from the One without lessening it. Everything is good for Plotinus, yet some things are better than others. Evil is a privation, and evil occurs when one fails to unite with the One, rejecting the spiritual world and departing from the good life. According to Plotinus moral evil represents a departure from what ought to be done. At another level it is to lack what one ought to have (Saulytis, 10). Evil is not an ontological reality, but a non-being. Reflecting on why it is that human beings commit evil instead of always going after goods of the soul, Plotinus explained that since souls need to enter bodies in order to obtain worldly experience and provide order to the physical world, souls descend from the One and into the material realm. As the souls move away from the One, duality increases and individual emerge out of unity.

The Problem of Evil occurs when captive souls fail to reason and forget how to distance themselves from the plurality of the material world. The lost souls depart from the good life and lose their way to return to the One. For Plotinus, returning to the One is the goal of human life. In order to unite with divinity, one must care for one’s mind and body, because health provides harmony to the body, and reason constitutes ethical good of the soul. Probably the most popular philosopher of the middle-age was Thomas Aquinas who have stressed that when reason is unaided by faith, it allows people to gain knowledge on the existence of God. He also believed that a better comprehension of morality is grounded by natural law. Aquinas also considered that reason of good when included in the right context. It should however be understood that reason should not replace the element of faith (Fieser, par. 89).

Aquinas’ Viewpoint on the Problem of Evil

When dealing with the Problem of Evil, Aquinas stressed that evil does exist and it is a reality that lacks what should be done. The following are the solutions to the conflict between the Problem of Evil: God is the creator of everything. Evil is not a thing, but a privation thus, God is not necessarily the creator of evil. Aquinas slowly explained a substance is the main matter form of what is good, and evil does not fall into this category, because if that happened it can be concluded that if God is the creator of all good things, then He is also responsible with the evils. Therefore evil is certainly not a substance, but it provides privacy of the present good. Aquinas believed that the lacking thing of the good things are simply meant to be. This defines human beings as blind, who lack the ability to see the mode that should be there in the first place. Therefore Evil can be explained as something that simply lacks what is real and genuine. It is the inability to do some good because there is no knowledge of good.

Islam and Jewish’s Philosophy and the Problem of Evil

The spread of Christianity all over Europe led to the reduction and/or the complete disappearance of pagan religions. Conversely, Islam and Judaism stood still regardless of the suppression initiated by the Christian authorities through their infliction of war and mandatory conversion. In spite of the hostility that was manifested by the Christian rulers, these two religions also have the same philosophies with the Christians. These three religious beliefs show that there is only one God who is powerful and knows everything. This God created the universe and sees every action of the human race.

Averroes (Feiser, par. 76) is a Spanish-Muslim philosopher who wrote commentaries on the works of Aristotle. He believed that problems are results of the variations of the intellectual capabilities of people to comprehend scriptures. He added that some people think logically while majority are incapable of doing such. He explained that God created scriptures that possess double meanings such as the exoteric meaning and the literal meaning. Exoteric meaning refers to stories, parables, catchphrases and buzzwords. The philosopher explained that most people only get the literal meaning of the scriptures. He recommended that problems concerning scriptures and philosophy can be answered by the metaphorical readings and interpretations provided by adept philosophers. This solution was adapted by both Muslims and Christians and considered it as a doctrine of double truth. Original Sin is non-existent in Islam. Adam and Eve were casted out and it was said to be a temporary punishment from Allah. Medieval theologians believe that both sin and evil are just temporary conditions as well as one’s tenancy in hell.

The Talmudic Literature believed by rabbis suggests the God crates good as well as the evil. This is opposite to the dualism that was believed by most medieval philosophers such as Plato. “I am the Lord, there is none else; I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil” (Isa. 45:6–7) is another evidence that there is no such thing as dualism (Good and Evil, par. 3). According to the beliefs of Jewish, the explanation for the sufferings in this universe is that these serve as punishments for the sins the human kind has committed. The righteous ones that are being punished are said to enjoy the complete rewards after death in paradise. On the other hand, people who are not righteous receive rewards in this existence because they will acquire the full amount of sentence they deserve in the afterlife.

Encapsulation of the Solutions

To summarize, the above mentioned Medieval Philosophers presented their solutions to the Problem of Evil in the following ways. For St. Augustine, Human spirit can be defined as one such factor which rather is the cause of reason or evil for any divine punishment. People willingly give rise to evil within their souls. He also included that sometimes the obvious imperfection of entire creation disappears right in light of the perfection of the whole. Plato believed that Evil or sufferings in life are challenges that God allows like a father encouraging his child to climb trees and take risks, his motto is “no pain, no gain”. Plotinus’ view was that the problem of evil occurs when captive souls fail to reason and forget how to distance themselves from material world. The lost souls depart from the good life and lose their way to return to the One. Lastly, Aquinas’ belief was God is the creator of the whole world. Evil is not just an actual or virtual thing, but just a privation. Hence God is not the evil creator.

Evaluating the solutions presented by the four philosophers, people can choose the belief that they want to accept as true. St. Augustine’s viewpoint that human causes evil and the reason for all the sufferings in this world, can be traced back from the fall of the first two human creations of God, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Their original sin has descended to the next generations after choosing to the fruit of knowledge over the commandment of God. This biblical occurrence can be considered as evidence that moral evil exists because of the choices made by humans thus evil can be blamed to the human kind and not to God Himself. Likewise, it is important to remember that there are two kinds of evil which are considered as the moral and natural evil. Thompson (21) discussed that the natural evil is the consequence of the nature of the earth where the human race live. These natural evils include diseases, natural calamities and the likes. This type of evil is also called as “metaphysical evil” which connects to people’s awareness of the universe. It is the moral evil which is considered as the outcome of an individual’s choices. These include the intentional infliction of pain, inequality, warfare and the likes. One can accept that God sets up a wall of protection around people so that evil cannot work in their lives and whenever they commit sin, it is a way of turning their backs to their Father and leaving the sanctuary of protection thus making them vulnerable to danger, hunger, diseases and other sufferings (Fieser, par. 10).

One can also believe that Plato has a point in saying that evil things are challenges allowed by God to make us mature or prove our faithfulness and loyalty to Him. One example in the Bible is the life of Job. “He was blameless – a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil” (Job 1:1). Because of his righteousness, Job was blessed by God and became the richest man in his land. But on the same chapter, Job experienced the worst tragedy of all. All of his properties and livestock were destroyed and all of his children died in a single day. The Bible says that this tragedy happened to Job not because he was evil, but God gave permission to Satan to test him so he could prove his faithfulness and loyalty to God. And in the end, after passing the test, God blessed Job and gave him twice as much as he had before. Plotinus’ philosophy is quiet similar with Augustine’s explanation on why evil things happen to people. As humans attach themselves to carnal things of this world, they lose the blessing of living a good life with their Father. The solution to stop evil in invading people’s lives is to go back to the One that is God. As people go back to the One, blessing and protection can be restored according to the Platonic model.

Similarly, people can accept the solution of Aquinas saying that God created everything but He did not create evil. Evil entered the earth because of sin. Sin did not come from God but from Lucifer, the Fallen Angel who allowed pride to enter his heart and desired to become like God. He rebelled against God and was able to convinced one third of the population of Heaven’s Angels. These Fallen Angels are the ones scattered around the world tempting human to rebel against God by committing sin. Therefore, through Lucifer sin entered the earth. But God never abandoned the men He created. He could have chosen to save Lucifer, but He chose to save man by sending His Son Jesus to live on Earth with man and redeem his sin through death on the Cross. He believes that to be able to combat evil, one should do good things and avoid the evil ones (Fieser, par. 131).

Aquinas also provided six inclinations that are according to him, most proper for human beings. These include (1) preservation of human life, (2) having intercourse with heterosexuals, (3) education of children, (4) eliminating ignorance, (5) worshipping God, and (6) avoiding the infliction of harm to others (Feiser, par. 134). These inclinations are somewhat similar to the commandments that are followed by Catholic Christians nowadays. For instance, infliction of harm to other people may be equivalent to the commandments such as “do not steal” and “do not kill”. Stealing and killing are both forms of evil that should be avoided by people if they are aiming for better lives. Aquinas’ solution to the Problem of Evil can also be compared to today’s human law that is being adapted by almost all sectors of the society.

Accepting these solutions depend on the person’s belief and philosophies in life. In spite of the diversity of these solutions, one can assume that all these philosophers only aimed at a single target, and that is to have a good life in spite of the presence of evil in this universe. This objective provided by the medieval philosophers is applicable to all currently existing religions and beliefs. Whether a person is a believer or not, it is a common truth that all people just want to be happier and avoid the suffering and pains inflicted by both natural and moral evils.

Works Cited

Fieser, James. “Medieval Philosophy.” The History of Philosophy: A Short Survey. 2008. 11 May 2012< http://www.utm.edu/staff/jfieser/class/110/5-medieval.htm>

Good and Evil. Jewish Virtual Library. 2008. 20 May 2012 < http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0007_0_07647.html>

Saulytis, Giedrius. “Augustine and the Problem of Evil.” 11 May 2012. <http://www.btz.lt/English/Giedrius/works/Augustine_Problem%20of%20Evil.pdf>

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Medieval Philosophy. Published 2004. 11 May 2012. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/medieval-philosophy/>

Stump, Eleonore. “The problem of evil.” Volume II. Eds. Robert Pasnau and Christina Van Dyke. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Cambridge Histories Online. Cambridge University Press. 11 May 2012 <http://histories.cambridge.org/extract?id=chol9780521762182_CHOL9780521762182A019>

The Problem of Evil and the Platonic Model of God. Philosophy, Metaphysics. 2008. 11 May 2012. <http://www.theoligarch.com/problem_of_evil.htm>

Thompson, M. Augustine and the Problem of Evil. 2008. 20 May 2012. < http://www.mel-thompson.co.uk/lecture%20notes/Augustine%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Evil.pdf>