The problem of evil is something we probably all struggle with at one time in our lives.
If there really is a good God out there, then why is there so much pain and suffering in this world?
There are two ways to look at the problem of evil: the logical version and the probability (or evidential) version.
The logical version argues that if God is all powerful and all good, then evil wouldn’t exist because God can and would want to eliminate it.
Thus, since evil does exist, it is impossible for God to exist.
In response, Alvin Plantinga has proposed the free-will defense, which says that God allowed human beings to have free will, and no matter how God could have created us, there would always be a way we would choose to do evil.
This is known as “transworld depravity,” and it sufficiently responds to the logical problem of evil.
But since all this evil exists anyway, isn’t it the case that God probably doesn’t exist?
This is called the probability version of the problem of evil.
Christians have offered various explanations, called “theodicies,” of why God would allow evil.
Examples of these include the Greater Good theodicy or Adam’s own Divine Love theodicy, which says that God allowed evil because he wanted to create beings who could love like He does, but love requires free will.
In order to allow His creatures to truly love Him and love each other, they had to have the free will to do so.
God can’t force us to love, because then it’s not truly love.
