Dostoevsky's Argument Essay: The Problem Of Evil
Damn That Evil
The problem of evil is an issue that is entirely too overlooked and dismissed by most Christians. I believe that it is a valid argument to renounce some views that traditional theism sets forward. This problem makes the existence of a traditional God extremely unlikely, and it makes a belief in one, irrational at best. The existence of evil is in juxtaposition with the idea of a Christian, omnipotent and wholly good God. Valid concerns may be raised that the problem of evil should cause an abandonment of traditional theism. These concerns include why an all powerful God allows the existence of evil, the fact that the existence of evil proves that there can be no omnipotent God, and that free will allows for the possibility …show more content…
He raises many questions which doubt God’s existence entirely. The first question asks if God exists, and is all powerful and perfectly good, then how is it possible that children suffer? While a possible response concludes that children have to suffer for original sin, this does not make sense with the idea of a benevolent God. Why would innocent people be punished for what someone else did? An omnipotent and truly benevolent God would not let this happen. A second answer could be that without suffering there would be no knowledge of good and evil, but at what cost is this knowledge worth? The following passage from Dostoevsky’s Rebellion highlights the cruelty of evil:
“This poor child of five was subjected to every possible torture by those cultivated parents. They beat her, thrashed her, kicked her for no reason till her body was one bruise. Then, they went to greater refinements of cruelty-shut her up all night in the cold and frost in a privy, and because she didn’t ask to be taken up at night (as though a child of five sleeping its angelic, sound sleep could be trained to wake and ask), they smeared her face and filled her mouth with excrement, and it was her mother, her mother did this. And that mother could sleep, hearing the poor
The problem of evil is an issue that is entirely too overlooked and dismissed by most Christians. I believe that it is a valid argument to renounce some views that traditional theism sets forward. This problem makes the existence of a traditional God extremely unlikely, and it makes a belief in one, irrational at best. The existence of evil is in juxtaposition with the idea of a Christian, omnipotent and wholly good God. Valid concerns may be raised that the problem of evil should cause an abandonment of traditional theism. These concerns include why an all powerful God allows the existence of evil, the fact that the existence of evil proves that there can be no omnipotent God, and that free will allows for the possibility …show more content…
He raises many questions which doubt God’s existence entirely. The first question asks if God exists, and is all powerful and perfectly good, then how is it possible that children suffer? While a possible response concludes that children have to suffer for original sin, this does not make sense with the idea of a benevolent God. Why would innocent people be punished for what someone else did? An omnipotent and truly benevolent God would not let this happen. A second answer could be that without suffering there would be no knowledge of good and evil, but at what cost is this knowledge worth? The following passage from Dostoevsky’s Rebellion highlights the cruelty of evil:
“This poor child of five was subjected to every possible torture by those cultivated parents. They beat her, thrashed her, kicked her for no reason till her body was one bruise. Then, they went to greater refinements of cruelty-shut her up all night in the cold and frost in a privy, and because she didn’t ask to be taken up at night (as though a child of five sleeping its angelic, sound sleep could be trained to wake and ask), they smeared her face and filled her mouth with excrement, and it was her mother, her mother did this. And that mother could sleep, hearing the poor