Lactantius Open Theistic Response To The Problem Of Evil

The problem of evil is a paradox that will never be fully understood due to the semantical qualities it possesses. Simplified, the problem states that if God is good how is their evil in the world? The problem was first posed by the philosopher Epicurus and further represented by the Christian apologist Lactantius: "God either wants to eliminate bad things and cannot, or can but does not want to, or neither wishes to nor can, or both wants to and can. If he wants to and cannot, he is weak -- and this does not apply to god. If he can but does not want to, then he is spiteful -- which is equally foreign to god's nature. If he neither wants to nor can, he is both weak and spiteful and so not a god. If he wants to and can, which is the only
Several responses to the problem have been made although due to the paradoxical nature of the issue one is hard pressed to find any solutions deemed suitable. One argument against the problem evil is labelled as the “open theistic response”. This response states that although good is all-good and all-powerful, suffering and evil still exist due to the fact that “God has self-limited his abilities so that he can truly relate to mankind” (Patton 140). The main problem with this response is that the act of God self-limiting his abilities is a direct denigration of the omnipotence that he is claimed to be in possession of. One might think of the popular thought experiment in which the question is posed whether or not God could create a rock so heavy that he himself could not lift it. If God self-limits his abilities is he really omnipotent? Once abilities have been limited there is no longer omnipotence, therefore this argument starts to deconstruct itself with the contradiction of omnipotence and self-limitations.
The problem of evil only exists because we created it based on our contextual experiences in the world. There can be both the problem of evil and an all-powerful, all-good, all-knowing God. It’s all in the perception of morality. The biggest gripe with the problem of evil is that there is no subjective scale in which to measure morality. What is good for one person may be evil for the next. Unfortunately, there is not a universal understanding of morality and as such this is where the problem of evil is ultimately defeated. If one cannot properly define what is evil, one will forever be lost in the semantics of the issue. Traditionally, Christian theology dictates that humans are not perfect, as noted in the book of Mark: “Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone” (English Standard Version, Mark 10:18). As such, according to Christianity, we fundamentally lack a clear understanding of God, and to lack a clear understanding of God also means to lack a clear understanding of morals, which therein creates a fault in our understanding of morals, as God is the creator of everything, including