John Hick notes that God is always concerned about soul-making. He reviews the book of Genesis to establish facts on moral evil. In the world, Hick notes that people should neglect the events that took place during the ancient times because they are long gone. He observes that people tend to interpret things happening in the current world using older versions of laws and rules, which is unfair.
Human beings are important components of God’s creation implying that God has not yet reached the final stages of creation. Since God is still involved in the creation, human beings are used as the main tools. The earth is a factory that produces God’s products, including human beings. Since the creation and manufacture of products is a tiresome activity, human beings are expected to suffer. Through pain, human beings offer motivation for perfection.
In the entire essay, Hick attempts to justify the existence of sin in the world. His argument is based on the reasoning of St. Augustine, which states that God created man without any form of sin. The first man lived in paradise without sin. Since the first man disobeyed God, he was subjected to suffering. The first man misused the free will and accepted to be tempted by Satan. Through the grace of God, human beings would be saved. However, some human beings will be subjected to eternal damnation.
Even though Hick believes in the Augustinian theory, he also subscribes to the Irenean traditions. The majority in society upholds Augustinian theodicy while the minority upholds Irenean tradition. The Irenean tradition originated from Irenaeus and the ancient Greek Christians. According to Irenean traditions, sin is part of humanity. This means that human beings cannot keep off from sin. In this regard, Hick believes that human beings are always in constant creational evolvement. Continuous creation process makes it difficult for human beings to avoid evil in society.
In the Irenean tradition, human beings are created in two major phases. The first phase is Bios while the second is Zoe. Bio is all about the creation of the earth and ordinary life. Human beings are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that creation continues. Through creation, human beings are in constant relationship with God. Creation binds human beings to God. Human beings were created in the image of God himself. The second phase entails ethics and personal satisfaction. It is all about the likeliness of God.
From the reasoning of Hick, the relationship between God and human beings is compared to the relationship between a child and his or her parent. In other words, the parent cannot injure his son while at the same time the child cannot do something that would anger the parent. The father is charged with the responsibility of bringing up the child in accordance with the societal rules and regulations.
For this to happen, the father should perform two major activities. The parent should first give birth to the child. In this case, it entails the creation of human beings. The second step entails teaching the child moral standards. The child should learn to differentiate between wrong and right, and between good and bad. Since the parent is more knowledgeable, he must educate the child on how to keep away from trials.
Hick alleges that God could not have made ideal human beings since it would be likened to creating a man as a pig in a pen. If human beings were protected from evil, they would not differentiate between evil and holy. The temptations and trials serve an important purpose of strengthening human beings. Through temptations and trial, human beings achieve moral strength. God appreciates the morality gained through struggle as opposed to the morals gained through perfect creation.
In this regard, Hick is opposed to the idea that a perfect God should have created a world without evil and temptations. He observes that even a loving father would not provide everything to his son. The loving father ensures that his child enjoys fundamental rights and freedoms. However, the loving father would ensure that the child learns to fight for his rights in the society.
The child must learn that freedom and rights are not always provided in society. It reaches a time when the child must learn how to fight on his own. The child should learn that other individuals in the society have rights and freedom as well. In this regard, the child must learn to respect the rights of other people. For instance, the child should be somebody of high integrity, unselfish, compassionate, courageous, humorous, and truthful.
Hick concludes by noting that it is impossible for God to create human beings with free will without imposing some restrictions. Human beings have the capacity to relate and interact. In other words, human beings are not like robots with fixed mindsets. God had to bring temptations in the form of sin to control the behavior of human beings. Therefore, sin exists to restrain the behavior of human beings because they have free will.