Introduction
As a philosophical issue, dealing with the Problem of Evil is fundamentally a matter of refining definitions. It means that the apparent contradiction between the existence of Go3d and the presence of Evil should be dissolves. It is important to consider those natures differently, do not try to create opposition between them. God is a rational being who acts in accordance with reason.
Peter van Inwagen’s defense left ‘evil’ without attention and focused instead on modifying the God terms. This helps consider the world from the point of view of its creation by God as not a spiritual being, but as rational being who acts in accord with reason. God exists and he possesses the unique characteristics of omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence and to understand why evil exists.
Problem of Evil
The problem of evil is depicted in the following statement: If Go3d exists then how is it possible for evil to be present in the world. Being omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, Go3d has the capacity to eliminate all cases of evil and provide happiness and goodness for all.
It is possible to state that the existence of evil in the world helps us understand what happiness and goodness truly are. This influence human reasoning and is based on the opposition of these notions. Only having cognized what evil is, people are able to distinguish goodness.
God’s characteristic features are aimed at helping people who have experienced evil to know what good. Only God’s omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence help him do what he has done, namely create this world.
Omnipotence of God
God is omnipotent and it is impossible to reject it under the statements of evil’s presence. There are a lot of different reasons which can support this idea. Defining the notion of the omnipotence of God, Peter van Inwagen points to the fact that we do not know what exactly God can do, we are just aware of the fact that he can. That is all.
To prove God’ omnipotence, it is possible to implement the following examples. All people could have spoken German if they had lived in Germany. All people could have played golf, if their lives had been connected to this kind of sport. God can do this, but there is a natural question, what for?
For what purpose would one speak German if he/she did not use it in everyday life? Why should one overburden his/her brain? Is it just for the reason that God CAN do it? All God does is reasonable and can be explained.
God is unable to create a world where everything is good, as it contradicts the idea of personal choice and the understanding of goodness. As it has been mentioned above, if people did not experience bad things they would not know what goodness is.
Therefore, people are the source of evil. The very understanding that God can do whatever he wants shows that he is omnipotent. This description leads to the conclusion that God can either do something or not to do it. Reason is the main tool God should be guided by as he can do it and he does it in the way how it must be and as a result, correct.
God’s reason is based on omnibenevolence, which human reasoning is based on choice. Being omnibenevolent, God is unable on bad actions, thus, the nature of evil is a human being.
Omniscience of God
God is omniscient. The definition of omniscience presupposes that a person is omniscient when he/she knows for sure the main idea of the proposition and this person cannot have the false considerations. Omniscience of God is explained by the fact that those who have always behaved in a good manner in the relation to others are going to be rewarded.
This idea may be tried to be contradicted by the fact that the freedom of choice of human life rejects God’s omniscience. It means that if a human being has an opportunity to choose a life style, God is unable to know what is going to happen.
But, having predicted that God is omniscient, it is possible to say that he is able to predict a choice of a human being. This characteristic feature should be connected with God’s omnipotence as an ability to do everything.
God knows everything and he offers people the right to choose not as the hidden ability to guide human choice, but as the confirmation of the fact that God knows everything, and he is aware what choice a person will make.
Sometimes, human choice is directed at the evil side, but God’s noninterference is explained by the freedom of choice and the cognition of evil with the purpose to understand what goodness is. This is the main reason why God does not interfere into human decisions, as they will still come to the understanding of goodness.
Omnibenevolence of God
Omnibenevolent nature of God should not also be questioned as God has created this world with the purpose to give us life, but it is we are who make choice and act in opposition to God’s reasoning. God offers us the right to choose what exactly we want, therefore, he is not responsible for the choice people make.
He can influence us and help us make choice according to his omnipotent nature and he can be aware of the choice made by people as he is omniscient, but, he offers the choice for people. It is their decision how to act. This does not point to evil existence and does not violate the problem of evil from the point of view of the inability to influence human choice if wrong decision is made.
God is omnibenevolent because his actions are directed at the goodness and human happiness. Everything he creates has its purpose, but, it is human choice whether to use that goodness or not. Thus, it can be concluded that the God’s omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence cannot be the reason of the problem of evil as these notions are not connected.
Personal argument
Having stated that problem and having considered it from the point of view of the problem of evil, we came to the conclusion that to define God, it is important to use the following features, omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence.
Having discussed there issues we have managed to prove them and point to the fact that they cannot be used as the contradiction to God’s existence within the problem of evil. In other words, we have stated that the problem of evil does not go along with God’s definition as evil presence in the world is an obligatory issue and it does not rejects omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent nature of God.
Conclusion
Therefore, it should be concluded that the problem of evil can be explained via rational, reasonable, and scientific. God’s characteristics of omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence are not undermined. The existence of evil is obsolete in relation to the existence of God as all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good.
There is no place to the evil problem as the existence of evil does not reject the presence of God. These notions are to be present together in order to show people what goodness is. Furthermore, the presence of evil in the world does not reject God’s omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence as these notions should not be considered as opposed notions.