Every tradition that believes in one good and powerful God faces this question, which philosophers call the problem of evil. The ancient form is usually credited to Epicurus: if God is willing but unable to prevent evil, he is not all-powerful; if able but unwilling, he is not good. Christian traditions largely agree on the core of their answer. God did not create evil. Evil is a corruption of good things, introduced through the free rebellion of creatures, angelic and human. God permits it for a time because he can bring a greater good out of it, and he has entered it himself in the cross of Christ and will end it at the resurrection. Christians divide over how far God's sovereignty reaches into evil (Reformed meticulous providence vs. Arminian and open-theist free-will views), and over why God permits it (to display his justice and mercy, to grow souls, to settle a cosmic dispute about his right to rule, or because "there must be opposition in all things"). Islam and Judaism frame suffering largely as test, discipline and mystery, and Judaism carries a long tradition of arguing with God, sharpened after the Holocaust. Zoroastrianism and Gnosticism remove the problem by giving evil its own source. Hinduism and Buddhism explain suffering mainly through karma and craving rather than a creator's choice. Materialists answer that evil is exactly what we should expect if no God exists.
At a Glance
| Tradition | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Protestant | Evil entered through the Fall, not God's creating. God permits it, restrains it, and overrules it for good, finally defeating it at the cross and the new creation. |
| Reformed / Presbyterian | God's providence governs even sin, yet "the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature." God ordains it for his glory and his people's good. |
| Lutheran | Sin comes from the turned will of the devil and the ungodly. Don't search the hidden God; flee to God revealed in the crucified Christ. |
| Arminian / Wesleyan | God gave real freedom so love could be real. Evil is the misuse of that freedom, permitted but not willed. |
| Pentecostal / Charismatic | Much evil and sickness is the work of a real enemy. God calls the church to resist it through prayer, healing and deliverance. |
| Messianic Jewish | Like Job and the Psalms: God is just and sovereign, suffering is real and may be protested, and Yeshua the suffering Messiah carries it and will redeem it. |
| BibleProject | Humans and spiritual beings grabbed the power to define "good and bad" for themselves. Job teaches that we often can't know why we suffer, but we can trust God's wisdom. |
| Catholic | "Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer." God is in no way the cause of moral evil, and permits it only to draw a greater good from it. |
| Eastern Orthodox | Evil has no being of its own; it is a privation and a rebellion. God does not will it, but defeats it, and Christ "trampled down death by death." |
| Latter-day Saints | "There must needs be … an opposition in all things." Opposition makes agency, growth and joy possible, and mortality is a school. |
| Jehovah's Witnesses | Satan challenged Jehovah's right to rule. God allows time to prove that rule independent of him fails, then will end suffering through his Kingdom. |
| Seventh-day Adventist | A "Great Controversy" between Christ and Satan: God lets sin run its course so the universe can see his character vindicated. |
| Christian Science | God is all and wholly good, so evil has no real existence. It is a mistaken belief to be overcome by spiritual understanding. |
| Atheist materialism | No God, so no problem to solve. Suffering is the expected result of blind natural processes; the existence of so much of it counts as evidence against God. |
| Islam | God tests humans with good and evil to reveal who is best in deeds. His wisdom exceeds ours, and every hardship borne with patience is rewarded. |
| Judaism | Answers range from sin and discipline, to "afflictions of love," to Maimonides' privation account, to protest, to God hiding his face. |
| Hinduism | Suffering is the fruit of each soul's own past actions (karma). God dispenses results justly and is not cruel or partial. |
| Buddhism | No creator is responsible. Suffering (dukkha) arises from craving and ignorance, and can be ended. |
| Zoroastrianism | Two primal spirits, one good and one evil. Ahura Mazda is wholly good and not the source of evil; humans choose sides, and good will win. |
| Gnosticism | The material world was made by a flawed or ignorant lesser god, the Demiurge. Evil belongs to that botched creation, not to the true God. |
| Bahá'í | Evil is non-existence, the absence of a good, as darkness is the absence of light. |
| Ancient Greek | Plato: god causes only good, so "the cause of evil must be sought elsewhere." Homer's Zeus: mortals blame the gods for their own folly. |
| Ancient Roman | Seneca's Stoicism: what looks like evil is training. God "hardens" good people the way a father disciplines his sons. |
Lenses
Each lens answers this question in full, starting from one tradition: first the differences inside that tradition, then its sister traditions, then entirely different worldviews.
- Protestant lens: Protestant denominations, Messianic Jewish and BibleProject, then other branches of Christianity, then other religions and worldviews
Key Points of Divergence
- Who made evil? Not God, but free creatures (most Christian, Jewish and Muslim views). A second, evil spirit (Zoroastrianism). A lesser creator (Gnosticism). No one, because it has no real existence (Christian Science, Bahá'í, in part Advaita). Blind nature (materialism). Each being's own karma (Hindu and Buddhist).
- Ordained or permitted? Reformed and Ash'ari thought say God ordains even evil for good ends. Arminian, Orthodox and Mu'tazili thought say he only permits it. Open theism says he doesn't even foresee specific free evils.
- Why permit it? Answers include:
- to display justice and mercy (Reformed)
- to make love and agency real (Arminian, LDS)
- to grow souls through opposition (LDS, Irenaean, Stoic)
- to settle a cosmic legal dispute about God's right to rule (JW, SDA)
- to test who is best in deeds (Islam)
- Explain or defeat? Western theodicies try to explain evil. Orthodox, Lutheran and BibleProject emphases stress that God defeats it in Christ and calls us to trust rather than understand.
- One life or many? In Abrahamic religions, injustice in this life is answered by resurrection and judgment. In Indian religions, unequal suffering is explained by past lives.
Open Questions
- Reformed compatibilism vs. Arminian free will: does saying God "ordains" evil make him its author? How does each side answer the other's strongest objection?
- Is natural evil (earthquakes, cancer, animal suffering before humans) explained by the Fall, by spiritual rebels, or by the nature of a developing creation? Compare young-earth, old-earth, and Boyd's warfare views.
- How do Jewish post-Holocaust theologies (Berkovits, Fackenheim, Rubenstein) compare with Christian theologies of the cross (Luther, Moltmann's The Crucified God)?
- How do the JW and Adventist "cosmic trial" views compare with Job's heavenly-court scene and with the Reformed "for his glory" answer?
Related Questions
- Why Does God Seem So Silent?: the closely linked question of divine hiddenness in the face of suffering.
- How Does the Divine Communicate with Humans?: whether God has explained evil, or only answered it with his presence.
- What Is the Chief End of Man?: what suffering is for depends on what humans are for.
- Is There an Objective Right or Wrong?: calling anything "evil" assumes a real standard of good. Where does that standard come from?