Why would such a loving God permit such evil?: This is the question that has been haunting philosophers and theologians for centuries. It seemingly does not make sense for an all-knowing, all-good, and all-powerful God to permit the evils that exist in this world. While many arguments are insufficient in explaining God’s permittance of evil, certain beliefs from those arguments may be combined to create a clearer explanation for this seemingly illogical notion. Cleaerly, God must have created evil for a specific purpose. This essay will explain the theory that God created evil as a test for humans to prove that they are devoted to God and will not come to doubt his greatness when faced with hardships.
The basic argument surrounding the Problem
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Whether these evils be moral or natural, humans have the free will to react to them in whatever manner they choose. Therefore, God’s test lies in a human’s reaction to the suffering they receive from the evils inflicted upon them. Often times, in cases of illness or natural disaster, when one deals with extreme loss, they also may lose God in the process. Essentially, there are two reactions that can occur when humans deal with worldly evils. When one suffers from acts of evil, they may question God’s existence because of his permittance of these evils, and may even denounce God. On the other hand, after potentially questioning God’s existence and motivations for permitting evil, one may instead turn to God for help and answers. Although one may find this task a lot harder than the former, doing this allows one’s faith in God to grow deeper, and demonstrates true devotion to God. In a world without evils, it is easy to love God because there are no problems in life that may lead one to question him. But true devotion to God comes when one reaches out to him on their own, and by their own free will. Therefore, God put evils on this earth to test a human’s free will and their devotion to