David Hume's Argument Analysis

How can you best describe the so-called problem of evil?

The problem with evil is an argument that is meant to prove that God does not exist or it is more likely than not that God does not exist. Ernest Nagel believes that one of the most important characteristics of atheists is the belief that, “there are no good reason to believe that god exists” (Velasquez, 2014p.260) based on the existence of evil in the world.

David Hume’s argument on the problem with evil is that man can only know what he has experienced so if we take the idea of such a god out of our minds and then were forced to look at our world we would never have reason to believe that a, “supreme, intelligence, benevolent, powerful god exists”. Hume’s expresses this argument in two different ways one is a deductive argument called the, “logical problem with evil which shows that god necessarily does not exist” (Velasquez, 2014p.262). The second is an inductive or probable argument called the,

Then when the leader of the angels Lucifer became jealous of god he was cast out of heaven along with other fallen angels, this is how evil entered this world. Saint Augustine argued that, “evil is the absence of something good and the only way for god to have created a world without evil would to be to create another god like himself” (Velasquez, 2014p.263). Other answers include god created evil so we could have free will to choose god. Richard Swinburne explains, “it is not logical that god would give us free will and yet ensure we always use it the right way” (Velasquez, 2014p.264). Lastly, John Hicks argues that we would be dissatisfied in a world without evil. Our, “ethical concepts would have no meaning whatsoever” (Velasquez, 2014p.266). Think about it, no right because there is no wrong, no love because there is no hate, no peace because there is no war, none of the things we consider virtuous would even