The problem of evil

Thank you for your response. God is morally perfect why is it a problem for his creations to be? My opponent basically asks why the world can't be perfect. Well, first, if the world is perfect what would the difference be between heaven and earth? Nothing. Second, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Genesis) but, this does not entail man was created with God's intelligence, morality, etc. But, then, after in the likeliness of God. You see a person can come into the likeliness of God (morally perfect) but, it must develop that way. Man is not perfect and was created imperfect. A person must develop into moral perfection, on their own; this is not something which can simply be bestowed upon a person, otherwise, to quote John Hick "A moral goodness that exists as the agents initial given nature, without ever having been chosen by him in the face of temptations to the contrary, is intrinsically less valuable than a moral goodness which has been built up through the agent's own responsible choices through time in the face of alternative possibilities." (1) Making your own decisions to develop yourself is more valuable then someone or something doing it for you. Genuine perfection cannot be bestowed upon a person, it requires their active involvement. A person must have the ability to choose good or evil, if they are forced to be morally perfect, they do not have this choice. The potential for evil is necessary. To answer my opponent's question as to why God is exempt, it is because that is God's definition; man's definition is having been created in the image of God they are in the transitional stage to the likeliness of God. Trade Off v benefits God does not allow evil, man choose evil. Nevertheless, my opponent is asking why doesn't God intervene? Simply because, evil is necessary for two reasons. Evil enables humans to understand what good is. To put it in the words of the famed theologian Irenaeus "How, if we had no knowledge of the contrary, could we have instruction in that which is good?" In other words, how can you know good without evil. Second, if God intervened whenever evil was committed, how would there be freedom to commit evil? Because we are human, with free will, we have the freedom to choose between good and evil. If we are not aware of the consequences of our actions, how have we really made a choice? You need to recognize that killing the person is evil. If you make the choice to kill, and God stops you before you can kill, how can you recognize that killing the man was wrong? You cannot. My opponent makes the fallacious claim that happiness is what is best. But, let's take a normal human function, sexual intercourse. For the vast majority of people, sex makes them feel good and happy. But, let's say you catch an sexually transmitted disease, or you get someone pregnant (or get pregnant yourself) you still had the happiness of the experience, but, was it for the best? Unless my opponent wishes to argue Gonorrhea is a good thing, happiness is not always the positive result. Accepting the CON position on God means you accept evil does play some good in the world. Ultimately, earthly suffering is beneficial, why? Because since suffering allows man to develop into the likeliness of God, then all who suffer will go to Heaven, marking the completion of God's creation. Then, their suffering on Earth is forgotten. So what is better? A lifetime of joy on earth or eternal joy? I pick choice two. I prefer to suffer some here and then be joyful for well ever. Since, God created man as free creatures, then, we must also hold there will be evil. Furthermore, without evil, how could have Christianity even existed? Since Christians hold Jesus Christ was killed and then resurrected, there must be evil for Jesus Christ to become the savior. My opponent goes on saying, "So we can't have a relationship with God, can't do good deeds(??) and are not able to love each other if we're morally perfect like him? That makes literally no sense." It makes perfect sense. If a person cannot commit evil, then, good becomes meaningless. If there is no evil, then there is no point to goodness. "One world God could create is one in which human beings are not entirely perfect but are still very good, so that evil would not be so incredibly rampant on the human race. That seems much more plausible than the current world." What exactly is the current world? Evil does exist in our world. But, in our world, evil is overwhelmed by good. Only a small minority of the world population commits evil actions and commits crimes. The rest of the world is not choosing to do evil. Not all evil is from free will I will concede my first response and go to my second (which I will add to). Plantinga's response never solely deals with the human race. It merely says that libertarian free will is the cause of all evil. Angels have libertarian free will, they can choose to serve God or not. My opponent says "The human race should not be so greatly affected for the actions of those outside their species". My opponent questions whether a demon can cause an earthquake or cause disease, but, what exactly are they questioning, the possibility of a spirit causing an earthquake? Or what would a spirit do to cause an earthquake? I mean demons are divine beings. Why would they not be able to? Also, the human race is the cause of some of these effects. I mean if you pollute an environment to the point where the water is so polluted that when you drink it you catch a disease that can all be placed back on man's hands, so to speak. Hundreds of thousands die from starvation, because someone else does not give them food. It is, in fact, estimated the world produces enough food to feed everyone in the world. To sum up, I do not need to specifically address each of my opponent's contentions. A theodicy/defense is meant to show an all-loving, all-powerful, etc. God is compatible with evil. I have shown P2 to be false. An all-loving God would want man to have infinite joy, not finite joy. What a person wants is not always best. A parent wants you to do well in life, are you always happy with their decisions? Probably not. 1. Evil and the God of love pg. 44