John Hick and The Problem with Evil
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Synopsis on "The Problem of Evil"
In "The Problem of Evil", John Hick exams the primary reason as to why people reject the existence of God and give his explanation on why the basis of their reason must exists. He states that people have a hard time believing in a god that allows evil to prevail. The proposed dilemma is if God claims to be omnipotent then how can he be perfectly loving and allow evil to exists? According to the Hebrew-Christian principle and by the teachings of Augustine, "evil represents the going wrong of something which in itself is good"(143). In other words, evil is not a product of God.
Hick divides evil into two separate subcategories, "moral evil" and "nonmoral evil".
Moral evil is a product of free will. As humans we are capable of making good or bad choices, and as a product of free will there is no assurance that we will always choose good. Since God choses to give us free will rather than be his puppets, moral evil will accompany it. In actuality the majority of evil is a product of human choices such as poverty and war...