Cancerous host but decent summation of Theodicy (Existence of evil does not disprove Gods existence)
In Summation
- Free will defense is basically that "God maximized goodness in the world by creating free beings, being free means we have the choice to do evil things.
- when addressing moral evil,this preserves God as being all knowing, all powerful and all good.
- This argument does not address "natural evil", stuff we can't be responsible for, such as tectonic plate movements, tsunamis, epidemics etc.
- The common response to this argument is that in order to know "good" we have to also know "evil" in the same way in order to know pleasure we have to understand pain.
My contribution: It is our perception of 'evil' that is wrong. What is suffering? At a base, biological level, humans require only food, water and shelter to survive. Without these necessities, man soon perishes, his physical suffering is relieved. Is that not a merciful God? A good God? There is no 'long term suffering' that is not enabled and perpetuated by MAN. Diseases only create long term suffering due to MAN'S intervention, MAN'S efforts to prolong life beyond the natural balance of nature. Even the most drawn out of deaths from untreated diseases such as lung cancer are just a blip in the lifetime of a human.
This of course is taking for granted one of the fundamental tenants of Christianity, FREE WILL.
(All of this is of course assuming that "Christianity is right, all other faiths are wrong". Christianity is the only faith that requires that God be all powerful, all good and all knowing, all other religions, even old testament faiths seem to acknowledge that God is omnipotent but flawed or there are several Gods that represent different faces of humanity. Correct me if I'm wrong here.)