Table of Contents
Sometimes things happen that our knowledge in science can’t explain. We all attribute such things to a supernatural being who we also believe was the reason for our existence. In fact we believe that it is God who made and all things both in the heavens and the earth, visible and invisible. Almost every group of people in the world believes that the power of this eternal and unforeseen creator does really exist. In English the mighty creator has been given the name ‘God’ with qualities like ‘all-good, all-powerful, eternal creator of the world etc.’ However, atheists believe that God does not exist.
Does God really exist? This question can be answered by the many arguments brought forward by those who believe so. The first will be the ‘cosmological argument’. The theory explains this by its thesis that nothing exists without a reason. For example, business exists because of availability of investors and so people exist due to something else. The ‘something else’ in this case refers to God. The contradiction, however, exists because if that is the case, where or what is the root of God existence. The answer is that, ‘he does not need one because he is self-caused’. Why should the world exist if not be self –caused is the contradiction brought forward by the argument (Nagel, 210).
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The second illustration to explain the existence of God can be derived from the ‘ontological argument’ according to Ernest, the fact that God is perfect and further assuming than existence is perfect than non-existence, then God must exist. This is attributed to the common belief that God is in perfection. The argument is however, not very strong as it takes the perfection thing to signify an attribute. It, therefore, is not sufficient to really prove the existence. In itself the argument cannot provide satisfying basis to prove that indeed God exist.
Those who do not believe in the existence of God are not left behind in throwing criticism to these arguments. For instance, the argument that the world is perfect cannot justify the presence of many evils. They come in form of volcanic eruptions, landslides, flood, tsunamis, and drought. They cause a significant number of deaths. The question posted is, ‘if there really an existence of a perfect god, then such evils could not have any place in this world’. What of the wrongs and atrocities that people advance against each other? They expect none of these things if an all-good and all-powerful God did exist.
The other concept that needs determination is the concept of evil and free will. Evil is any actions which in the reasonable thinking of man may cause harm, disgrace and or lower reputation. Most evils are criminal and are punishable. Since evils are bad in their nature, why should people go on doing evil deeds? This is so much difficult to explain. One concept that is widely believed is that man is evil. In his theory, Plato attributes our existence to this world due to our evil nature. We are here so that we seek perfection that will reconcile us to the rest of the creation of the universe.
The question in regard to why we commit evil can be explained in a number of ways. First philosophers’ explanation as to the actions we do is very astonishing. They claim that whatever action we take in this world was determined long time ago. How is this possible if I may ask? Quite amazing but I am sometime tempted to think in the same line of thought. You may find a person ‘p’ that is so critical of those who commit suicide but finds him in the very same act. What made him reach this decision yet his own conscience was no of that idea.
This leads to the concept of determinism. There is nothing like free will I philosophy and all events of your life are basically as a result of some other events that happened before us. If this is the truth we cannot therefore be blamed for any action that we do. Should you be convicted of a crime yet you did not have control over that action. Definitely the responsibility to such evils should therefore not be directed to us. But if this was the case then, no evil will hold in the court as everybody will use it as a defense strategy and our legal system would be of no use (Swinburne, 171).
Take for instance the case presented by Swinburne in his illustrations; it is quite clear that the judges were acting on the basis of philosophers’ view of free will to act. The murder by the two university students is argued to be caused by actions not in their ability to prevent. The defense attorney in his defense petitions the jury to drop the death sentence on grounds that the two committed the crime due to the influence by the life circumstances. The jury conquers with him and reverses the death sentence with life in prison sentence (Swinburne, 173).
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Conclusion
A strong relationship exists between God and evil. First God is believed to be all-good and hence cannot tolerate evil of any nature. Though evil exist amongst ourselves we cannot attribute it to God because his very nature does not have room to accommodate it. It is our responsibility to emulate the nature of God of doing what is good and avoid evil deeds. The relationship that emanate between God and evil is the
God exist and is believed to be perfect in his action. He is attributed to all good things that happen. Since God is all powerful to influence actions, he is expected to influence people to do well. However, the very evil deeds that are happening suggest that he has given people the freewill to do either good or evil. I do not concur that goodwill is non-existence.