The Problem of Evil and The Existence of God

With all the evil in the world today and in the past how can an Omnipotent, Omniscient, and all-God exist? Not just evil to other humans in the day to day affairs but throughout history. The evil including animal suffering from natural evils as well the human cruelty against them. The cruelty toward planet Earth and everything in it, humans have an act for loving and destroying the things they love not just the things they hate. There are many religions that believe in a type of God and many forms of believing in God or Gods. Some types of religious groups are Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Daoist, Hindu, Judaic, Islamic, Sikh, and Shinto. There are other types of views of the beliefs in God and/or Gods such as Monotheism, Polytheism, Deism, Pantheism, and Panentheism. Even with all the many religions and types of beliefs there is still the underlying question of how can there be such horrible evil if there is a God?

There are many types of cruelties in the world not just human to human but human to nature, human to animal, animal to animal, and this has been displayed throughout time over and over again. From ancient civilizations like the Romans killing everyone across Europe forcing there religions on to others, from the Mayans doing human sacrifices for their higher deity, the Holocaust persecuting the Jews, As well as unexplained horrific events such as a car crash that killed a family, or a plane crashing, or even an earthquake where a building may have collapsed and killed people. The people affected by those deaths or horrible events may be wondering if there is a God then why did this happen to them. It’s the question that hundreds of thousands wonder every day, it’s the problem of Evil.

Not just cruelty to humans but think of the Planet, what we humans are doing to Earth, global warming, deforestation, the melting of the polar icecaps, pollution, and waste around the world like the great pacific garbage patch. Those are all examples of evil that most people wouldn’t think of because it’s not human to human, its human to nature, its cruelty to our planet. The animals that live in this would experience the same persecution such as slaughterhouses, hunted and killed for their skin, to be used and fuel and massacred by the hundreds of thousands. Many people view these things as a very common evil in the world and they wonder why someone would bring this cruelty to an animal, to nature, and to ourselves.

Although there is much evil in the world people still believe in their God and still hope for the better, for peace, and stay true to their faith. There are many types of regions, Bahai is just one of them and it believes that God periodically reveals its will through divine messengers. Whose purpose is to transform the character of humankind and to develop, within those who respond, moral and spiritual qualities. This religion is seen as orderly, unified, and progressive from age to age. Bahai is a monotheism type of religion meaning they believe in one god. Bahai was created by a young Iranian, who called himself The Báb. He said that a messenger would soon arrive from God, who would be the latest in a line of prophets. He started a revolution and gained his following in the religion and this religion is still practiced and believed in today.

Another type of religion is Buddhist, Buddhist religion was created by Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhists believe that nothing is fixed or permanent and that change is always possible. The path to Enlightenment is through the practice and development of morality, meditation and wisdom. Buddhists believe that life is both endless and subject to impermanence, suffering and uncertainty. Buddhist is a similar to a polytheism religion, it has many gods but the gods live in realms that you have to achieve enlightenment to reach.

Christianity is another religion and Christians generally believe Jesus to be son of God, the second person of the Trinity. It is a monotheistic religion, meaning it has only one God. It is the largest religion in the world and is based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Christianity stems into Catholicism which is very similar, Catholicism is the faith, practice, and church order of the Roman Catholic Church. There are many types of religions that make up what people believe in.

It’s not just evil against religion, something else that people tend to argue about that contributes to the argument of whether there is a God is nature verses nurture. The nature versus nurture debate involves the extent to which particular aspects of behavior are a product of either inherited and genetic or acquired and learned from influences around you. People become so heavy into their faith from either on their own or because they were raised in a house hold that thought them to believe and accept their religion even if something bad happens to them or around them. It’s hard to say which is true for the many people that believe so strongly in their faith but even with the problem of evil going on many religions still have a very strong following base even if their base was raised into it or founded on their own.

Something that a lot of people do to cope with the evil in the world is by believing in their faith. When evil occurs and people are in pain for losing family, friends, pets, etc. they turn to their faith. People will say things like “they’re in a better place” or “they are finally at peace”, or even “I’ll see them in another life” it’s the fact that faith for a lot of people is not just the utter and devout belief in their God it’s the fact that it is used to cope with the evil around them. When something horrible happens to someone or their family most religious people turn to their faith for comfort or to cope. This helps them to comprehend and to understand why something might be happening to them or around them and helps them move past it. It’s not horrible to believe just to keep sane and think everything is going to be okay “because of the plan my god has for me.” Religion is a good thing for people to take comfort for when evil occurs because even though God may not be seen or heard many believe in that the things around them happen for a reason and this is their deity’s reason. They learn ways to move away from the evil and cope with the life around it because one can’t control the bad things around them. One can not stop natural disasters or take down harmful corporations or even stop people around them from doing bad things. One can learn to move past the things that happen to them and around them, one can learn from the problem and evil and lose faith or still believe but regardless one must move past and cope hopefully in the most positive way with the problem of bad things that may surround them.

To each their own. I believe that there is a reason for a God or higher deity to cause any suffering or hate. Even though the point of a higher power should be to bring peace and love around those that truly believe people learn from these mistakes and sometimes turn out even better and stronger. Horrible things happen to good people all the time whether their race, whether they are religious, whether they are terrible to others or one of the kindest people you could meet. Unexplainable things happen to these people all the time and God is never physically there to bring peace or amend these tragedies. There are millions of people in the world compared to one or a few Higher powers depending on the religion. Each person needs to learn how to grow for themselves. A God seems more explained of someone to help people along the right path but its up to the person whether they chose to follow. Religion is also used as a coping mechanism for people to get over the problem and help explain when the horrible unexplainable things are happening to them. A God or Gods depending on the religion have only been known to do good deeds. Unexplainable things happen all the time but sometimes there is no one to blame. There’s no facts to prove God may or may not be real but that goes for a lot of things that are also unknown and undiscovered.