These are some facts about how we must conceive God.

1. God is seen as all powerful. He could make the world any way he wanted to. Nothing logically possible is beyond His power.

2.. God must be seen as all knowing. He is aware of all that happens and of all the alternative ways of making the world and their effects.

3. God is seen as completely good. Any action that produces less than the maximum possible amount of good is incompatible with God's nature.

4. We also believe that God is the creator of this world and all that exists.

These facts about how we conceive God seem to imply that this world must be the best of all possible worlds, for God had the power to create any world, he knew all the possible worlds, and nothing but the best possible action is compatible with His goodness.

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This seems, on the surface to be incompatible with an objective view of the world, which doesn't seem to be the best possible world. The ways in which this world seems not to be the best may be broken into two categories:

1. Natural evil: It seems that many things in the world that are not due to the agency of Humans in any way are not for the best. That is, it seems that the world would have been better off otherwise. In this category would fall natural disasters, disease, and other limitations of the world and our resources.

2. Moral evil: Humans, who were created by God, seem capable of great evils as well. These evils are caused by human actions and human will. Into this category would fall murders, child abuse, and the Holocaust.

This incompatibility can be resolved only by denying either the existence of God (or one of these beliefs about God) or the existence of Evil (thus claiming that this is indeed the best possible world).

An Atheist might argue that one must deny the existence of God, while a Christian might try to explain how this really is the best possible world by explaining how the evil in this world is really necessary for some greater good.

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As stated above, the standard Christian solution to the problem of evil involves arguing that the nature of this world is compatible with the existence of an all-knowing, all powerful, completely good God, since all of the evil in this world is necessary for a greater good. This explanation is usually done in two stages, for the two types or categories of Evil.

Stage 1: Natural Evil. Natural Evil is seen as a result of Moral Evil through the doctrine of Original Sin. In the Story of Adam and Eve, there was no Natural Evil before the Fall. Natural Evil came into the world as a result of the Fall. Somehow natural evil is necessary for the perfection of Human Nature and its rise from this fallen state.

Stage 2: Moral Evil is not an act of God. It is an effect of Human will. While it is true that God created Humans with free will and an ability to sin, this was necessary for the best possible world to be created. It is better that humans have free will and natural evil and moral evil, than that God created humans without free will in a world without evil. Free will is thought to have such value that the new types of experience and value it makes possible outweigh all the evil that was brought into the world through the introduction of free will.

Read the hand out on the Problem of Evil before you answer these questions.

1. Does the best possible alternative have to be completely free from evil? Can an alternative that has evil be better than one that has no evil? Think of an example where this is the case in for one of these two problems: (a) What is the best way of building a house? (b) What is the best way of getting to California? For one of these write down why the best possible solution to these problems might involve some evil or suffering.

2. Apply your answer to #1 to the problem of evil? How might the best possible world be a world that has evil in it?

3. Some thinkers have tried to escape the problem of evil by altering our conception of God to make Him no longer all powerful, all good, or all knowing. Manicheans help that there was an equally powerful Evil force in the universe and the world was a battle field for the struggle between Good and Evil. Evil was, therefore, due to this evil force not God, who was not powerful enough to completely eradicate Evil. Deists held that God set the world in motion according to the laws of nature and then did not interfere when these laws caused human suffering or evil. This seems to hold that God is either not all powerful, unable to interfere with the machine he set in motion, or not all good, unwilling or too indifferent to interfere. Think of and write down a problem with either of these solutions? What would be a problem with thinking that God was not all powerful or all good? Would this God still be an appropriate object of worship?

4. In the beginning of Part XI, Hume gives an example of a house with many defects which can't be fixed without causing more damage? Does this mean that these defects are really necessary for the best possible house? (a) Write down your answer and an explanation. (b) Explain how you can use the same reasoning to explain why the following are bad explanations of why evil is necessary: (1)Death and Disease are necessary to prevent overpopulation of the planet, so some have to die to make room for the next generation. (2) Storms and Earthquakes are necessary, since on couldn't remove them without upsetting the delicate balance of forces that causes the seasons and the formation of continents.

5. The first stage of the Christian solution to the problem of Evil holds that natural Evil is due to moral evil. This is part of the doctrine of Original Sin. Discuss what you think Original Sin is and how it might be responsible for things like death, disasters, and disease? Is it just that children today suffer from disease because of Adam and Eve's sin? Try to think of a way of interpreting Original Sin that explains how natural evil arose from some Original Defect in Human Nature without unjustly making children suffer for the sins of their ancestors. This might be difficult, but write down the best answer you can think of.

6. In Part XI, Hume identifies four circumstances of the natural world that he thinks are non-necessary evils. Identify all four and write them down with a brief explanation of why they are not necessary.

Next Day's Reading.

7. Suppose that we are too limited as creatures to understand how evil is necessary but that one day, when we go to heaven, we will be made to understand God's plan and will see how all the evil we and others suffered was necessary. Ivan, in the reading from Dostoevsky, considers such a possibility, but says that he could not accept such a heaven and wouldn't want to go there, saying that out of love for humanity he must give his ticket to heaven back? Try to figure out why Ivan would do this and write down your best account of his reasons.