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Originally Posted by asaris
Daniel: I assume you discount the possibility that God might allow some evil for the greater good? I mean, if I knock over someone trying to save the life of my kids, that's a good act right? While just knocking someone over is bad. That's why the argument from evil just doesn't work as a deductive argument.
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The problem of evil works in several different ways. I think the most devastating is the "distribution" formulation. That is, it is not possible to justify
who is affected by evil. Sure, other people might learn important lessons when infants in the third world starve to death, but are we to seriously believe that the
infants themselves were treated justly? What kind of lesson is worth that price?
God could make it so terminally ill people cease to feel pain. He could smite murderers, rapists, and torturers moments before they caused their evil. Etc.
While I don't find Penn's comments to be especially enlightening, I would certainly agree that "God's mysterious ways" are often used as an excuse for the presence of unacceptable evil in our world.