The Experience Of Evil Theodicy

1. The Problem of Evil

List pages on the Problem of Evil on this site by Vexen

"If God is all-powerful and all-good, it would have created a universe with no suffering and no evil. But, evil and suffering exist. Therefore God does not exist, is not all-powerful or is not benevolent. Attempts to justify the existence of evil are called theodicies. There have been no fully working theodicies created to date, even popular ones such as the free will theodicy were rejected thousands of years ago for reasons that still stand today. It seems that if there is a god, it is not the all-good moral being that classical religions would have us believe."

"Introduction to Theodicy" by Vexen, 2000 Jan

An attempt to justify the existence of evil is to say that we require to experience suffering, pain, etc for a greater purpose. But there is no 'greater purpose' that can justify the existence of the amount of suffering and superfluous evil that exists.

2. Counter arguments to the Experience Theodicy

2.1. Babies go to heaven?
What happens to babies and the unborn when they die very young? If they go to heaven, then this "experience of evil" is not necessary in order to fulfil god's plan.

• Babies - do they go to heaven?

2.2. Experience of evil is not necessary
God could simply give us an innate knowledge of what evil is like, without us having to experience it. We have a lot of instinctive emotional reactions to pain and suffering, these are not learned. They are proof that innate understanding is valid, and God can easily endow us with as much innate understanding about evil as required. We would then know about it, and not need to experience it.

2.3. Knowledge of evil is not necessary
There is no logical reason why our development or learning has to involve the knowledge or experience of evil. Now, if such a reason was found, then it would mean that babies do not go to Heaven (because they wouldn't have experienced evil, and are therefore underdeveloped) and as such any reason also has to theorize as to what happens to babies and the unborn when they die. The possibility of reincarnation is discussed on the babies page.

2.4. Angels & God
If angels, and if god, exist in heaven then it shows that it is possible for beings to be in heaven without first going through an experience of suffering in life. If it possible, then if God is good, he would immediately place everyone in heaven. However, god is not good, so it continues to let us suffer.

3. Conclusions

It is inadequate to say merely that knowledge or experience of suffering is requirement for us to enter heaven as a justification of why suffering exists. God can give us innate knowledge of evil, rather than let us experience it directly, and if babies or the unborn go to heaven then is clear that experience of the suffering of life is not actually required, after all. If angels or god exist in heaven then it shows that it is possible for beings to be in heaven without first experiencing suffering. The experience theodicy does not work.