In the philosophy of religion, “the problem of evil” is the problem of reconciling the existence of evil or suffering in the world with the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent god. Philosophy of religion is the rational study of the meaning and justification of fundamental religious claims, particularly about the nature and existence of God (or gods, or the divine). ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Omniscience is the capacity to know everything, or at least everything that can be known. ... Omnipotence (literally, all power) is the power to do absolutely anything. ... Omnibenevolence is the property of being perfectly good, attributed by some religions to God. ... This article focuses on the monotheistic concept of a singular God. ...

The problem of evil arises from the supposition that a perfectly good God would not allow evil to exist in the world, and that an omniscient and omnipotent god should be able to arrange the world according to his intentions. Since evil manifestly exists, it would seem that a hypothetical god intends it to exist. Therefore such a god is not perfectly good; is not omniscient enough to foresee all evil and suffering, or is not omnipotent enough to arrange the world entirely as he intends so as to avoid evil and suffering. With the further premise that if a god exists, it must be perfectly good, omniscient, and omnipotent, one can conclude from the existence of evil that no god exists.

Epicurus is credited with first expounding upon this problem, and it is sometimes called the Epicurean paradox or the riddle of Epicurus—although the argument is not really a paradox or a riddle, but rather a reductio ad absurdum of the premises. Epicurus drew the conclusion that the existence of evil is incompatible with the existence of the gods. Epicurus, Hellenistic civilization Greek philosopher born Samos 341 BC; died Athens, 270 BC. Epicurus was born into an Athenian émigré family — his parents, both Athenian citizens, had moved to an Athenian settlement on the Aegean island of Samos. ... For other meanings of Paradox, see Paradox (disambiguation). ... A riddle is a puzzle, consisting of text with a question to answer. ... Reductio ad absurdum (Latin for reduction to the absurd, traceable back to the Greek ἡ εις το αδυνατον απαγωγη, reduction to the impossible, often used by Aristotle) is a type of logical argument where we assume a claim for the sake of argument, arrive at an absurd result, and then...

The fifth century theologian St. Augustine of Hippo mounted one of the most pervasive defenses for the existence of God against the Epicurean paradox. He maintained that evil was only privatio boni, or the deprivation of good. An evil thing can only be referred to as a negative form of a good thing, such as dischord, injustice, and loss of life or liberty. If a being is not totally pure, evil will fill in any gaps in said being's purity. This is commonly called the Contrast Theodicy - that evil only exists as a "contrast" for good. However, the Contrast Theodicy relies on a metaphysical view of morality which few people, even theologians, agree with (i.e. that good and evil are not moral judgments). In “On Free Choice of the Will,” Augustine also argued that Epicurus had ignored the potential benefits of suffering in the world. (4th century - 5th century - 6th century - other centuries) Events Rome sacked by Visigoths in 410. ... St. ... Privatio Boni can be loosely translated as lack of good. ...

In Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal, a well-known essay written in 1710, Leibniz introduced the term “theodicy” to describe the formal study of this subject. This term is also used for an explanation of why God permits evil to exist without it being a contradiction of his perfect goodness. Events Enactment of the worlds first copyright legislation, Britains Act for the Encourage of Learning (short title) Ongoing events Great Northern War (1700-1721) War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) Births January 4 - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, composer (d. ... Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (also Leibnitz) (Leipzig July 1, 1646 – November 14, 1716 in Hannover) was a German philosopher, scientist, mathematician, diplomat, librarian, and lawyer of Sorb descent. ... Theodicy is a branch of theology that studies how the existence of a good or benevolent God is reconciled with the existence of evil. ...

There exists a great number of variants of the problem of evil, including inductive variants, logical variants, evidential variants, soteriological variants, arguments from natural law, pain and pleasure, and so on. Many of these are discussed in the Wikipedia article on Theodicy. Theodicy is a branch of theology that studies how the existence of a good or benevolent God is reconciled with the existence of evil. ...

See also

• Theodicy
• Book of Job
• Hindu answers to the problem of evil
• Moral argument from evil
• The problem of Hell
• Tower of Siloam
• Qliphoth and Sephirah in Kabbalism

Theodicy is a branch of theology that studies how the existence of a good or benevolent God is reconciled with the existence of evil. ... The Book of Job (איוב, Standard Hebrew Iyyov, Tiberian Hebrew ʾIyyôḇ; Arabic أيّوب ʾAyyūb) is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, and is also one of the books of the Christian Old Testament. ... Hindu philosophers, especially those from the Vedanta school have also attempted to craft solutions to the problem of evil. ... The problem of Hell is a variant of the problem of evil, aimed specifically at religions which hold both that: An omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent (all-loving) God exists. ... The Tower of Siloam was a tower that existed near Jerusalem in ancient times. ... In Judaism, the Qliphoth or Klippot (singular: Qliphah) are the representation of evil forces. ... Sephirah, also Sefirah (Hebrew language סְפִירָה Enumeration); plural Sephiroth or Sefiroth סְפִירוֹת. ... The tree of life Kabbalah (קבלה Reception, Standard Hebrew Qabbala, Tiberian Hebrew Qabbālāh; also written variously as Cabala, Cabalah, Cabbala, Cabbalah, Kabala, Kabalah, Kabbala, Qabala, Qabalah) is a religious philosophical system claiming an insight into divine nature. ...

External links

• Stanford Encyclopedia: Problem of Evil (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evil/)
• Stanford Encyclopedia: Leibniz on the Problem of Evil (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz-evil/)
• Putting God on Trial— The Biblical Book of Job (http://www.bookofjob.org) A Hegelian theodicy.