Re: problem of evil - to clear things up

"Daniel T." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> You accept that evil exists, and explicitly state that God is
> omnipotent, so you must be denying his benevolence, He refuses to
> eliminate evil. Or maybe you really are denying omnipotence by saying he
> is not powerful enough grant us free will and eliminate evil at the same
time.


The idea of free will is that it outweighs the evil is causes, thereby
resulting in a net gain of good over evil.  Implicit in this that evil can
be balanced out by good - just like the pain of tooth extraction affords a
greater good (otherwise why bother?).

God is therefore 'powerful enough to grant free will and eliminate evil'
because free will results in more good than it causes, thereby eliminating
evil on the balance.  If you are saying that God should be able to give free
will and eliminate evil absolutely (not just on the balance) then you are
expecting God to do something like create a round square, and I don't think
this represents a lack of power on his part.


> In any case, you cannot refute the argument without denying one or more
> of the premises. Unless you deny logic itself, in which case God can
> both exist and not exist at the same time...

Well, if you must, the free will defence would deny that evil exists on the
balance.  It is still there, but it is outweighed by the good of free will.