I want to spend a couple of blogs on the problem of evil, which refreshes itself each time a large scale tragedy happens, as is the case with Haiti. The problem stems from the alleged incompatibility of four propositions (although many combine the first two): 1) God is omniscient, 2) God is omnipotent, 3) God is omnibenevolent, and 4) evil exists. The worry is that evil should not exist if an all-powerful, all-knowing being exists who wills good, always and completely. But, in fact, evil does exist. Therefore one of the first three premises must be false.
I want to focus on the third premise, that God is omnibenevolent. What, exactly, is omnibenevolence? The term itself does not seem to have much of a history; in fact, it is not unreasonable to believe that it was coined specifically to serve as a term in the problem of evil. Benevolence, of course, means good will, so omnibenevolence can mean something like unlimited good will.
But as soon as we break down the word, a new problem arises: what is goodness? That is, what is this good that is being willed always and completely? Most of us think of a good person as an ethical person; that is, one adhering to the basic standards of right conduct that are features of all moral traditions. This gets really complicated, so I will just state (but not argue for) my belief that what we mean by an ethical life is one that involves never causing harm or pain to someone when the person being harmed does not ultimately benefit from the harm.
If I am permitted that analysis of omnibenevolence, I will argue next week for this claim: God is not omnibenevolent. I am not disallowing us to say that God is good, but the goodness of God would not be equivalent to the omnibenevolence I just described. This is already too much for many – both religious believers and non-believers – to stomach. But stay tuned for next week.
