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Which religion or culture do you think has the most satisfying solution to the Problem of Evil? Not just, “why does pain exist” but “why do diseases and catastrophes kill innocents”.
I don’t think Christianity nails it. A person is left either believing everything is God’s Will, or believing that a Perfect Being created Satan / disasters when he did not have to. It seems to me a much better alternative would be to state that there is a sovereign evil force, which does not originate from God, who is the cause of not just natural ills like disease and disaster but also ignorance, temptations, etc. This is more satisfying because we keep God purely good and wise, although we do this at the expense of his omnipotence. Ultimately any good explanation should be understood by a child, have a layer of complexity that an adult can appreciate, and allows a person to handle the existence of evil in an optimal way (either aversion or acceptance depending on scenario) while still loving God as before.
Yeah, there are beliefs which hold that. The problem is trying to keep good 'better' than evil. After all, if they are both equal and opposite forces, then we get the Balance View: evil is as necessary as good and part of the universe, too. You accept your evil side, not reject and fight it. There isn't any point in saying one is 'better' than the other, anymore than saying night or day is better, water or fire, winter or summer. Don't do bad things, but that's more along the lines of personal choice.
A belief that has the evil and the good as parts of the universe, but the good is better or slightly stronger (see classical Hinduism where Vishnu is on the side of the devas and helps them to defeat the asuras) still has to grapple with "but why then does the good side tolerate the existence of evil?" and that comes right back to the Balance argument: it is a necessary part of the universe.
And if it's a necessary part, can you then call it evil?
I disagree with this conception of evil. Or rather I think there is a better conception available. IMO we want a formulation that answers “how do I feel about inexplicable suffering in a way that preserves an optimal state of mind, ie continues to encourage optimal behavior.” Just as an example, you want someone to pursue things which maximize happiness without ever being perturbed by the inevitability of random miseries, like the fact that his brother could have randomly been killed by a car, or his country could be affected by the plague. The best way to handle these random miseries is to not mind them, because you can do nothing to prevent them, or perhaps also to see them as metaphorical warning. This requires a simplified explanation of the world that answers why unfair evil occurs. If you say, “because evil is necessary”, this goes against the idea of a loving powerful God who created everything. If you say “evil balances good”, this disincentivizes the pursuit of Goodness. You want someone to continue to cling to the Good in spite of the fact that he could randomly die at any moment, and still believe God is Perfect despite the existence of evil.
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