From: utzoo!watmath!cbostrum
Newsgroups: net.religion
Title: Augustine and Evil
Article-I.D.: watmath.4846
Posted: Tue Apr  5 14:54:21 1983
Received: Tue Apr  5 23:52:03 1983

DJHawley points out that Augustine "solves" the problem of evil by
saying that it is really just a lack of perfection (or perfect good)
which of course is necessary since only God is perfection. I would
just like to point out that this is an absurd argument. Calling evil
a lack of good does not mean that therefore it is not evil; you cannot
define it away by fiat. I think this is the biggest problem people who
are religious must face: There is evil in the world, and their best minds
to this date have been dismally unable to explain why or how. I still
believe that there is a contradiction inherent in the existence of an
omnipotent benevolent god which no one has been able to avoid.
(Please note that by evil here I mean uneccesssary suffering, and I am
therefore presupposing an agency which can make it go away. That is, I
do not require a moral theory in order to make this claim about the
existence of evil)