The Problem of Evil

Thomas Aquinas
wrote his great Summa Theologica that he could find only two objections
to the existence of God. One of the two objections is the apparent
ability of natural science to explain everything in our experience
without God, and the other is the Problem of Evil. It is the underlying
question for the biblical Book of Job: why does God allow bad things
happen to good people? That question, more than any other, has caused
religious people to abandon their faith.

In a well-developed, argumentative essay, address the following issues:

1. In
   your own words, explain the “Problem of Evil.” In other words,
   regardless of what you personally believe, if there is a God who is
   all-powerful, all-knowing, and concerned with justice and the well-being
   of humanity, explain how there can be so much evil and suffering in the
   world.
2. Next, pursue as far as you can the responses and
   objections to one of the various attempts in the textbook to resolve the
   problem of evil. Explain in what ways it resolves the problem of evil
   AND in what ways it does not. (If you can’t figure out how to start, a
   good way of doing this is to have a friend act as devil’s advocate and
   try to refute your efforts to defend a solution to the problem.)

Note: Be careful not to commit a formal fallacy like the one in this example. This argument has an undistributed middle term.

E→F       The origin of evil is free will.
G→F       God created free will.
___________________________________

∴G→E    Therefore, God is the origin of evil.

Please
ensure that your essay addresses each component of the assigned
questions and that your answer is well-organized, uses excellent,
college-level prose, and makes judicious use of textual evidence. Your
essay must follow APA formatting and should be 500-750 words long.

If
you quote, paraphrase, or summarize from the textbook or any other
source, you must include in-text citations and a References page.

I apologize for the low budget range. I assure the one who bids will be given the opportunity of extra funds on future assignments.