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Dostoevsky: The Problem Of Evil

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“I want to forgive. I want to embrace. I don’t want more suffering.” said Ivan to his brother Alyosha after reflecting on the unjust evil innocents face because of humanity’s sinful actions. Ivan’s words shed light to the idea of idealism versus reality. Realizing that cruelty is present in the lives of the most innocent, lead me to assert that evil is a real problem as it intervenes between the harmonic and idealistic view that the world consists of genuine, good people. Additionally, in the theist point of view, God has the absolute power to manipulate the circumstances his people are encountering. In The Problem of Evil by Fryodor Dostoevsky, Ivan mentions how children pay for their parent’s wrongdoings and it’s unjust as the children are …show more content…

Although the extermination of maliciousness seems ethical, it actually is quite the contrary. Ironically, God would be taking away the free will he once gave us at birth. Not only is our liberty taken away, but also our knowledge of what evil consists of would be erased. There wouldn’t be an adequate definition of good and evil because one could not exist without the other. Also, the foundation of our knowledge of God’s true intentions is purely based on assumptions. There isn’t factual evidence that God’s decisions benefit the world directly other than having faith and trusting in the goodness of his persona. The only way humans cope with evil is by assuming God sent it for a reason. One general example would be when thousands die at war defending their country. We rationalize their death as a sign from God that the community should be more supportive of each other in times of hardships, yet God could have sent death to punish humanity for the innate evil within us. Ultimately, there is not an all-powerful God who has the duty to abolish evil from the world. Evil in this world is inevitable whether it was planned or not. It is the dark part of life, yet because of evil, we know the good. We hope to think humanity has the power to choose evil over good or vice versa because we received the right, yet because of our limited

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