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Richard Swinburne Why God Allows Evil Analysis

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In this reading reflection I will be discussing Richard Swinburne’s argument on “Why God Allows Evil” which starts on page 254 in “Exploring Philosophy: An Anthology” by Steven M. Cahn. This was also discussed in class on 9/15/16. In his argument Swinburne states that “An omnipotent God could have prevented this evil, and surely a perfectly good and omnipotent God would have done so. So why is there evil?”(Swinburne, 254). In theory, he thinks that if God exists then evil should not, but it does. So he creates and argues a theodicy to show that God and evil can exist at the same time. He comes up with the “Free Will Theodicy” which states that humans are the cause of evil, not God. The Free Will Theodicy discusses two kinds of evil: moral evil and natural evil. Natural evil is evil that is not caused by human choice such as natural disasters and disease. Moral evil is caused by human choices and …show more content…

If humans are the cause of moral evil, who causes natural evil? Technically natural evil does not have a cause, but rather where did they come from? Connecting this a bit to Paley’s “Argument from Design” organic life probably has a designer, so if natural disasters and diseases are organic life, do they not have a designer, and would that designer not be God? I was just wondering about that and if God could possibly be the cause of some evil. Also, God created humans so is he counted somewhat guilty of the evil in the world because his creations cause it? In conclusion, Richard Swinburne argues that God and evil can exist at the same time with the Free Will Theodicy. He believes that God is not the cause of evil, but humans and their free will to make choices. But I thought it would be interesting to ask where natural evil came from because according to Paley’s “Argument from Design” organic life probably has a designer, so it makes me curious to know if it does have one and of so,

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