Katarzyna Mosko-Carpenter Pr.

John Patterson Phi 202 September 30, 2013

What is evil? Every human being experienced some kind of an evil act and performed one on another being. It seems that the world we live in is full of suffering, injustice, and lies. Yet, it is hard to define what evil actually is. Is it a force created by a Satan? Is it the free will humans have? Or maybe it is a way the God punishes us for disobeying him? St. Augustine believed he had found answers to these questions. According to St. Augustine evil exists because Adam and Eve committed the first sin by eating an apple from the forbidden tree; which resulted in creation of all natural and moral evils. Moreover, St. Augustine states that Adam and Eve, instead of being obedient to God, they allowed their egos to override their love to their Father, and they ate the forbidden fruit bacuase they wanted to taste what is like to be independent. However, if God created Adam and Eve before evil even existed (to my understanding evil came into being the moment Eve took the bite) and gave them characteristics like curiosity and ego (they must be positive, because evil did not exist yet), then using them should have not been punished. Also, if God is omnibenevolent then why would He want to stay mad with his children and punish them for generations to come? Earthly parents, who are only humans, have such a strong

love for their children (most of the time at least), that they would do anything to save their offspring from suffering. They are also able to forgive the most horrid act. Why God wouldnt be able, or willing, to do the same, considering how powerful and completely good He is? Instead, God would stain every soul with an inborn sin. The second argument St. Augustine has to explain evil is deficiency. According to the philosopher everything is good, but only God can be completely good. Humans level of goodness varies; some people have more good in them than others. Evil is good as well, but it has a minimal degree of goodness or it is lacking it completely, therefore, it comes across as evil. Nevertheless, would not this kind of logic give an excuse to perform evil acts? In fact, if evil does not exist then evil acts cannot exist either, so acting evilly turns into acting less good. St. Augustine tries to solve/explain the problem of evil from different angles; evil does not exist, if it exists then it is a punishment for the sin committed by Adam and Eve or even it is allowed by God, because God is good and allows everything to exist. Nevertheless, even though St. Augustine covers different possibilities, each one of them has one thing in common; existence of God. What is evil if God does not exist?