Problems Proposed for Atheism.

Atheism concludes to God does not exist using the following or a similar argument from evil -

Argument from Evil

If God did exist, then He is both infinitely good and infinitely powerful.

Yet evil exists, which is a lack of a due good.

If both God and evil exists then

1) evil exists and God permits the evil making the all good God, evil

and

2) evil exists and God does not have the power to prevent the evil making the all-powerful God, not all powerful.

As evil exists then God is not all good and not all powerful.

Therefore God does not exist.

Problem 1) - Evil is a lack of a due good. If evil exists, then evil must reside in the good, whereby the good is the material cause of evil. The blind man is blind due to the evil of blindness, but also due to the goodness of the existence of the man. If the man did not exist, the blindness that resides in the man, would also not exist. Therefore the existence of evil assumes the existence of the good.

The good exists if evil exists, but the good is that which is appetible. And that which is appetible is a mode of being. Then if evil exists, the evil resides in a thing which has being. But being is either had by participation or by nature. If by participation, a thing has some being, which in turn is dependent upon the necessary being, which is God. Therefore is evil exists, God must exist, for evil presumes the good as a material cause, which can only be accounted for through the existence of the necessary being, which is God. Therefore, because evil is dependent upon the good and the good is caused by God, then because evil exists, God must exist.

Question - How then does atheism account for the existence of evil without accounting for the existence of the good?

Problem 2) - Evil in the world is caused by sin (Gen 3:17ff.) whereby sin is a defect in the will of a creature. The existence of evil is then dependent upon the existence of human free will. For atheism to then posit that evil exists apart from human free will, is to posit evil exists in the world apart from free will as revealed by God (Gen 3:17ff.). If so, then according to atheism, evil exists in the world apart from Adam's free will and thereby has its origin only in nature and not will. Consequently, atheism would claim God alone has authored evil as the creator of the universe in which we observe evil. Hence God is the powerless and evil, false god as concluded from the above argument from evil.

Question - How then does atheism account for the existence of evil without accounting for the Christian revelation that evil has its origin in human free will and the subsequent curse after the original sin?

Question - doesn't atheism require a false, a-priori denial of Christian revelation concerning the original cause of evil, to then propose the false argument from evil presented above, and to then conclude to God does not exist? If not why not?

Question - If atheism posits the cause of evil in nature and not will, how does atheism account for evil in nature, when nature is caused by God as the universal cause of all things?

Problem 3) - If the argument from evil concludes to God does not exist, the argument must contain within it an unresolvable problem concerning the nature of evil which is said to be incompatible with the existence of the all good and all powerful God. Yet the argument from evil must conclude to the existence of the all-powerful and all good God, for

1) God is the universal cause of being and therefore of the good, in which evil resides.

2) If evil exists, then God exists, which infers evil only exists because of the good. As the good is revealed by God through Christian revelation to include the restoration of the universe on the final day and ultimate union of men with God in beatitude, then the evil in the universe exists as part of the Christian revelation to ultimately glorify God and save men from sin.

Question - If the argument from evil is thought to conclude to God does not exist, then the argument must both implicitly affirm the existence of God and implicitly deny Christian revelation concerning the ultimate cause and ultimate resolution to the existence of evil. How then does the argument from evil conclude to the non-existence of God when God is implied in the argument and the correct resolution to the original cause and ultimate resolution to the problem of evil are both ignored?

JM