The Problem of Evil

I have spent a lot of time studying this subject. Much of my masters degree to this point has been dedicated to the pursuit of answers to this "problem" in some form or another. Whether it was creating a theodicy out of Karl Barth's christocentrism or just doing an overview of the subject from David Hume to William Rowe, I have wrestled with the issue over and over again. What is "evil"? How is it defined? Where does it come from? Does it have any metaphysical or ontological properties or is it, as Augustine defines it, a privation of the good (the privatio boni)lacking any substance in and of itself? Over the next several weeks, I will do my best to tackle the problem of evil and give the conclusions I have drawn to this point on the matter. If you are one who doesn't feel strong in your belief system or are new to being a christian, then I forewarn you to proceed with caution because in order to face the problem of evil properly, one must ask some very difficult questions. While this discussion is better in person and not over the net, I still think it would be beneficial to all for me to go through this. Especially since the problem of evil is the supposed "Achilles heel" of Christianity and is the number one problem that most people have with Christianity and believing in God.

I can't promise to make this subject an easy one to read or understand because some of the terminology is probably unfamiliar to most people. I will try my best to take the time to define what I am talking about in cases where I think that it may be confusing. However, I could spend weeks and pages just doing definitions and that would be unproductive, so a little advice to all who read this. Don't be lazy. If you don't understand something, look it up. When I read a lot of this stuff, I keep my web browser on dictionary.com and one on Google.com. I'll do my best to make sure that the verbiage doesn't take away from what I'm writing, but again, this is a fairly complex issue so be forewarned, yet again.

I will start writing this tonight and hopefully have the first part posted in a few days. My first part will be a brief overview of the problem with a thesis statement and then I will outline the different parts of where we will go. I'm going to spend some time on Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Brother's Karamazav" and also on Plantinga's free will defense because of the significant impact they have had on this subject.

If there is anyone who wouldn't want me to waste their time on this, please let me know. Your feedback on what I'm writing will be very helpful. If it gets boring or too technical let me know that as well. I've already written hundreds of pages on this subject so the last thing I want to do is re-hash this subject and me be the only one interested in it. So I welcome your feedback. Thanks.