The biggest question of all for the Christian believer is the “theodicy” problem. If, as the Christian believes, God is omnipotent (all-powerful) and all-loving, then why evil? If He is all-powerful, He could prevent evil, and if He is all-loving, then He would prevent evil. Yet evil exists. How do we explain it? What light for or against does Darwinism throw on this issue?

Utility Functions

It is customary and convenient to draw a distinction between two kinds of evil: moral evil, that is, human-caused evil – Auschwitz – and physical evil, that is, the pain of natural processes – the child with sickle-cell anaemia. Open to the Christian are a number of standard responses. The most popular and powerful argument to explain moral evil – one which goes back to Saint Augustine – is that it is something resulting from human free will. God in His love gave humans freedom, and that meant the freedom to do ill as well as good. Auschwitz is the result of human choice, human sinful choice, and as such is something for which God is not responsible, nor is it something that (having given us freedom) God could now stop. This does not mean that God is indifferent to suffering. He gave His life on the Cross to save us from our sins, and He suffers now with every evil act.