Philosophers have looked for ways to explain God's existence for centuries. One such
argment that the believer must justify in order to maintain the possibility of God's existence is the
problem of evil. In his essay, 'The Problem of Evil,' by Richard Swinburne, the author attempts to
explain how evil can exist in a world created by an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent
Being, namely God. Swinburne uses to free-will defense and says that God gave us a choice
between doing good and doing evil. If someone chooses to do good over evil, then that Good is
greater than if one had no choice at all but to do good. This is a weak argument and in order to
clarify those weaknesses one can look at Steven M. Cahn's essay entitled 'Cacodaemony.' This
essay parallels Swineburne's, but states that an omniscient, omnipotent, omnimalevolent Demon
created the world. By looking at how weak the argument for cacodaemony is, one can see how
unlikely it is that the Demon exists and then can see that the existence of God is just as unlikely.
From http://hypernews.ngdc.noaa.gov
English: Photo by Jan Bo Kristensen Photo taken in...
English: Richard Swinburne in Vrin Bookshop in Par...In 'The Problem of Evil', Swinburne says that an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent
Being created the world. If this were true, how can evil exist in this world? If God consciously
knew He was creating a world in which there is evil, then He would not be omnibenevolent. If
God did not know He was creating a world in which evil exists, then He would not be omniscient.
If God is omnipotent then He would be able to stop any evil from occurring. Either way, God
would not be what Christianity makes him out to be. Swinburne argues that the theodicist, one
who believes that it is not wrong for God to create a world in which there is...