“Candide” (Unnecessary Evil) Voltaire
The other night i helped my friend Lauren write an outline for her essay (critical review) on Candide by Voltaire. Going into it i knew Candide was a story written by a well known Atheist Philosopher Voltaire who lived around the 1600’s i knew that he was very very satirical, but i had no idea it was as much as it was. I used spark notes to get the gist of the characters and whatever but i had no clue that basically all i was going to help her write was an argument of the problem of unnecessary evil….Well i know of course that’s not all that’s in the book but that’s what i told her to focus on because that is the easiest argument to throw at theists and one of the hardest to try and defend. I am an atheist myself and i have seen this argument a few times now I’m not saying i have the answers but this argument is way over done! i mean it has been around for quite sometime but the major points are these ..
“In the philosophy of religion and theology, the problem of evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of evil or suffering in the world with the existence of God, a force for infinite good.[1] The problem is most often discussed in the context of the personal god of the Abrahamic religions, but is also relevant to polytheistic traditions involving many gods. A proposed solution to this dilemma is called a theodicy.” (wikipedia)
the problem of evil… at-least for the abrahamic religions (Islam, Judaism, Christianity) is a hard one. Why is it that an all knowing, all powerful. and all good god allows there to be evil in this world. Why is it that thousands of children, men and women die everyday unjustly of starvation natural disasters or any of the thousands of ways people are mutilated day by day. In Darfur, Israel, Palestine, China, everyone in the world and throughout all of recorded history. Its not like since modern religion we have become more civilized as a society, that is easy to see from the crusades, nazi germany, the Inquisition and uncountable other atrocities.. An all knowing, all good and all powerful god allows this?? now that doesn’t make any sense.. I’m not saying that i have the answers but i do believe i have plenty of questions that need to be answered. in fact all i am doing is waiting for the answers. But i suppose people have been doing that since religions were established.. I will most likely never get an answer, because in the end no one can tell us why and any attempt to do so i am sure will fail miserably. The only conclusions that i can come to is that…If there is a god and I’m not saying in anyway there is or needs to be , he would either have to be incapable of stopping evil in the world (not all powerful) he doesn’t know what evils are going on in the world ( not all knowing) or he knows and doesn’t care ( he is either an evil god or definitely not all good) and if one or any of these gods exist ( who says there has to only be one) they are incompetent. If this god exists and is incompetent then he deserves no ones worship. What really is worthy of our worship if anything? (love?) Or finally there is no god, no one out there to watch over us , help us when we need it and no plan for any of us… That’s the only conclusion that sounds logical .. and i am completely satisfied with it. If you understand this it makes life that much more beautiful. I don’t need someone besides my friends to help me, I don’t need anyone besides the people i know to love me, I don’t need anyone besides me to look out for my own interests.. and in this way of life, life is what I make it .. life is neither good nor bad life is what you put into it..And what you struggle to get out
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