If God knew how to...

If God knew how to, were able to, and wanted to do a thing, though, then surely he would do that thing. If God existed, then, it seems that he would bring it about that the world met the standard anticipated by the proponent of the argument from evil. The next step in each of the arguments from evil is the claim that the world does indeed contain the evil named, that the world does not reach the standard that it would reach if God existed.

The four arguments thus claim respectively that the universe is imperfect, that it contains natural evil, that it contains moral evil, and that it contains unbelief. Each argument concludes from its respective claim that God does not exist. The argument from evil can, then, be represented as having the following structure: The Argument from Evil (1) If God exists then he is omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent.

(2) If God were omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent then the world would not contain evil. (3) The world contains evil. Therefore: (4) It is not the case that God exists. A discussion of each of the four forms of the argument - the argument from imperfection, the argument from natural evil, the argument from moral evil, and the argument from unbelief - can be found in the following text. The Argument from Imperfection The argument from imperfection is one form of argument from evil.

The argument from evil is the argument that the existence of evil in the world is strong, and perhaps even conclusive, evidence that God does not exist. The argument from imperfection is the form of the argument from evil that concentrates specifically on the imperfection of the world, taking the fact that the world could have been better as proof that it was not created by God.

The first task for an advocate of the argument from imperfection is to establish that if God created the world then the world would be perfect. This at least appears to follow from God’s perfection. The goodness of a creator is proportional to the goodness of that which he creates. A carpenter who makes a fragile table with uneven legs is a bad carpenter. A carpenter who makes a strong and beautiful table is better. As God is a perfect Creator, then, so God’s creation must also be perfect.

If God created this world, it seems, then this must be the best of all possible worlds. Against this line of thought, objectors argue that there is no best possible world, and so that the idea that a perfect Creator would necessarily create such a world is false.